"This is where you saw him?" asked Izuku.
Tamaki nodded. "Endeavor was paralyzed about there, and then I got blasted into that wall there." He pointed back and forth.
Izuku winced. "Sorry about that."
"It's fine," the older boy muttered. "Didn't do any lasting damage as far as I can tell."
The two of them stepped further down the alley, Nejire trailing behind them. "This is the only way he could have gone?"
"I…I don't know. I don't see how this is helpful."
Izuku looked back at Suneater. The pointy-eared hero seemed even more unhappy than normal. He hates that he let Stain get away. Izuku could relate. None of the heroes were particularly joyful about the battle's result, despite the lack of casualties.
Nejire, at least, seemed to be in a better mood. She tapped Tamaki on the shoulder and smiled. "At least you kept your food delivery safe. I bet that if you'd had more things to manifest you could have caught him at the time. And that's not your fault!"
"Yeah…" Tamaki muttered.
Izuku frowned. As long as the country is screwed up like this, Suneater can't use his Quirk to its full potential. He needs access to diverse food sources and meat especially. Just another reason why he had to step up and fix things himself as quickly as possible.
He went further into the alley, and looked down. Something stood out to him.
There was a bit of trash and debris in the area, but most of it was old and covered with dust. This particular thing by Izuku's foot was not. It was shiny and pristine. A metal bottle cap.
Nejire made her lips round with her mouth slightly open, tapping her chin with her finger as Izuku picked up the cap. "What's that?" she asked.
Izuku turned it over in his fingers. The underside was unpainted metal, but the top was red, with a logo in yellow letters: ALKENHZI BREWING. He turned it over again. The sell by date was stamped on the bottom in small print: just a month ago. Right before everything went wrong.
"It's a remnant," he said aloud, and showed it to them.
Tamaki squinted and read it aloud. "Alkenhzi Brewing. I know where that is. It's out near…well. Kamino Ward."
"But this is Stain we're talking about." Izuku bit his lip. "Did he drop it for a reason?"
"Do you think he left that here on purpose?" Nejire wrinkled her nose. "What for?"
"He did say he had something to give you, Deku," Tamaki put in, softly. "I didn't find out what it was, though."
Izuku looked back at them and furrowed his eyebrows beneath his mask. Something to give me?
"How can you be sure that wasn't left by just anybody?" asked Nejire. "That it was even Stain at all? That it wasn't an accident? And even if none of that is true, how would this be helpful to tracking him down? You can get a bottle cap for a beer at more places than just the brewery that made it. How about…you know…any restaurant that serves the beer from a bottle?"
When both boys gave her long, blank looks, she raised her hands defensively. "You have to ask all the questions and consider the hypotheticals, is all I'm saying."
Izuku chuckled softly under his hood. "You're not wrong, Hado-senpai. But…a brewery near Kamino Ward? Nowhere close to here? It can't be a coincidence. And what's the point of leaving a clue like this unless it's meant to lead to the most obvious place?"
"Perhaps he's trying to test us," said Tamaki, barely above a whisper.
Izuku went quiet. That was an unsettling thought.
"So…" Nejire put her arms behind her back. "Are we going to tell Endeavor and Hawks about this?"
He took a moment to respond. Stain. The last time he'd seen the man seemed like a lifetime ago. And what he'd heard from Suneater…he was here for judgment.
"No," Izuku finally said, and pocketed the bottle cap. "Let's head back."
…
The hospital was inhabitable now.
A patchwork fleet of vehicles had assembled to move all the refugees elsewhere. Police cars, the food delivery truck, a couple of fire engines. There only ended up being room for everyone because some people refused to accept the help, breaking off on their own.
The ones that did agree to come, agreed only after Nejire convinced them. It was a miracle she had won as many of them over as she had.
"They'll be going to UA," said Endeavor, as another fire engine pulled away. "I'll accompany them from behind." He looked over at Deku. "What will you do?"
"I, umm…can't join you. I helped with a UA convoy before and it didn't end well. I need to go somewhere they don't expect. I need to vanish for a while."
"I understand." What was left unsaid between the two of them was why Endeavor's oldest son had come in the first place. He came for me. And Endeavor was almost made an afterthought. The fire hero was clearly very frustrated about how the entire fight had gone, and Izuku felt partially responsible.
"Thank you…for the help. I wish you luck, Deku." Endeavor walked off.
Not to mention the other thing.
Izuku turned his head to see Rei. She was talking to Natsuo and Fuyumi; they were too far away for him to hear anything being said. Eventually the two middle Todoroki children nodded, mixed expressions on their faces, and they went to board one of the transports.
Then Rei turned and walked toward him.
Izuku could only stand still. He had his mask up, so he tried to not betray his feeling of panic through any body language.
Rei had her hands clasped in front of her waist, gulping. "May…may we speak somewhere in private?"
Izuku looked left and right. No one was paying them any attention. "Alright," he muttered.
The two of them turned around and went back into the husk of the hospital building. As they walked through the double doors, which were now stuck open and shattered, Nejire walked past them. Izuku felt paranoid for a moment, but it didn't seem like she'd taken real notice of them. Why would she care anyway? He was really only nervous about Endeavor, and Endeavor had gone elsewhere.
What was left of the hospital interior was blackened and broken. A few stragglers and staff were cleaning things up, but otherwise, the ruin had been totally emptied.
Izuku and Rei turned down a corridor and then ducked into a room, where the door had been blown off its hinges, and natural sunlight was streaming through the middle due to a massive gash in the outside wall. But they were able to duck just behind this and find a nice private alcove, where no one could see them.
Rei swayed back and forth nervously, unable to meet his eyes. Cute, he thought, then immediately regretted it.
"Umm…can you…can you take off your…" she coughed, blushing.
"Oh! Sorry." He lowered his hood to reveal his tired, exhausted face. She managed to meet his eyes, and her own expression relaxed, her eyelids lowering. She touched his cheek with her hand.
"You look…" she muttered. "I'm sorry. You've done so much. You've fought so much for me and my family."
"...Don't…mention it." Goosebumps had crawled down his arms from her touch.
"That's not…all I wanted to say, I mean…" Rei swallowed. "I am going to UA now. To Shoto. Our family will be fully back together. And I understand that you and I will not see each other again for some time."
"That's so."
"I…I feel bad. I…" Rei jammed her eyes shut. "You know we can't…that nothing can…I'm sorry." She let out a desperate exhale, simmering with frustration.
"Don't apologize." He had the urge to hold her hand, but held back. "You didn't do anything wrong, as far as I'm concerned. I'm sorry, too."
"But…you're a young man. I used you and probably made you feel like…I didn't mean to create a…a false expectation."
"I didn't have any expectations, Rei. I understand my own position as well as I understand yours."
"Ah…yes. You…you have many things on your plate." Rei seemed to relax, a small smile forming on her lips. "You're very responsible, Izuku. It's not always easy for a young man to…well. Maybe that's partly why I like you."
His heart skipped a beat. You have no idea how weird this is making me feel. At least he was hiding it well.
"So…we have to go our separate ways now…"
"Yes…"
The two of them rocked back and forth on their feet, awkwardly, staring at each other for too long.
Mutually, they leaned in to kiss just once more. It felt like the right thing to do and the wrong thing to do simultaneously. Izuku sighed and wrapped his arms around her, keeping her close for a long time. Rei just melted into him.
Fine then. Just one more to remember her by. He tried to quell the feelings in his heart and just enjoy it.
When they finally broke the kiss, Rei was still smiling. Izuku realized he was, too. They shared a breathy chuckle, their mouths still close, and then stepped apart.
"I'll keep that in mind," she said. "But only in mind."
Izuku nodded. "I…I understand. Endeavor…"
Rei's expression turned dry. "He won't find out anything from me. But I believe this is the end."
"...Yes."
"It was nice, though. Thank you. You…you've given me something I never thought I would have again."
"And you deserved it," Izuku insisted. "I…I don't regret this. At least, I'm going to try not to. I mean it when I say you're a lovely person, Rei. A…lovely woman. I wish…"
She shushed him with a finger to his lips. "It's okay. I'll be okay. We don't have to dwell on what-ifs. You, my dear, will get through this and find a lovely girl to spend your life with. Or more accurately, she'll find you. You're such a catch that it surely won't be long before a smart one snatches you up." Her face softened. "And I believe that wholeheartedly."
Izuku nodded, a lump forming in his throat. He'd never imagined someone thinking about him like that. I'm a catch. "Thank you…now, you should go. You don't want to miss your transport."
Rei leaned forward and pecked him on the lips just one more time. "Goodbye, Izuku." Her voice was like a whisper that carried on in his ears even as she softly swept away, back out of the hospital.
…
Next Izuku went to find Hawks.
The man was talking to some police by their car, but bid hello when he saw Deku approach. "Gotta regen all my feathers all over again," he said, grouchily but not overly so. "And it'll probably happen a third time if I have to keep dealing with that guy. We should have caught him."
"You shouldn't feel bad. You were the one who saved most of these lives," Izuku told him honestly.
"Ah, you proud of me? It's enough to make a grown man cry." Hawks popped his arm. "Do you have the bullet sample?"
Izuku passed it to him. Hawks ran it over in his fingers and hummed in thought. "Okay. Yeah. I'll take care of this. See if I can't track down the officer who had the tracking Quirk. I assume you want to split up?"
Izuku nodded. "When you find something out just contact me." He tapped his new communicator.
"Got it." Hawks flattened his mouth. "I suppose there's a chance Nagant just comes and attacks you again. More than a chance, really. We can grab her in that scenario, but I'd prefer to corner her in her own lair."
"I would as well. Nevertheless, I'll be watching the rooftops."
Noise was made on the police scanner. The two officers gathered around it; Hawks and Izuku also looked over to listen in. "Repeat?" one of the police asked.
"There's…there's been an explosion…"
Izuku's blood ran cold.
"Hey, what's going on?" Nejire's voice. She and Tamaki had just walked over.
"Shh!" Hawks hissed.
"It's Ketsubutsu Academy. The hero school to the northeast. They've…the place got completely blown to hell."
"Oh, shit," the policeman said. "Do you need backup? We're pretty far out, we can't…"
Izuku was falling inside his own head. Horror creeping through him. Ketsubutsu. No. No, no, no, I wasn't there, I wasn't even thinking about the bomber, why wasn't I there?
His expression must have been wild, because Nejire's eyes widened at him. "Midoriya-kun," she warned. "Calm…calm down. It's going to be okay."
No, no, how could you say that?! He had a destination in mind now. "I'm going to Ketsubutsu," he told Hawks. He activated OFA and prepared to jump.
"Whoa, Deku, wait! Isn't that what they would expect?"
"Maybe, but I have to go see if there's anything I can do now." Was this whole hospital thing just an elaborate distraction? Is the bomber actually All For One, or Spinner or someone else high up in the enemy ranks? Am I being strung around like a kite in the wind? But he had no choice.
"Midoriya-kun, you shouldn't go without backup at least," Nejire put in.
Izuku paused. His indecision about trusting Nejire was reaching a tipping point. She almost killed Dabi by herself. "I need to be able to get there as quickly as possible right now," he said. "But…if you want to help me, then you two should go back to Kijimi. Whoever this bomber is…they're connected to that crime family somehow. I'll come back by there when I get a new lead."
"Oh God…they're gonna kill us if we go back there now," Tamaki groaned.
Nejire, the main reason why the two of them would be punished, had a serious expression. "Deku is right, Suneater. We can help stop whoever this is if we find out more about the Hojos. One of their cards was left at the scene of a crime. Unless it was a misdirection…" She locked eyes with Izuku.
He shrugged. "Just like the bottle cap…it's not like we have anything else to go on. But I may find more at the site of the bombing. So I'm going there now."
"Okay. Good luck, Deku."
"Good luck!" Tamaki echoed.
"Off he goes…" Hawks muttered as the ninth user of One for All rocketed away.
…
Kaina leaned back in the swivel chair with a sigh, feeling the water vapor condense and drip down from the towel currently wrapped around her head.
"Thanks, Aoki. You're a lifesaver."
The other woman, who had rainbow hair in a long, swirly pattern, shrugged as she washed her hands at the station. "On the house."
"Man are we lucky to have you, considering this is the only villain salon anywhere."
"It's all in a day's work, I guess." Aoki yawned and took a sip of water. She always got exhausted after using her Quirk, Hair Growth Manipulation. "There's precious few villains out there using their heads." She grinned at her own double entendre.
Kaina rolled her eyes and stood up out of the chair, letting her newly grown long hair fall onto her back. She ran her fingers through it a bit, untangling it. It had always been in that infuriating zone between curly and wavy.
Aoki blushed watching her. Kaina smirked. Well, I guess the waves have their benefits.
"So…what mission did the dark lord give the great Lady Nagant, then? I never thought you'd be following orders again."
Kaina's smile wavered. She sniffed and shrugged, trying to neuter the question in her mind. "The orders are a means to an end. The target in question…I know what type of person he is. And AFO and I agree on this much: he can't be allowed to become what he wants to be."
…
Ketsubutsu was not in good shape.
Fire trucks and ambulances were gathered around the school. Jets of water arced high over the cluster of buildings, and multiple pillars of smoke could be seen lifting into the sky from miles off. Sirens fought each other for dominance in an endless cacophony of noise.
Izuku arrived just in time to see someone escorted past on a stretcher. The paramedics looked at him with a dull expression. Too late. It seemed like no one wanted to see a costumed hero around anymore.
He looked around the area for any sign of something he could help with. Those two students I saved from Muscular were from here. He wondered if they were around. Since they seemingly were allowed out on patrols, he hoped that they'd been away and safe when the explosion had happened.
And Ms. Joke as well…hadn't she been Aizawa's girlfriend? Or wife or something? He seemed to remember something like that.
Wow, a hero fact that the great Izuku Midoriya doesn't know? Nana teased.
Aizawa keeps stuff close to the chest, Izuku answered, slightly defensively. I hope for his sake that she's okay.
He'd never imagined worrying about individuals could get so complicated. Before, it'd always just been his mom. But now he had 1-A, and his teachers, and All Might, and Iruka and Rei and Nejire and…
Stop that.
Izuku hopped around through the site. He passed a collapsed wall that opened up to classrooms not entirely unlike UA's. Another area appeared to be the cafeteria, which no longer had a roof.
The individual buildings were connected by transparent tunnels above ground, but they must have been made of something stronger than glass, because they were all intact. Maybe casualties weren't actually that low. Still, this is a lot to rebuild, and now another potential shelter for civilians has been crippled.
It made so much sense for this to be the work of someone doing All For One's bidding. So…why, in the back of his mind, did he feel that it wasn't?
Someone caught his eye. It was Mirko.
She was walking through one of the courtyards in the interior of the school complex. Streaks of charred grass formed a web around her feet, but her eyes were aimed up toward a tree, a green tree that was still standing tall in the courtyard's center.
Izuku jumped down behind her. "Mirko!" he called out.
She did not respond immediately. She hopped up, her prosthetic leg making a pneumatic sound as it lifted her, and grabbed something from the lowest tree branch.
Izuku got closer. The rabbit hero was looking down at the object in her hands for a long moment, but then finally acknowledged him. "Hello again, Deku."
"Did you go to Kijimi like I suggested?" he asked her.
Mirko nodded. "All they said was that they'd recently found some new shit about an arms dealer in the area. I guess maybe that would connect to a device capable of doing…this." She glanced around at all the destruction. "Still, not much to go on."
Izuku took another step closer and realized that she was holding a phone. A smartphone with a paper note attached to the front. "What does that say?" he asked, pointing.
Mirko gave him a look of suspicion, and seemingly instinctively pulled the phone closer to herself to hide the message. "You sure showed up here pretty quick, when I haven't seen you around."
"I could say the same to you, Mirko-san."
"I've been guarding these schools. It just so happened I was in a different area when this…" She swallowed. "It's fucked beyond belief. That's two schools now. This guy is mine, and he's toast when I find him."
"Did they leave that here? It must be a clue." Izuku noted how Mirko didn't possibly entertain the idea that it was a girl who had done this.
As he stepped closer, Mirko stepped back. For some reason, there was tension in the air. Her long-lashed red eyes darted all over him, narrowed. "I don't like how you wear that mask," she decided out loud. "This is my clue. And I don't need your help. Go back to Kijimi if you want to get something done."
Izuku paled. This was not something he had expected to encounter. "That's silly," he blurted. "Why can't we just both figure this out-"
"Don't you come closer!" Mirko warned. "You may be a little devil, but I'll still kick you to kingdom come if you do."
"Mirko, we're both heroes. Just let me see the clue."
"Why do you need it so bad, huh?!" she accused. Her back almost hit the tree, but she spun out of the way expertly and maintained her eyes on him.
Because I'm the same as you, he thought, sadly. "Because two minds are better than one," he said out loud.
"You think I can't figure out this detective crap?" She waved the phone around.
"I think you probably could. But we both stand a better chance of success if-"
"Remember what I told you before." Rumi Usagiyama stood up straight, cracking her neck to one side. "You gotta understand what it means to walk alone, Deku."
But when she took off into the air, leaping away out of the courtyard, Izuku's Blackwhip went after her. It wrapped around one leg and yanked her, pulling her back toward the ground.
Mirko turned around in alarm, staring at him with angry shock in her eyes. Izuku stepped closer, still holding the whip. "I'm sorry, Mirko. I'm afraid I can't let you leave with that."
"Why, you little…" She closed the fist of her real arm. "You wanna fight or something?"
"No, that'd be ridiculous, just let me see the-"
She somehow flexed herself free of his whip, causing it to flicker and dissipate. Izuku's arm recoiled back. Okay, she's strong. "If you don't want to fight me, then let me go! Let a pro handle it." She tried to take off again, and this time he used two whips, one from each hand, and got them around her prosthetic limbs.
The two of them struggled, twenty yards apart, Izuku tethering himself to her by wrapping his ends of the whips around his wrists. "Like I said. No can do."
"Urrrrghhh…you think this will end well for you? You don't know what you're getting into, kid." Mirko stopped resisting and turned straight toward him, giving him a death stare. Her ears perked up.
"Maybe." Izuku crouched into a battle stance and began billowing smoke up around himself, silhouetting all but his bright green eyes through his mask. "But neither do you."
Mirko let out a frustrated growl and launched herself toward him.
"You'll wake up in a few hours, with a sore head and no sign of me!" she declared, winding up a kick to his head.
Izuku zoomed low, a sparking jade flash ducking beneath the blow. Mirko slid through the courtyard, her real foot and prosthetic foot leaving different grooves in the dirt. She corrected herself with a spin and launched toward him again.
Izuku jumped high. Mirko flipped over in midair and stretched her leg up to catch him, and he had to pull his legs up with Float.
She did backflips as she fell back to earth faster, her white hair whipping through the wind. Izuku sent a writhing mess of Blackwhips toward her. She sped left and right and up, zigzagging out of the way, and then came at him again, so fast it was like her snarling face was stretching out toward him.
Izuku dodged, and got a whip around her ankle, spinning and throwing her lightly toward the wall of the courtyard.
Mirko let out another wordless scream of frustration. She knows I'm holding back.
Her feet planted against the wall with a POW! hard enough to leave a crack, and she jumped toward him again. Izuku met her halfway.
The two of them clashed off of each other, falling in opposite directions. Izuku twirled and threw another whip at her waist, and correctly guessed she'd dodge left, having another one ready for her there. Mirko got one leg up and over the whip and used leverage to press down and back on it, yanking him toward her.
Izuku let out a yelp of surprise. Her kick came toward his face, but instead of dodging, Izuku decided to counter it with a kick of his own.
The two of them swung their legs at each other, contorting their bodies to try and land their blows diagonally. Their legs tangled, both of them hitting each other pretty hard, and they fell toward the ground.
Izuku righted himself and activated Float, trying to focus on not hitting his head, but he paid the price…because Mirko was now right up against him, and she kicked him with both true foot and false, right in the chest.
Izuku had been thrown hard enough to receive whiplash before. He'd been burned. He'd broken more bones than he could count. But one thing he'd never had quite done to him in this fashion was just a straight-up, wind-sucking, knockout blow. All his oxygen escaped him, and he gasped. It took all the effort he had to land on his feet, sliding back across the clearing, his back smacking into the opposite wall.
His head spun. He blinked his eyes, trying to clear the ringing. If I hadn't had One for All activated I would be out cold.
"Still up? Time to finish it!" Mirko snarled, already rocketing toward him again.
Panicked, Izuku ejected smoke from every orifice and dodged out of her way. He heard her blow strike the wall where he'd just been, hard enough to kick up dust.
"Dodging now? Running? That's tough." He could hear her tongue click even though he couldn't see her, as he retreated deeper into his own smoke screen. "Look, I like you, kid. You've got heart to go around, but…this kinda thing takes more than heart. You're not a detective. You're not equipped to track people like this."
Izuku felt something rising in his head. Inadequacy. Resentment. Frustration. Don't you understand that that's ALL I'm doing?! I'm out here busting my ass tracking those two demons who mean to end the world!
Careful, Ninth, it's okay…
IT'S NOT!
"Run off then if that's what you want." Mirko's silhouette was holding up the evidence. "Don't fret, Deku. I'll get this to people who know what they're doing with it, and we'll stop this guy. You don't have to worry about this case anymore-"
Rumi Usagiyama turned and stopped talking when she saw what was coming toward her.
Izuku had activated Fa-jin.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZAAAAMMMM. He blasted toward her like a catapult, his hood half-streaming off his face. "GIVE ME THE PHONE!" he yelled, reaching out with one open hand and one closed fist.
Mirko only managed to evade by being herself, and moving forward instead of backward or sideways. Izuku's blow landed on her prosthetic arm with a percussive, wince-inducing CLANNNNNNG.
Her arm was blasted off, clattering to the pavement, and Izuku winced as he slowed down, well past her, trying to turn and not give her time to readjust.
The rabbit heroine's eyes had gone totally wide at him, her chest moving up and down. Her ears twitched, the phone tight in her gloved hand. Her other arm now ended in a stump. She ran forward to pick up her prosthetic-
Izuku grabbed it with Blackwhip and threw it back over his own head, into the rubble of the school.
Mirko made a baffled sound of indignance. "So you really wanna make it like this then, huh?" She huffed through her lips and crouched. "I never used my arms that much anyway."
"COME ON!" he shouted, beating his chest with one fist, coursing with adrenaline, beckoning her forward. His nerves were raging with fiery need to prove himself. "COME ON, COME ON!"
Mirko sneered, and it seemed like a glint of light had entered her eyes. She came.
He absorbed her first kick. Blocked the second with his forearms, ducking low and swinging an uppercut punch. She hopped sideways and tried to get behind him. He shot a whip around her leg and pulled her the other direction. They zoomed toward each other and misfired, then back again, twirling in the air. The space between them was a flurry of kicks, a rush of power and wind. She spun and flipped over him, using his shoulders as a launchpad, and he threw out a curveball-whip to lash her.
I haven't seen a dance like this in years! Banjo cackled with glee.
Every close blow, Izuku tried to reach for the phone, but she was somehow fighting while holding it in her hand, not dropping it or breaking it, and keeping it away from him. The whips were even chancier; he didn't want to risk damaging it himself. He had to snag it somehow.
Mirko kicked him for a third time, and the pain rattled him enough to make him grind his teeth. "Rrrrrrggh…" He revved up One for All and did a spinning blast of air, throwing her backward to gain some distance, and then he dived forward. "ENOUGH!"
He reached her in an instant, kicked her in the shin, and blasted a short spurt of smoke right into her face. Mirko staggered and gagged, but managed to hop out of the way. Izuku shot out a Blackwhip for the phone, but when she dodged, she dodged right into his other one, which he wrapped around her neck.
He began to spin around her at a distance, ejecting smoke the whole way like he was stirring up a storm, tightening the bind around her neck, faster and faster and faster, until she fell to her knees, coughing and gagging in the center of the gloom.
Then he shot out one more whip at her prosthetic foot, ripping it off and tossing it to the side, making her stumble forward. And he dashed to her and plucked the phone with two fingers.
"WHa- you…" Mirko tried to get up and flail for it, but her one leg made her just a hair too slow, and he was gone, ejecting smoke behind him the whole way, filling the entire courtyard up with it.
"I was going to apologize," he called behind him, unable to control his overflowing spite, "but you really need to grow up!"
And he left her there.
…
Izuku let out a long trail of smoke in one direction away from Ketsubutsu, then secretly doubled back and landed on a nearby rooftop. He didn't know Mirko well enough to wager on whether or not she'd chase him after that. It's too much to hope for the idea that I might have humiliated her.
Fighting the best heroine in Japan had taken its toll. When he landed, he staggered over to lean against the wall of the rooftop's mechanical cabin. He sat down on his butt and tilted his head back, breathing hard, sweat pouring down his face. His hood was off. The hits he'd taken were starting to pulse with pain. Just need a minute. Just a minute.
Sleep had been recent; he'd gotten a full night's rest after the Dabi fight, but food and water were looking like the next move. Izuku held onto the phone, having not even read the note on it yet, and stared up at the trail of smoke he'd left in the sky. Hopefully leading Mirko away from here.
"That was a hell of a show."
I know that voice. Still gasping, Izuku's eyes moved right. Camie Utsushimi was standing on the edge of the rooftop, one boot up on the ledge, looking down at him with a challenging smirk. Her faun-blonde hair was blowing in the wind.
"You were watching that?" Izuku muttered, not even really able to fully turn his head toward her.
"Yep." She closed her lips on the p, zipping it off. "Mirko tired you right up, huh? Well, I guess that means I could have a chance now." She leaned forward, a gleam in her eye.
"I guess," he echoed.
"It would only be what you deserve, after all."
"You were the one who ran off."
"The place was swarming with Hojos, all of whom were going to recognize me, BTW!" She tapped her foot in annoyance. "And you just, like, hopped onto the train with those heroes that pulled you out. You forgot about me."
"I didn't," he said, simply, through heavy breaths. "I've probably thought about you every day since."
Camie blushed. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" she sputtered. "Do you just get all loopy when you're tired, or did beating up the bunny give you weird ideas?!"
Izuku managed to sit up with a groan. Maybe that whole situation does make me feel kinda good about myself…along with some other stuff…
No. No, I should suppress that. "I'm not having an ego boost about it, if that's what you're wondering. How am I supposed to beat Shigaraki and All For One if I can't fight Mirko? The whole thing was stupid, anyway; it should never have happened. She was being annoying."
I never imagined I'd hear you say that, said Nana. Because there's soooo much fanboyism for that lady in this brain of yours. Like, way too much.
Shut it.
"Yeah, I saw that it was over a wittle cell phone." Camie clicked her teeth and stepped closer to him, looking down at it. Her shadow fell over him. "Lemme see."
Izuku gave her an odd look, and put it under his arm protectively. "No," he blurted.
"What?! Don't you trust me?"
"You left me."
"Yeah, but now I'm here. Just like you or Mirko, hunting this boom-happy freak."
"You and Mirko went to Shiketsu. You're still after revenge. If you wanted the phone so bad maybe you should have joined our fight."
"I prefer to play up my own strengths." Her smile turned almost seductive, and sparkles danced around her silhouette. "Now then, Midoriya. Give it up. Or are you gonna be as ridiculous as Mirko was being?"
Izuku flattened his mouth. She had a point. Damn it. He couldn't very well get mad at Mirko for being stubbornly independent and then turn around and do the same thing when Camie was offering to help.
He silently lifted the phone up.
He thought Camie would help him to his feet, but she sat down next to him instead, hip-to-hip. "A note?" She tapped her mouth with a finger. "The day I lost everything," she read out loud.
Izuku gently ripped the note off the front screen of the phone. He pressed the home button and the screen lit up. The background was grey and featureless. It was passcode protected, of course. "Four digits," he muttered. "A date, then. The month and the day. Maybe. If the year is involved, that complicates things."
"Most months are only single digit, though," said Camie.
"Yeah, you'd just put a zero in front." Izuku frowned. "Clearly this was meant to be found and unlocked, but the bomber hasn't really revealed anything about themselves."
"So…the day I lost everything can't really be something personal, can it?" Camie thought aloud. "If they wanted someone to see what's on this phone."
"It has to be a date that the heroes would equate with loss in general," Izuku muttered. "A date when a lot of people lost everything." He typed in the day of the hospital and villa raid. The phone vibrated. Incorrect.
"Hm." Deika City, maybe? This could be connected to the Liberation Army. He tried that. No luck.
"Try Kamino," Camie said quietly.
Izuku gave her a look. He tried it. The date that All Might had fought All For One for the last time. That was a long, long day.
The phone unlocked.
Camie whooped. "Look at us! Supah smart duo right here! Up top!" She raised her hand to give him a high-five. Izuku chuckled and returned it, though there was a melancholy awkwardness in the air.
They made slightly prolonged eye contact with one another and then both quickly returned their attention to the phone, now lit up in front of them.
There were only the standard utility apps on the first screen, and the second screen had only two: the camera, and the camera roll. Izuku opened the latter.
There was a single video in the storage. The little thumbnail was totally dark.
Goosebumps crawled up Izuku's arms. "Oh, Jesus," Camie groaned. "What if it's something like…super messed up?"
"Would you like me to cover your eyes?"
She pouted at him. "Funny. Just play the thing."
Izuku opened the video.
…
"Hoo…haaa…"
Breathing.
Darkness.
For a few seconds, that's all there was.
The breaths were so close that they peaked the mic on the phone, harsh, grating. All the hair on the back of Izuku's neck stood on end.
Then there was movement in the shadow, and a head materialized center-frame.
Camie let out a squeak. It was a head, not a face. The face was behind a gas mask. They could not see the identity of the person.
"To the hero or heroes watching this…hellooooo."
The voice was warbled and muffled behind the gas mask, but it sounded…intentionally pitched down.
"A girl?" Camie muttered.
Izuku's eyes widened. He remembered the first murder scene, and something pricked in his mind. A gas mask. "Not a girl," he said. "A kid."
"I highly doubt any of you know me, but that's okay. I don't have an ego. Just an agenda." The person shifted back and forth in an unstable kind of way. "Oh boy. I bet you're tired of hearing about THAT from a villain, huh."
Camie was trembling. Her fist had closed. "What a smug little…"
"Yeah…I get it." The person sighed. "Last couple months, there's been far too many heroes and villains out there who think they're sooo important. Screaming platitudes about society, and how they've been personally wronged, all this horseshit. All the while they're destroying cities and homes and workplaces and the stuff that actually matters. And everyone's just going along with it! Even now, in this utter wasteland of a country, the future that ANY side is fighting for involves more of this. More flashy power battles, more destruction, more…spectacle."
Izuku swallowed. If this was who he thought it was, their motives had certainly…developed.
The person leaned way too close to the camera, their hot breath fogging up the screen. "We as a society have to ask ourselves…how did we get here?!" They leaned back and threw up their hands, laughing bitterly. "I'm sure everyone's been wondering that. Where is the ROOT of it? Here and there they'll tell you it's because of All Might, or imbalance of power, or the police, or all this kinda crap…but I know the truth. The root of it is in the schools."
"There it is," Izuku mumbled. Dreading what they were going to say didn't make his stomach drop any less when he finally heard it.
"To the heroes watching this, I KNOW you remember your time in elementary and middle school. You may have blocked it out; you may have tried to focus on your bright present as a shiny popular hero, but you still have those memories. Those dark memories. And I know they're dark, because get this: school in Japan was, and is, and has been for a long time, absolutely hell for every child that goes through it."
Aldera. They're right. They're right and they know they're right and everyone else knows it too. Izuku felt cold sweat running down his back now. He no longer felt very tired or hungry.
"Quirks changed a lot of things in this world, but they absolutely RUINED school. All the issues that are inherent to stuffing a bunch of kids into a boring building with each other for hours a day were exacerbated in their entirety by Quirks. And you can all let it go and pretend it doesn't happen, because it was early in your life! You can move on from it!" They tittered in a deranged manner, and then grew very serious in an instant. "But know this…I. Refuse. To move on. No matter what normalcy we eventually return to, none of these LEADERS with their grand SCHEMES will have any sort of plan or solution for this. I guarantee it. They don't realize that every new generation of children is being born with more volatile Quirks. They don't want to acknowledge the bullying and the abuse and the suicides. Because it's not an issue at hand! It's not part of the AGENDA. But it's part of mine."
"So why are you targeting hero schools then, you ass?" Camie snarled.
It was almost like she'd been heard, that this was not a prerecorded video but a conversation. "Almost every kid who grows up through this hellish system wants to become a hero. They have no choice. What else is left to you, but to try to become a hero or kill yourself? Not much. These hero schools…these bastions of our education…they are held up as the only refuge, the only decent future a young person can seek for themselves. And why not? It's true, after all! The FIVE biggest hero schools in Japan receive more funding than the rest of the education system combined." They held up their hand with all five fingers up to emphasize the point. "They really ARE the only refuge. Everything else is ignored and left to the dogs."
They leaned in once more. "So this is what I'm going to do, while everyone else reels and complains about all this other crap that doesn't matter. I'm going to destroy every hero school in Japan. Do not try to stop me. You cannot stop me. You are too busy with everything else, and you know it. Maybe you don't want to take me seriously after you've heard my voice. After all, how old do I sound, fourteen?" They threw up their hands. "But hopefully what I've done so far shows you that I mean it. I will not stop until I'm killed, or the job is finished. Goodbye. If any of you try to find me or come near me, you will be dead before you can speak a sentence."
The video ended.
Camie swore. "What a grade-A loser. They're actually serious, too. It's giving incel. Oh, what I wouldn't give to kick this freak in the trash…"
"Did you bully people in middle school, Camie?"
She raised her eyebrows at him, seeing his expression. "I…" She sputtered for a moment. "What's that got to do with anything? At least I've never killed people! Which this person has, whoever they are…"
"He," Izuku clarified. "I don't know his real name, but when he was part of the Vanguard Action Squad, he went by Mustard."
"Wha…you know him?"
"I didn't fight him directly. Some other UA students did." Tetsutetsu and Kendo. "They said he was a kid in a gas mask who kept going on about how lucky they were to go to UA."
"Well…that's not wrong." Camie pursed her lips. "I didn't get into UA because I couldn't figure out how to beat up robots with my Quirk."
"His Quirk creates gas that knocks people unconscious. That's how he's been able to sneak past guards at the schools and that's how he murdered the Shiketsu staff member. And the day he lost everything…he was captured in the forest battle that eventually led to Kamino. He was probably put in prison on the same day as All For One. It has to be him. It all makes sense."
"Ya think he tried to get into a hero school and got rejected?"
"Dunno." Izuku frowned. "He might actually be younger than us."
"Just a kid. A kid able to do all this." She shook her head in disgust. "Can the gas make things like…explode?"
"No. He is using actual technology to do the bombings."
"But if he's really a shrimp, then how's he getting his grubby little hands on it?"
"That," said Izuku, turning and staring at her, "is what I was hoping you, a girl with a past connected to arms dealers like the Hojos, could tell me."