AN: Chaoscontrol85 - I'm glad you're enjoying my story! As for Himiko's quirk. It is more of a self-imposed limitation in the form of a mental block. While Izuku and Emily certainly would have tested for something like that, thanks to her breakdown and recovery she is most comfortable only focusing on one transformation at a time. A situation like the sports festival isn't bad enough to compel her to use multiple transformations.
After Habuko dragged the criminal off, it was time for Himiko to begin her part of the operation. She checked her equipment one last time before she casually walked back to the staging area.
"Oi! Took you long enough," a muscular-looking criminal in a wife beater called out.
"Sorry, was chasing a stray cat," Himiko lied, her voice filled with annoyance, "the damned thing just wouldn't go away."
The other man sighed, "Damned strays. Well, get back to work, we don't have all night."
Himiko followed the man silently back to the boat and felt her nerves kicking in. She always scored top marks on infiltration, but this was the first time she was doing this for real and the stakes couldn't be higher. She could get hurt, or worse, if they found out who she was.
She obediently followed the man back onto the boat and followed him down into the hold. Sitting there was a large pile of unmarked crates. Crates she knew were filled with Trigger.
Breathe in, breathe out. Don't look or act nervous. You're supposed to be here.
Himiko casually waited until the man in front of her grabbed a crate and moved out of the way before she grabbed one herself. They were heavier than expected - Himiko could only guess that the guy she was transformed into relied more on his quirk than physical strength. Good to know, even if it was pointless for her since she didn't know what his quirk was.
Walking back out of the hold the same way she came in, Himiko saw the five delivery trucks and chose the one furthest from where the heroes were hiding, and therefore the one most likely to be left alone during their raid. She dropped the box on the edge of the truck before hopping in, carefully pulling a tracking device out of her pants pocket. As she picked the box up she attached the device to the bottom of the crate, placed it with the others, and finally secured it.
As she hopped off the truck, she felt her confidence returning as everyone was seemingly ignoring her. It took a surprising amount of effort to keep herself from smiling - these guys already had forgotten about her.
If only she could expect all of her hero work to be this easy!
Ok Himi, focus now, celebrate later.
Himiko forced herself to breathe regularly as she walked back onto the boat, helping calm herself down. Returning to the hold, she retrieved a second box and carried it to the next furthest truck. When she returned for a third crate, she saw the pile of crates was getting low, so she hurried herself along.
When she retrieved the fourth crate, she tried to work even faster, and that was when she made a mistake. As she pulled the tracking device out while jumping into the back of the cargo truck, her eyes went wide as she watched it slip out of her fingers and land on the ground.
Oh crap!
Realizing the best solution was going to hurt, Himiko intentionally adjusted her leg so that she would slip and fall, slamming her arm and leg into the bumper of the truck as she was sent to the ground with a grunt.
Well, at least this gives me an excuse to slow down when the heroes begin their raid.
As she stood, she made sure to slam her boot on the tracker, hard, and was rewarded with a satisfying crunch sound. Unfortunately, her action had also caught the attention of several other criminals.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Someone called out.
"Sorry," Himiko apologized, "Must've caught a slick spot trying to jump in."
She felt her stomach turning in knots as a lizard mutant came up to her, "You'd better be more careful. It's coming out of your hide if you damage any of the goods."
Himiko stared at him for several seconds, before she averted her eyes.
Guys like this like being the winner when they challenge you. It will be suspicious if you concede immediately, but at the same time, you want to let them win.
"It won't happen again."
"Good," The man said, crossing his arms before he turned around, "Back to work! We're on a tight schedule and I'm not going to blow it this close to the end."
Kneeling to rub her leg, Himiko shifted her foot slightly to expose the destroyed tracking device and picked it up, slipping the remains into her pocket. She hopped back into the truck, much more carefully this time in case anyone was watching, and once she was inside she moved the crate to a pile. Instead of placing it neatly, however, she set it down sloppily, exposing one of the corners. Taking a breath to calm herself, she glanced out the back of the truck to make sure nobody was watching her before she slipped her hand into her pocket and pulled out the final tracking device.
After she attached the device, she adjusted the crate so it was sitting properly and secured it. Sliding her hand back into her pocket, she pressed the small button that had been given to her - the signal to Ryukyu to begin the attack.
Himiko carefully approached the back door of the truck and jumped off of it. Listening for the heroes, she casually walked towards the boat again - being sure to walk a little slower, because the last place she wanted to be was on the boat when the heroes attacked.
Fortunately, they didn't keep her waiting long.
"Heroes!" A mutant with bat ears called out.
While her training would normally prevent it, Himiko froze in place. Anything to buy more time for her 'capture.'
"Come on," The burly man she first encountered grabbed her arm, "we gotta get out of here."
Himiko realized that, despite his rough demeanor, he may be a friend of the person she was currently transformed into.
Well, that's unfortunate for him.
Himiko stumbled as she let her sore leg collapse before she felt herself being pulled up.
"Aki, what the hell's wrong with you?" The man asked as he pulled her to her feet, "you know what's gonna happen if they capture us!"
"You could have warned me," Himiko complained as she started walking with him, "I messed up my leg, remember?"
"Yeah well, the heroes are gonna mess you up worse!"
Me no, you yes.
Himiko saw two of the trucks pulling away while they were approaching one of the remaining vehicles. Daring to glance behind her, she felt her stomach sinking as she realized the heroes may not reach her in time.
Crap! I don't want to blow my cover, but I need to do something!
Himiko saw the big knife hanging off the other guy's belt, and got an idea. It was desperate, but she needed to do something to ensure her 'capture.'
Taking a deep breath, she tried blanking herself. She knew it wasn't going to work on the guy who was holding her arm, but she hoped it would hold just long enough that everyone else would miss what she is about to do.
Taking her free hand, she reached out and grabbed the other man's knife.
"Aki?" The man asked, clearly confused.
"Sorry not sorry," Himiko whispered as she stabbed the knife into the man's thigh. As he began to scream she tangled her leg around his, sending both of them to the ground.
"Keep going!" Himiko yelled to the two criminals who stopped to see what was going on.
"Aki you-" The man was beginning to yell when Himiko felt a familiar sting as Nejire hit her in the back with her Wave Motion quirk.
Her cry of pain was just as genuine as the man's next to her. She had known she was likely going to be attacked by one of the heroes on the raid team, but that didn't mean she was going to enjoy it.
The things she had to do to keep up the act.
Several seconds later Nejire landed behind them. "Surrender villains! You're under arrest!"
"I give up!" Himiko called out, slowly placing her hands behind her head.
"Aki? What the hell's going on?" The man demanded.
Himiko turned towards the man on the ground and gave him a confused look, "Look, I don't want to make this harder on me than it's already going to be."
The man's look of confusion twisted to one of panic, "Seriously? You know if the boss finds out you're dead!"
Himiko had to wonder what kind of person these people were working for as she saw Nejire forcing handcuffs on the other man. "I'd rather be rotting in some cell than a corpse."
"You know that won't stop him!" The man looked genuinely scared as Nejire hauled him up and Himiko felt Habuko behind her, putting handcuffs on her.
"This is payback for yesterday," She hissed into Himiko's ear as she roughly hauled Himiko up to her feet.
"Hey, give a girl a break!" Himiko whispered back in protest.
"I don't see a girl in front of me, just another criminal who is under arrest."
Himiko sighed as she felt Habuko lead her away from where the rest of the criminals were being gathered and behind a crate, where the real man named 'Aki' was lying on the ground unconscious.
"Can you take the handcuffs off now?" Himiko asked as she let go of her transformation, the man's form sloughing off of her into a pile of sludge on the ground, "they really don't suit me."
"Fine," Habuko said with a dramatic sigh as she removed them. "I will admit, seeing how you fooled everyone out there, I feel less bad about yesterday. You are really good at hiding when you want to."
"Sorry about that, but I am on a mission," Himiko said as she rubbed her wrists, before she turned to face the other intern, "People tend to look down on blood-based quirks, so I want to show them why they're wrong!"
Habuko looked away and Himiko wished she could read her face. "I always felt like an outcast because of my appearance, too. I wanted to become a hero for much the same reason as you, to prove that mutants like myself are people just like everyone else. Our physical appearance doesn't matter, it's what's on the inside that counts."
"Oh," Himiko said before she rubbed the back of her head. "I guess we're more alike than I thought."
"Seems that way," Habuko agreed.
"Let's both show Japan that anyone can be a hero, no matter what their quirk is," Himiko said, extending her hand.
Habuko turned towards her, and her face shifted into what Himiko assumed was her equivalent of a smile as she took Himiko's hand, "That sounds good. I'll be watching for you on the charts."
"Me too," Himiko agreed.
Feeling better, Himiko grabbed her hero costume and quickly threw her coat and boots back on, while Habuko picked up the unconscious form of Aki. Habuko then left first, taking the unconscious criminal with her, while Himiko slipped off in another direction, weaving through crates before she returned to the scene. Pulling out one of her Needles, she extended it to its full length and joined the others in monitoring the captured criminals, her eyes just daring one of them to run.
She was almost disappointed that none of them did, and a few moments later she was rejoined by Ryukyu and Nejire as they rounded up the last of the criminals with the rest.
"How did we do?" Himiko asked as she saw her mentor approach.
"Not as well as I would like," Ryukyu admitted. "We let three of the trucks get away, and the smugglers escaped as well. We've alerted the coast guard and police will be on the lookout for the trucks but…"
While she was talking, the Dragoon hero's eyes were telling Himiko a different story.
You did well.
Himiko frowned as she heard the report. She still had to put on an act for the handful of criminals that they did arrest, after all. The time for celebration will be later.
After the police and paramedics arrived, Himiko was checked over for injuries. Other than a few minor bruises and the welts on her back courtesy of Nejire, she was declared fit for duty and released from their care.
Of course, that didn't stop Nejire from feeling bad.
"I'm so sorry Himi-chan!" Nejire practically cried as she smothered Himiko in a hug, causing her to blush profusely at the contact.
"I-it's ok!" Himiko assured her, "I'm pretty sure you've hurt me worse when we sparred!"
"Normally we try to avoid friendly fire whenever possible," Ryukyu said as she approached her two interns, "But unfortunately for Midoriya, while her role was invaluable, it also came with a high risk of injury," She turned to Himiko, "How are you feeling?"
"A little sore, but I feel great!" Himiko chirped as she finally wormed herself free of Nejire's grasp. "I just hope I didn't screw everything up," she admitted.
"While that was unfortunate, plans rarely go smoothly, and we are forced to improvise," Ryukyu pointed out, "for an intern, you certainly went above and beyond."
"She really went Plus Ultra!" Nejire said, pumping her fist in the air.
"Really?" Himiko felt herself blushing at the compliment. She could get used to this.
"Yes," The Dragoon hero replied with a satisfied smile, "We'll do a full debriefing back at the agency, but for now, we have to meet with reporters and the police."
"Reporters?"
"You didn't know?" Nejire asked, with a look of excitement on her face, "Apparently word got out about the raid and reporters started showing up after the police arrived, and they are trying to get interviews with the heroes! It's always fun!"
"You have a twisted definition of fun," Himiko grumbled as Nejire grabbed her arm and she began following the other two, giving off the appearance of walking to her execution.
Once back at the agency, Himiko collapsed in a chair in the briefing room.
"Next time, I'm letting you do all the talking," She said to the upperclassman who was sitting down next to her.
"Himi-chan did fine!" Nejire said, "You just did your first stealth mission, how bad can a few reporters be?"
"Very," Himiko groaned.
"Well, if you plan on being in the spotlight, it comes with the job," Ryuko said as she took her position at the head of the table. "Like it or not, a large component of your ranking on the charts comes down to your public image, after all."
"That's it, I'm going underground," Himiko declared.
"I think it may be a little too late for that Midoriya. Especially not after your performance at the Sports Festival."
"Ugh, can I go back in time then?"
"Nope!"
Ryuko smiled at her two interns. Despite their different personalities, she was pleasantly surprised at how well they got along with each other. Especially since she wanted to continue teaching them. After today she was going to be offering Nejire a work-study position to continue working with her immediately. She planned on making the same offer to Himiko as well, except hers will be conditional on earning her provisional license next month.
She politely coughed to get their attention. "Well then, we have one more order of business before you two can retire for the night. The paperwork for the raid."
"Didn't we already give the police our report?" Himiko asked in exasperation.
"While we gave them a verbal report, we also have to file paperwork as well," sitting down in front of her computer, Ryuko typed on the keyboard and activated the projector, so the two girls could see the form on the wall. "Fortunately, we only need to file one report for the entire agency, so the three of us can work on this together."
Nejire loudly groaned and slammed her head on the desk, covering it with her hands while Himiko simply rubbed her back, "There there, what kind of senpai would you be if you didn't set a good example for your kouhai?"
"You're right!" Nejire shot up again, a look of determination on her face as she balled her hand into a fist. "For Himichan! I'll show you how to be the best police report writer you can be!"
Yes, Ryuko thought, If they accept my offers, these two are going to be excellent additions to my agency.
Hifumi Toga was walking down the street, her black dress swaying in the wind as she held tightly onto her shoulder bag.
"...the successful raid against smugglers bringing Trigger into the country last night."
"A raid?" Hifumi paused as she stopped in front of the TV sitting on top of a food cart.
"Lowlives are getting desperate and smuggling in drugs to make their quirks stronger," a rugged voice responded. Looking over, Hifumi saw an old man sitting on a bench watching the TV, a partially-eaten skewer in his hand. "They know they can't compete with the heroes so they're showing their true colors."
"My apologies, I don't know much about heroes," Hifumi said with a slight bow.
"Don't know much about heroes?" The man looked at her in surprise. "You must be a rare breed."
"My parents," Hifumi explained, "they never liked heroes. They think they are just showy vigilantes, and should let the police handle things," she finished, her voice soft.
"Well, that's too bad. Maybe you should form your own opinions," the man said, using his skewer to point at the screen, "Ryukyu there's in the top ten, maybe you should give her a listen and see what you think."
As she watched, Hifumi saw the screen change to a nighttime scene where she saw who must be Ryukyu flanked by two other girls. The tall girl in the royal blue costume didn't interest her, but something about the other girl with green hair and a red long coat seemed familiar. Almost as if…
It didn't take long for the interviewer to ask the girl a question. When Hifumi saw her speak without hiding her fangs and heard her voice, she gasped, her bag falling to the ground forgotten as she covered her mouth.
"Big sister…"
"Mother, father, I'm home," Hifumi greeted her parents as she entered the Toga residence.
"You're late," Mrs. Toga said as she looked at the clock.
"My apologies," Hifumi bowed as she left the entryway, "As I was walking home I saw the news playing at a food stall and lost track of the time watching it. It was an interesting report about drugs being smuggled into Japan."
"Of course, it's always something," Mr. Toga complained from his position on the couch, a newspaper in hand, "I swear if these so-called heroes are supposed to protect us, why can't they even keep drugs off the streets?"
"That's why we need to fund the police more, instead of paying these heroes such an exorbitant salary!" Mrs. Toga agreed.
Hifumi simply stood there in silence while her parents talked, repeating a name in her mind repeatedly until they were done. "If it's alright, I'm going to go work on homework in my room," Hifumi finally responded when given an opening.
"Yes dear, that's a good girl," Mrs. Toga gave her daughter a smile of approval as Hifumi slipped out of the room.
Once she was in her room, Hifumi closed the door behind her and made sure to lock it, before she opened up her laptop.
"Carmilla, Carmilla…" Hifumi opened her browser and began searching for the name.
As she searched, she found many references to a Himiko Midoriya, most from the past several months. From the articles Hifumi had skimmed, she had become the rising star of Class 2 at the world-renowned UA High School after her quirk awakened on national television during the sports festival.
However, while the pieces were there, she needed something more conclusive and concrete. She needed to be sure that this was her sister. In all of the recent footage and articles, she had the last name 'Midoriya,' and had green hair. While it wasn't out of the realm of possibility that she dyed it and had been adopted, she wasn't willing to take that chance.
She didn't want to be wrong if it wasn't her.
Thirty minutes later, as she was searching Yap!Tube, she found her answer. Clicking on a video that was over a year old, titled 'Carmilla reveals herself to the world.' It turned out to be footage from last year's sports festival. As she started the video she saw Himiko Midoriya step onto the field with much more familiar ash-blonde hair. In the video, Himiko nervously walked toward her opponent, a tall girl with sky-blue hair who was offering her arm out. As Hifumi watched, she saw her sister gently cradle the arm in her hands, before she leaned in and bit into the other woman's wrist, drinking her blood.
Hifumi paused the video, staring at the zoomed-in image of Himiko.
"Himi…" She said, placing her finger on the screen. She knew her sister couldn't feel it, but it was the closest Hifumi had gotten to her in over two years.
Resuming the video, Hifumi watched as her sister activated her quirk on live television, and frowned at the silence from the crowd. She watched the match play out. Her sister lost the match, but walked off the field with her head held high, proud of what she had done.
As the video ended, Hifumi touched the screen again, using her quirk to copy the video to her hard drive. She then began searching for the videos from this year's sports festival.
She had found her sister, and from the looks of it, she had a lot of lost time to make up for.
AN: For a more thorough explanation of Hifumi's quirk: If she touches physical or electronic media (a book, stack of papers, hard drive, stuff like that), she can "copy" the data that is on it, then she can touch a blank medium of the same type (so another electronic storage device, a blank book or a pile of blank papers) and transfer an identical copy of that data to the new medium.