Chapter 5: Bodyguard
"Good afternoon, my name is Elizabeth Russo. I'm here for my first day of classes."
Jasmyne stood in the reception area of the cram school, speaking with the receptionist. It had taken less than a day for Endeavor and Fatgum's teams to get everything she needed for her mission. She'd been supplied with a uniform for a nearby international high school in the area, with a matching fake student ID. Her backstory was that her family had moved from Italy due to her father's job and she wanted to take advantage of Japan's excellent cram school prep. Fatgum's sidekicks had even gone so far as to create fake school records for her incase the cram school decided to do any background on her. The one thing they offered which Jasmyne refused - and made Fatgum uncomfortable in the process – was a discreet comm system for her to be able to communicate with her back up on the outside. Wait, excuse me, her bodyguard….
Yesterday…
"Absolutely the fuck not!"
Jasmyne didn't think Bakugo's voice could reach such a high pitch but there it was.
"This isn't a debate or a choice Bakugo," Endeavor said firmly. "You're going to be working as Ms. Keane's backup for the duration of this –"
"What part of absolutely the fuck not don't you understand, you old bastard!" Bakugo screeched. "I'm not gonna play second fiddle to this stupid wannabe hero with no idea how to control her damn powers."
"Bakugo!" Endeavor shouted, silencing everyone in the room. "This is not up for discussion. I need to know that you can work with people regardless of your personal feelings for them, and Fatgum needs someone with enough fire power to cover is student's ass if things go south. You say one more word and I'll put an end to your work study, understood." Bakugo looked downright pissed but he just crossed his arms and looked away. Endeavor meanwhile took that as an affirmation that he was understood. "Now that that's settled, you five get the hell out of my office so that the Pros can actually talk."
The students did as they were told and walked outside without another word.
"Excuse the fuck out of me," Jasmyne snapped as the office doors swung shut behind them. "Wannabe hero nothing, I'm sorry I didn't almost die four thousand times trying to fight one villain who I had no business fighting, but I have just as much experience as you do and I'm damn good at what I do."
Bakugo turned back to her with rage in his eyes but for once kept his temper mostly in check. "Just shut the fuck up and stay out of my way. If you wanna be so high and fucking mighty then what the hell do you need me for?"
"I don't need you but from how Endeavor made it sound, you need me."
"I swear to god if you don't shut up and get out of my face-"
"Hey! Okay!" Midoriya exclaimed jumping between the pair trying to separate them. Meanwhile Kirishima and Todoroki moved silently to stand behind Bakugo and Jasmyne respectively in case there was a chance Midoriya couldn't deescalate the situation. "Let's all try to calm down and-"
"Stay out of this Deku!" Bakugo shouted.
"Keep out of this Izuku!" Jasmyne shouted at the same time.
The two glared at each other but turned and stalked off in opposite directions, leaving their friends standing there awkwardly trying to figure out who to follow.
Which was how the pair ended up together the following day as Jasmyne started her infiltration of the cram school.
This is so stupid… Bakugo's voice filtered into her head. And a waste of damn time. We should just be storming the damn place instead of you playing the diligent student.
Shut the hell up Bakugo and let me concentrate, she thought and – hopefully – pushed it into his head. She hadn't had much practice with showing her thoughts to other people, but it was working so far thankfully.
"Ms. Russo, it's nice to meet you," the receptionist said once she had pulled up Jasmyne's – or more correctly "Elizabeth's" information on the computer. "Did you bring all the required documents that we advised you we would need."
"Yes ma'am, right here," she handed the packet she'd been supplied over to the receptionist who thanked her and asked her to take a seat while she processed all the information.
Jasmyne pulled out a random textbook from her bag and pretended to read while she filtered through the voices again to find Bakugo. Thankfully – or unfortunately depending on who you asked – the way he thought was as loud as the way he spoke, making it easy to pinpoint him.
Are you even listening or am I just fucking thinking to myself? Wait…wouldn't that just be thinking. Damn it, you're making my head hurt.
The feeling is mutual… she though back. I didn't hear anything before you asked if I was listening to you. I had to, you know, pay attention to what's around me.
You're making this whole fucking mission so much harder than it has to be. Why couldn't you just have used the damn comms.
Because how fucking suspicious would it look for me to be constantly talking to myself. This is simpler.
It's not really that simple when I have no idea when you're actually listening to me. And what if something important happens, how the hell am I supposed to tell you if you're not listening?
Um it's called a cellphone Bakugo…if it doesn't seem like I'm listening, then send me a text message. And I'll tell you when I stop listening to you.
She could almost hear the sneer on his face when he responded. Oh, okay. I'll just sit here with my thumb up my ass waiting for you to tell me if you need me or not. Such a great use of my skills as a hero.
Don't bitch and moan about it to me. I didn't want this either. I would have preferred to have been paired with a literal pile of trash, but I couldn't override Endeavor…. Before he could respond, she thought again, I'm not listening to you anymore. I'll check in with you once I get sorted in here.
She caught the tail end of his thoughts, starting to scream before she broke her concentration and the rest of the world flooded back into her mind. She felt her head start to pound again from the volume of her thoughts.
"Alright Ms. Russo," the receptionist called. "You're all set up; you can follow me. I'm going to give you a very short tour of the facility, so you know where the important rooms are and then we'll take you to meet your instructor for lessons."
"Thank you very much," Jasmyne said standing up and giving the receptionist a respectful bow.
True to her word, the receptionist's tour was short and to the point. As they walked – at a pace that nearly made Jasmyne hyperventilate – all she did was point at the various rooms that Jasmyne may or may not need to know. Before she knew it, Jasmyne was standing outside of what she assumed would be her classroom.
The receptionist knocked before opening the door. "Excuse me Mr. Hashimoto, you have a new student today."
"Oh, welcome," Mr. Hashimoto said quickly. "Take a seat anywhere so we can get back to the lesson. I'll give you the materials you'll be needing after class is over."
The receptionist ushered Jasmyne into the room, and she took one of the only empty seats in the crowded classroom near the back. She pulled an empty notebook and a pen out of her bag and leaned over her book pretending to take notes. Apart from the brief interlude where he told Jasmyne to take a seat, Mr. Hashimoto was speaking quickly and uninterrupted. None of the students were asking questions, just taking notes as quickly as their hands could scribble them out.
Despite her hesitation on this part, Jasmyne focused on the girl siting in the left most front seat of the class and homed in on her thoughts. The background noise faded out around her, not quite disappearing entirely, but enough for the girl's thoughts to be in the forefront in Jasmyne's mind. Despite this being her idea, Jasmyne still felt wrong for delving into these people's thoughts without their consent. Rather than read everything in the girl's minds, she tried her best to focus specifically on thoughts having to do with Adderall, or with any of the gang leaders. She thought she hit the jackpot when she came across a memory of the girl holding a pill bottle but on closer inspection, it was a commonplace antibiotic under the girl's name.
Jasmyne shook her head and pulled out of the girls' thoughts, moving on to the young boy next to her, and just as with the girl next to him, Jasmyne got nothing from him except for a prescription bottle for an antidepressant, also in his name. By the time class had ended, she'd tapped into the minds and memories of half of the class and gotten nowhere which frustrated her beyond belief. Mr. Hashimoto had written the assignments due for the next class on the board, which Jasmyne quickly scribbled down before making her way out of the classroom.
Not only had broken her own moral code for over two hours, but she had exhausted herself doing so. Her brain felt like it was pounding against her skull and her vision was getting fuzzy around the corners of her eyes, but she pressed on. As she stepped onto the now dark street her phone buzzed in her pocket and she pulled it out, straining her eyes to read the words clearly. A message from Kirishima.
Don't go back to the agency, it read. Endeavor owns an apartment building about 15 minutes away from the school, we're going to use it as a base of operations temporarily.
A base of operations? Jasmyne thought, trying to make the words on her screen make sense in her scrambled brain. Why do we need a base of operations? Just as quickly as the words popped into her head though, two more messages came through, one with the address of the apartment building and another which answered her question.
Fatgum and Endeavor don't want to take the risk that someone will follow you and blow your cover. Apartment number 22. Bakugo and Deku will meet you there and you'll debrief them on what happened today.
Jasmyne groaned, the text making her realize that she had not in fact checked in with Bakugo as she had promised. She wasn't looking forward to hearing him screaming again on top of the migraine she already had. She briefly contemplated pretending she didn't see the text message but that would just mean she'd have to listen to a lecture from Fatgum on top of the yelling. Begrudgingly, she plugged the address into her GPS, put on her headphones to block out some of the noise of the busy street and started walking.
It was too much to ask though for her to at least get through the short walk without something else happening. As was the case with many things in her lifetime, if something bad could happen, something bad is going to happen.
And she was reminded of this fact when an arm flew out from the dark alley she was passing by and grabbed her by the throat. She barely had time to register the pain from his grip before her body went weightless as whoever grabbed her threw her down the alleyway into the near pitch blackness. She felt her body slam into what she would later register as a dumpster. The disorientation from the impact gave her assailant enough time to lunge at her and pin her down to the ground, his knees pressing into her thighs and one hand covering her mouth while the other pinned her arms above her head.
As her consciousness finally caught up to what was going on, she began to fight against his grip, her mind working in overdrive desperately trying to find a quirk that could help her. Suddenly she felt an intense shock in the center of her rib cage, and she screamed out in pain; it was all she could do not to pass out.
A taser? She managed to think. No way…too much…fuck…hurts. One by one she started to lose feeling in her limbs, starting from her legs and moving up her body until she didn't even have the ability to lift up her head and it was a struggle to even breathe properly.
"Sorry sweetheart," the slimy voice of her assailant whispered in her ear. "It wasn't supposed to be you, but my last pretty thing and I were…interrupted, ya know?"
Damn it…this isn't happening.
"Don't worry though, I'll make it quick. You're not as good looking as my last friend but good enough…. I really am a sucker for a school uniform."
Though she couldn't feel his free hand move to rip her shirt open, she heard the fabric ripping and the buttons popping off and hitting the wall. Struggle all she might, her body wasn't responding to her.
"You probably won't even feel most of it, just some slight pressure," he said it clinically, almost like he was a doctor talking to a patient. "The poison I gave you is a paralytic, save you some of your dignity. At least you can say you didn't fight back."
Shit. Shit. Shit! When the fuck did he poison me? Jasmyne was stuck, her body was useless, and her mind couldn't concentrate long enough to even think about finding a quirk that could help her in this situation. She may not feel what he was about to do, but she could see it in his mind. Every disgusting detail flowing into her brain, try as she might to block it out.
…this girl, I swear to God. Where the fuck is she?
Jasmyne's eyes snapped open as the sound of the familiar voice invaded her mind. He hadn't gone back to the hideout yet. He was close enough that she could pick him out, so maybe he was close enough that he could hear her scream. But when she opened her mouth to do so, the assailants hand slammed into her feet with enough force to give her whiplash and she could feel blood pooling in her mouth almost instantly.
"Now, now pretty thing. Remember you can't move. If you try to scream again, I slit that pretty neck of yours and move on to the next little girl who comes across. I don't want to lose two friends in one night so how about you listen, m'kay?
Alright that's out…fuck that hurts…okay…plan B. As best she could, with the remaining will power she had left, she searched for Bakugo's thoughts again. The migraine just got worse, and coupled with the pain in her mouth and whatever poison this douche had given her she was dangerously close to passing out. And as her assailants started to pull down her skirt, she realized she didn't have the time anymore to blindly look for him.
Bakugo… she thought, hoping beyond hope that she was pushing her thoughts out far enough to reach him. Bakugo…fucking hell Bakugo! Where are you!
…you are, where the fuck did you go. His voice flittered into her thoughts. We don't have time for you to be sightseeing, everyone's waiting for us.
Damn It Katsuki, HELP! With the last bit of strength she had, she pushed the memory of being dragged into the alleyway into his mind, and consciousness left her.
Bakugo's POV
I'm not listening to you anymore. I check in with you once I get sorted here.
You don't get to just cut me off, I'm still talking!
But Bakugo's statement went unanswered, Jasmyne had already deactivated her quirk and he was alone in his own head once more. Cursing to himself, he pulled out a pair of binoculars from his utility belt and peered through the windows of the cram school trying to get a line of sight on Jasmyne. He caught a glimpse of her back as the receptionist led her to the classroom but couldn't get a good look after that from his vantage point on the roof.
"I guess I really do just have to sit here with my thumb up my ass," he muttered to himself as he slipped the binoculars back into his belt. "This is so fucking stupid."
He was going to be the next number one, yet here he was, sitting on the roof, playing babysitter to some stupid American princess with a quirk she couldn't even use properly. It didn't take a genius to gather that despite whatever practical applications her mind reading had, she was sorely unprepared to use them. The joint training sessions, the open field training, and the unearned ego she carried around with her to compensate for that were all proof enough in Bakugo's mind without shitty Deku having to explain it to him.
Go easy on her Kachan, he'd said. She's still catching up to us.
Bakugo was going to be the next Number One hero; he didn't have time to wait for someone to catch up to him. He didn't have the patience to go easy on an arrogant girl who put herself in situations she had no business being in. If she couldn't control her quirk, then she needed to be in a classroom, not in the field.
…I'm sorry I didn't almost die four thousand times trying to fight one villain who I had no business fighting…
He slammed his fist into the wall as her words from yesterday echoed in his head. What the hell did she know anyway. She wasn't there for the fight with Shigaraki. She wasn't the one on the front lines at sixteen years old trying to win a war. She wasn't the one who'd had a hole punched through her chest and…
Shut up! He tried to force the thoughts out of his head, his breathing sped up and clutching at his chest as the memories came flooding back to him. The pain, the icy feeling of death creeping over his body. He even remembered the aching emptiness as the dark void took over him. But most of all he remembered waking up and finding out what had been sacrificed to keep him alive. It was only when he heard the sound of the comms crackling to life in his ear that finally drew him out of his growing panic attack.
"Dynamite." Deku's voice. "Come in."
Bakugo took a deep, steadying breath before he responded. "Here."
"What's your status?"
"I'm standing on top of a roof doing nothing, same as it was when you checked in fifteen minutes ago Deku."
"Did she get in okay?"
"Why? Worried about your girlfriend? I thought she was up to the task."
"Dynamite," Todoroki's voice came on the line with a warning tone. "We know you're not happy about this, but you need to be professional."
"Yeah, yeah, Icy Hot," Bakugo replied. "She's fine. Went off without a hitch, she's probably in the classroom by now."
"Wait you lost visual on her?" Deku asked, suddenly panicked. "How long ago?"
"Deku, relax, it hasn't even been five minutes," he snapped. "I don't have a quirk that lets me see through walls. The receptionist took her back to the classroom. I don't have a choice but to wait for her to reach out."
"She should have worn the comms," Todoroki groaned. "What happens if she can't reach you?"
"She'll reach me," Bakugo replied simply. "But I won't be able to hear it with you two yapping in my ear. I will get in touch when I actually have something to tell you besides what the damn clouds look like." He yanked the comm out of his ear before he had to listen to the two of them anymore. He leaned back against the access door on the roof and stared down at the school as if by doing so hard enough, he actually could see through the walls. He heard his phone chirp in his pocket and looked to see a message from Deku.
A hero protects everyone, it said. Regardless of their personal feelings, they're responsible for making sure everyone's safe.
"I know that. Damn nerd."
Hours passed slowly sitting up on that roof as Bakugo waited to hear something, anything from Jasmyne. Something that would tell him she hadn't walked into a drug den and been shot. Something that would give his stupid mind a reason to stop thinking up worst case scenarios.
He finally caught sight of her just before 9PM as she walked out of the cram school with the rest of the nerds. He noticed briefly how worn down she looked, but that wasn't going to stop him from giving her a piece of his mind. She was the one who was supposed to check in and didn't. Before his temper could get the best of him though, he once again heard the crackle of the comms coming to life.
"Do you have eyes?" This time it was Endeavor himself who was speaking to him.
"Yes, she just left the school, I'm going to meet her now," he answered.
"Don't," Endeavor barked. "You've been sent an address to a safe house, do not make contact with her until you both get there. Follow from above or if you can't keep eyes like that, from a safe distance behind her. And for once in your life Bakugo, be inconspicuous." The comm went dead in his ear and Bakugo rolled his eyes grabbing his phone to look at the address.
That split second where he took his eyes off Jasmyne though, was enough to lose sight of her.
"God damn it," he exclaimed. He scanned the area looking for a hint of where she could be, but the street was so busy and filled with other students it was nearly impossible. He didn't know why, but he felt a knot form in the pit of his stomach. Something wasn't right. "Deku. Todoroki, come in."
"What's going on," Todoroki responded first.
"I lost sight of her in the crowd," he said quickly, as he crashed through the access door and ran down the stairs.
"Alright so we'll just meet her at the apartment," Deku chimed in calmly. "Kirishima just told her we'd meet her there, she probably just started walking."
No. That's not right. "Deku, I took my eyes off her for literally two seconds. She wouldn't have gotten far enough away for me to lose her."
"Bakugo, I think you're overreacting," Todoroki replied. "Weren't you the one telling Mi – um Deku just earlier that he needed to calm down. I think you're the one overreacting now. Just go back to the apartment and she'll be there."
"Oh, the both of you are absolutely fucking worthless. I'll find her my damn self." He didn't know how to explain the panicked feeling in his stomach, or how he knew something was wrong. He just knew it.
When I get my hands on her I'm going to murder this girl, he thought as his feet carried him onto the sidewalk outside the building. Where the fuck is she?
The crowd was starting to thin out, but still he saw no sign of her anywhere. He was about to go back to the cram school when he heard her.
Bakugo…fucking hell Bakugo where are you!
Alright. She was close enough to hear her, which meant he was in the right spot. There you are, where the fuck did you go, he though. We don't have time for you to be sightseeing, everyone's waiting for us.
Damn it…Katsuki HELP!
A sudden flash and suddenly Bakugo felt like he was pulled out of his body and into her mind. She could see what she was seeing which was darkness. Her skin felt like it was his own, and he felt a loss of sensation through his limbs. He could see her memories, walking down the street and being pulled into the alley way. The way her body hit the ground.
He heard whoever had her rip open her skirt and laugh.
He slammed back into his own body with enough force to throw him off balance but didn't hesitate. His quirk activated without him even having to think, blasting him back towards the alleyway she'd shown him.