There were footsteps in the hall outside of Toga and Deku's door. People were running past, their voices raised.
Deku had been dozing, flopped halfway across the end of the bed. Toga has her back against the headboard, her feet resting on Deku's lower back. When they heard the racket outside their room, Deku bolted up, his eyes wide and his chest heaving. Toga whipped out a knife, her teeth barred with a hiss.
Neither reacted well to being startled.
"What the fuck is going on?" Deku asked gruffly.
"Don't know. Come on," Toga said as she got out of the bed, her knuckles white with how tightly she gripped the handle of her knife. Before she opened the door, she picked up Deku's mask and tossed it to him. He quickly slipped it on and flipped his hood up.
As he opened the door and slipped into the hall, something small and fast came flying up and crashed into him, nearly knocking him to the ground. Deku instinctively wrapped his arms around what had hit him as he stumbled backwards into Toga. When he looked down, he found himself staring into the bright red, watery eyes of the girl from the lab.
"Please don't let him hurt me again," she whimpered, clutching him tightly.
"Eri, time to go back to your room," a cold, steely voice said. Deku looked up and found himself looking at Overhaul. The masked man walked calmly down the hall, his eyes locked on the girl: Eri.
She buried her face in Deku's stomach, whimpering quietly. He found his own hold on the girl tightening.
"Who's this, Overhaul?" Deku asked, trying to keep his voice light. "Your daughter?"
"Hardly. Eri, come here. Now."
Toga swooped in and ran a hand over the back of Eri's head, smoothing her tangled hair.
"Hi Eri-chan! You have such pretty hair! I would love to braid it! Think I could do that for you?"
Eri pulled her face out of where she had hidden it in Deku's jacket and looked up at Toga, her red eyes watery.
"Braid?" the girl whispered, seeming almost confused by the word.
Overhaul reached out and snagged the girl's arm, wrenching her away from the pair of teens with a forceful pull. Eri let out a sharp cry of pain as she stumbled backwards.
"We don't have time for this," Overhaul snarled, shoving the girl towards one of his henchmen. The man grabbed Eri and lifted her, tossing her over his shoulder and walking off down the hall. All the while, Eri whimpered and sent a pleading look Deku's way.
As Eri disappeared around the corner, Deku calmly tilted his head.
"Want to tell me who that was?" he asked, his gaze cold.
"You're the analyst, you tell me."
Deku paused, running through his options. He could take a risk and lay out his theory, or he could play dumb. He ran through the possible outcomes, weighing the risks and the benefits. Finally, making his decision, he spoke.
"She's your Source, isn't she? Somehow, she is used in making your drugs. Is she the Source for the quirk removal bullets or is she for the quirk enhancement drugs? Is it her quirk? That is my guess. That or her DNA. Is it made from her blood? Or is it from her muscle cells? Muscle cells would be much more substantial than blood cells. What about -"
Toga elbowed him, breaking him from his rambling.
Deku ducked his head, pretending to be embarrassed. "Ah, I got carried away again. Sorry about that. I've been a fan of science since I was little. Maybe in another life, I would have been a scientist."
"A fan of science?' Overhaul asked, narrowing his eyes and cocking his head. "You aren't fishing for information on the girl?"
"I am more curious about the process of creating your drugs. If the process starts with her, then I want to know how. Shigaraki sending me here wasn't a mistake. He sent me so I could be an asset. It was supposed to be a show of goodwill. He knows I am the smartest in the League and he thought you knew that too."
Toga sniffed and looked down her nose at Overhaul. "If you don't want Deku-kun's help, then we'll just go back to sitting in our room. You know, doing nothing and wasting time. It's starting to get really boring though."
"And you do not want a bored Toga on your hands," Deku said. He gave a little shiver, acting as though he were remembering a particularly bad incident. His statement wasn't exactly a lie though: a bored Toga was a dangerous Toga. She posed a threat to his sanity when she got bored, always chattering and wanting attention.
Overhaul eyed Deku and Toga for another moment before speaking.
"I will consider what role you will play in this. You will both hear from me soon," he said. With a final glare, he turned and walked away, leaving them standing in the hall.
The pair slipped back into their room. As soon as the door was closed, Deku ripped off his mask and threw himself at his computer, his hands flying to the keyboard. He quickly pulled up the video footage of the hall, carefully copying the clip of Eri's escape attempt and her being forcefully dragged back to her room. Deku only paused for a moment to add a quick blur over his head in the footage. He knew Toga didn't care if anyone saw her face, especially since she never bothered to change her name. Then, he attached the video to an email to Eraserhead and sent it with a short message.
Is this enough proof?
--
The conference room at Sir Nighteye's agency was crowded. At the head of the table sat Sir Nighteye with Mirio just to his right. Next to Mirio was Tamaki, who looked like he wanted the floor to open up and swallow him whole. Nejire was beside him, babbling and pestering poor Tsu, who was shrinking back in her seat and leaning into Uraraka. Uraraka was talking animatedly with Kirishima, who sat across the table beside Fatgum. At the other end of the table, facing Sir Nighteye, was Nezu. Aizawa was behind him, Shinsou between him and Kirishima. And finally, beside Fatgum were Rocklock and Ryukyu. Bubble Girl and Centipeder were still setting things up for the meeting, bustling around the room.
Shinsou could tell that Sir Nighteye's patience was nearly at its limit. He was glaring at the room, his face growing more stern every time someone made a loud noise. Shinsou shot a look at Aizawa, making eye contact with his mentor. Aizawa easily read the look in Shinsou's eyes, the two silently communicating their amusement at Nighteye's suffering.
"Let's get started," Nighteye finally said, standing up beside the massive TV screen hanging on the wall. He pulled out a remote from his pocket and pressed a button. Up on the screen, a picture of Overhaul appeared, creating a somber mood in the room. "As you all know, we have been investigating Overhaul and his band of Yakuza thugs who have been distributing quirk enhancement drugs. We have recently discovered that he is also selling quirk erasing bullets that will temporarily strip you of your quirk. There is talk about possible permanent versions of these bullets being made, though we have nothing concrete yet."
Rocklock leaned forward, his crossed arms resting on the table. "Yeah, we know that, Nighteye. What's the real reason you had us all meet here?"
"He's getting to it," Aizawa snapped, sending an icy look towards the other pro.
"Thank you, Eraserhead," Nighteye said with a nod. "Eraserhead has recently been contacted by the villain known as Deku -"
Before he could continue, a murmur went up in the room. The UA students, all besides Shinsou, looked confused, whispering to each other and asking about the villain they had never heard off. The pros looked startled, most having heard very little about Deku. The only things they knew about the villain were that he was smart and he was dangerous.
Once everyone quieted, Nighteye continued.
"As I was saying, the villain Deku, who is a known associate of the League of Villains, contacted Eraserhead. He sent an email with video footage of a young girl, who has clearly been abused, and requested that Eraserhead save the girl. The location he gave was the hideout of the Shie Hassaikai." Sir Nighteye pressed another button on the remote and brought up the video footage of the girl sitting on her bed. The students in the room all let out small gasps. Tamaki fully ducked his head and pressed it into Mirio's firm shoulder, while Nejire reached out and grabbed Tsuyu's wrist in one hand. With her other hand, she reached around behind Tsu to grasp Uraraka's shoulder, almost as though she were trying to keep the girls close to protect them.
Fatgum turned to look at Aizawa, a serious look on his normally jovial face.
"When did ya' get this? Last night? This morning? Have ya' started drafting a plan for us to go in and get her?"
"I got it about two weeks ago," Aizawa said. "I had begun to -"
Fatgum was out of his seat and towering over Aizawa. Kirishima sunk down in his chair, startled by his mentor's sudden movement. Shinsou, on the other hand, straightened in his seat and grabbed at the capture scarf hanging from his neck, ready to defend Aizawa.
"You've let this girl sit in hell for two weeks? What kind of hero are ya'? We should be storming in there right now to rescue her!" Fatgum roared, his hands rolled into massive fists.
"If I may interject," Nezu said, his calm voice cutting through the tension in the room. "Eraserhead brought this to my attention immediately. Together, we began making plans and preparing for a rescue. We needed more evidence and proof, beyond the word of a villain, to legally be able to go into the residence to retrieve her. Sir Nighteye will explain in detail, if you would please sit."
Nighteye gave Nezu a thankful nod as Fatgum grudgingly returned to his seat. Slowly, Shinsou let his hand fall from his capture weapon.
"Nezu is correct. They began the process to prepare to save the girl. In the meantime, Deku reached out again to see why no one had taken action. Nezu crafted a response posing as Eraserhead, which Deku immediately saw through. They asked Deku to provide some more proof that the girl was actually with Overhaul. Late last night, he sent us this video."
Shinsou leaned forward at this, wanting to get a good look at the video. Aizawa hadn't shown it to him yet, so he would be seeing it for the first time with everyone else.
The footage showed some men running around in a hall, clearly searching for something. After the men had cleared the hall, the girl came sprinting in. A door suddenly opened and out stepped a pair of people.
The girl ran face first into who Shinsou assumed was Deku. He had a slim build and was rather short. He wore what looked like simple jeans, red shoes, and a black hoodie. A blur had been added in, hiding his face and head. Beside him was Toga, clear as day. She was staring at the girl in surprise as Deku wrapped his arms around her.
And then, Overhaul stepped into the hall.
Some words were exchanged, though the video had no audio so they couldn't hear anything. Toga reached out at one point and gently ran her hand over the girl's hair. Overhaul looked down right murderous as he grabbed the girl and flung her off to another man, who simply hoisted the girl over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, carrying her away.
Nighteye paused the footage, leaving Overhaul, Deku, and Toga on the screen.
"As you can see, we now have proof that the LOV is working with Overhaul and that this girl is being held captive by the Yakuza. I have gathered us all here today to discuss the rescue. The girl is valuable to Overhaul somehow, so while he may be harming her, there is no reason to believe that he will kill her. This gives us a little time to plan and make sure we get this right."
"We should be going and getting her now! She's just a kid!" Fatgum snapped.
Mirio jumped in, defending Nighteye. "Sir is right. While I don't like the idea of that girl being there, if we rush in, they could move her or they could get scared and kill her just to keep her from us. We need to have a 100% perfect plan that won't fail. If we don't, we could end up being the cause of her death."
"Well said, Mirio," Nighteye said, giving him a small smile.
"Is no one else concerned about the League being a part of this? Or that maybe this is a trap set up by Deku?" Ryukyu asked, eyeing the screen.
"It is a possibility that we have to accept."
Kirishima cautiously raised his hand. Nighteye gave him a surprised look before nodding, indicating that he should speak.
"Who is this Deku guy? I've never heard of him," he asked.
Tsu nodded, joining in. "And who says Deku is a guy? Looks kinda small. And Deku and Toga were sharing a room together. Maybe Deku is a woman."
"Eye witness accounts from arrested criminals say that Deku is male," Aizawa says. "This is the first time that we have had any visuals on him. I'll admit, he is… smaller than I expected. The little that we know is that Deku is a hacker for hire aligned with the LOV. He doesn't do onsite work with them, but he does stuff behind the scenes for them. Giran, an underground broker, is the point of contact for outside buyers to get Deku's services. No one is sure of his quirk, with witnesses ranging from saying he has a fire based quirk, to a gas or pheromone based quirk, to mental quirks, such as analysis or intelligence. No one is positive and no one can give much details. They don't want to cross him and state that he is unnerving."
Rocklock jerked his head towards the screen. "Froppy has a point though. Deku is tiny. He looks like he's only a few inches taller than Toga. Maybe we should consider that he may be a kid, like Toga. Obviously villains have no issues using kids in their schemes. And apparently we aren't much better. You guys can't seriously be considering using these high school students while going up against the Yakuza."
"I don't like it any more than you, Rocklock," Aizawa said, letting his head hang slightly. "I made Nezu and Nighteye promise that if the kids are used in the rescue, then they have to have minor roles. At most, I want them holding the perimeter. With Yakuza and the LOV being involved, I think it is too much of a risk for students to be involved."
"I hardly think we should count out all the students. Mirio here is more than capable. All of the third years are. They will be graduating in a matter of months and will be fully fledged heroes," Nighteye said.
Aizawa's frown deepened. "They're still kids."
"They are all 18. They can make their own choices."
"I thought that perhaps this argument would arise. That is why I have created multiple, detailed plans for us to review and build on," Nezu said. "Each involves the students to varying degrees. Should we begin reviewing them and decide which would be best?"