Deku frowned at the computer screen, his eyes red rimmed. He sat back in his seat, barely suppressing a groan as his back popped. Magne had always gotten on him about hunching over his computer while he worked. She would always tell him that he was going to ruin his back, or that he needed to get blue-light glasses to protect his eyes from his computer screen, or the reason he had trouble sleeping was because of all of his screen time. Like the teenage boy he was, he didn't listen.
Now she wasn't there to lecture him.
As soon as he had arrived at the room he and Toga would be sharing, he began setting up his rig, which included a hotspot so he wouldn't be attached to the Yakuza's internet. It would be way too easy for them to track what he was doing if he was on their network.
The Yakuza had left them alone for the rest of the day, saying there was business to attend to. That worked just fine for them. Toga sharpened her knives and doodled in one of Deku's notebooks while Deku focused on his hacking work. He quickly finished up the few jobs he had, sending them either to Shigaraki or to Giran. Then, he had switched to quietly drilling through the Yakuza's firewalls to see the details of what they were working on.
It wasn't really a betrayal, so technically Deku hadn't lied when he was questioned. He'd just answered in half-truths. There was no plan to betray or get back at the Yakuza. Just a desire to.
He hadn't been able to find anything concrete yet. After reading a few files on the creation of the quirk erasing bullets, Deku had tried to find any information on the thing they called "The Source." Whatever this Source was, it was finicky and the material needed to create these bullets could only be extracted with Overhaul present.
When Deku hit a dead-end on that, he switched to looking up a map of the facility. It wasn't until he found a map of the underground tunnels and labs that he found something of interest.
There was a room simply labeled "Lab 3." From the looks of the maps and blueprints, it was heavily secured, much more so than the other labs. It was also much smaller and appeared to have a tiny bathroom attached to it. There were sensors built into the walls and the door, not only tracking if someone came in, but if someone came out. In the hallway outside the door, there were numerous cameras, each angled so that there were virtually no blindspots, ensuring no one could sneak up to the door. Inside the room, there were three cameras, including one in the bathroom.
Lab 3 looked like a prison cell.
"Toga… Toga, wake up," Deku whispered, turning in his seat to face the bed where Toga slept.
She snuffled slightly and burrowed further under the blanket. Rolling his eyes, Deku picked up one of the pillows she had knocked off the bed and tossed it at her. As soon as the pillow made contact, she came up swinging, her knife glinting in the moonlight as it arced through the air.
"Good, you're awake. Come look at this and tell me what you think."
Huffing and cursing under her breath, she climbed out of bed and came to stare at his laptop with blurry eyes.
"It's a map," she sighed. "You woke me up to look at a map."
"No, this is the blueprint. If you want to look at the map, I can pull it up. But look here at this room. I think they are hiding something important here."
"I can get us in there if you want to check it out."
Deku shook his head. "I can probably pull up one of the camera feeds from inside the room. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't the only one who thought it was weird."
"Oh it's definitely weird. Let's see the video."
With a few keystrokes, Deku hacked one of the security cameras to pull up the feed.
He was right. It was practically a jail cell.
And inside was a little girl. She looked skinny, maybe a little too skinny, and her long curly white hair was tangled and messy. The girl was sitting on her bed, a few toys laying on the ground, barely touched. She had her knees drawn to her chest and arms wrapped around them, pulling herself into a tight ball. Her big red eyes were fixed on the door, as if she was waiting for something. When she shifted, making herself a little more comfortable, her hair moved to reveal a little horn growing off center on her forehead.
"Deku," Toga said, voice strained and barely above a whisper. "What is that on her arms and legs?"
He swallowed thickly. "Bandages. She's covered in bandages. I… I think they are experimenting on her or something."
"We have to tell Shigaraki!"
"I mean, we have to tell someone but should we really tell him?" Deku glanced up at Toga. "Will Shigaraki actually help her? You always told me that he isn't the best when it comes to empathy and shit like that."
That made Toga pause, her eyes flicking between Deku and the girl on the computer screen. She bit at her lip while she thought, fidgeting with the knife in her hand.
"If we don't tell Shigaraki, who would we tell? You can't seriously be suggesting we tell a hero. You and I both know they can't be trusted."
"We can't trust the spotlight heroes, I know. Half of them are corrupt and the other half are covering for the others. But what about the underground heroes? They are heroes just to do good, not for money or fame. And they take on cases others won't touch. A case like this would be perfect for an underground hero," Deku said, gesturing to the computer screen as he finished.
Toga nodded along, a pensive look on her face. "Those guys are definitely true heroes. Stain would have approved of them. But what would the heroes do with her?"
"Probably put her in witness protection. The Yakuza would want to try and get her back or kill her to keep her from talking. In witness protection, she could completely disappear and be safe. No one would have to know. And it would get back at Overhaul for what he did to Magne and Compress."
"I don't know," Toga said, shuffling nervously. "Maybe we should still run the plan past Shigaraki."
"I really don't think we should. At least not yet. He's great at going up against heroes and he'll do a great job reshaping hero society, but he wouldn't know what to do about a little girl being held captive by the Yakuza. If the underground heroes fail, then we can go to him."
"I guess you have a point. And if the heroes actually do save her, we can always say that the heroes came before we could do anything. He doesn't have to know. But can you get a message out to a hero without anyone knowing?"
Deku snorted. "Look who you're talking to! Of course I can!"
--
Aizawa's phone buzzed just as he finished hauling Shinsou up onto a rooftop after the teen had misjudged a jump.
"Sorry, Sensei," Shinsou said, panting.
"Call me Eraserhead when we're working,' Aizawa grumbled as he pulled his phone out of his pocket.
When he lit up the screen, he saw that he had an email, which was odd considering the time of night it was. The subject line simply read "TO ERASERHEAD." Which, under the circumstances, was rather ominous.
A million different possibilities ran through Aizawa's head, from a missing student to a murdered husband. Immediately, Aizawa turned on the program he'd downloaded years ago to scan emails for any dangerous attachments. While that ran, he called Hizashi.
" Hello? Sho? You alright? " came Hizashi's sleepy voice. " Hold on, I need to grab my hearing aids. "
Aizawa breathed a sigh of relief. "Sorry to scare you. Just wanted to check in. Everything is good on your end?"
" Yeah, except for your fat cat trying to hog the bed. She's a menace. Nothing like my perfect angel boy. "
"Keep telling yourself that. Talk to you later."
As Aizawa hung up, Shinsou gave him a curious look.
"Who was that?"
"None of your concern, brat. Keep a look out for a minute while I read this email."
When he opened the email, there was an attachment and a short message.
'Shie Hassaikai. Underground labs. Get her out of there. - Deku'
Deku. Aizawa knew that name. Seeing that name made him feel like a bucket of ice water had been dumped over his head.
The hero world had heard whispers about Deku, but nothing concrete. Some weren't even convinced that Deku existed. But here on his phone, Aizawa had proof. Deku was real.
Against his better judgment, Aizawa opened the attachment to find a video. The time stamp showed it was from that day, only an hour before. It looked to be footage from a security camera, the angle high and wide and the video grainy. A small girl with white hair and a short horn sat on her bed, wide eyed and terrified. She looked too thin for Aizawa's comfort and based on the bandages on her arms and legs, she was injured.
"Who's she?"
Aizawa nearly fumbled his phone, startled by Shinsou appearing at his shoulder so suddenly.
At least he knew that Shinsou's stealth training had paid off.
"I thought I told you to keep look out."
"Yeah, but then you got a weird look on your face so I wanted to see what was going on."
Aizawa barely repressed the urge to roll his eyes as he shoved his phone into his pocket.
"We're going back to campus. Now."
"Wow," Shinsou said, straightening to his full height. "This is serious?"
"Very. I need to speak with Nezu and show him this video. I want him to confirm it's real before I bring it up to Nighteye."
"Is this about the Yakuza?"
Aizawa nodded. "Looks like it. And it may be tied to the League of Villains as well. I'll tell you more when we are at a secure location. I don't want to go into detail out in the open like this."
"Lead the way."