Making his way into little Sezu's room once again, after having delivered the pair of penguin plushes that he'd purchased for the boy, Shin Nemoto reached down to gently ruffle the child's hair.
"Nemoto-san," little Sezu said, looking up at him with the worried expression that almost seemed to have taken up permanent residence on his face; Shin truly hoped that he and Chisaki would be able to alleviate the boy's worries, once he'd gotten used to his new home. "Is… Is something wrong?"
"Nothing you have to concern yourself with," Shin said, settling down on the bed where little Sezu spent most of his time.
Unscrewing the cap from the bottle of cough medicine that he'd brought in with him, to calm little Sezu down and allow him to sleep while they evacuated from this place. All of the Shie Hassaikai aimed to leave this place, before the full force of the government's hired muscle could come down on them.
"Here, drink this," he said, offering the cap, filled with the cough syrup that would put little Sezu to sleep.
Little Sezu glanced from him to the cap of medicine being offered to him, clearly uncertain as to what he was being asked to do, so Shin gathered the boy into his arms and poured the capful down his throat. A hand over little Sezu's mouth encouraged him to swallow the medicine, and Shin held little Sezu as the child slowly fell asleep. Standing, once little Sezu had fully succumbed to the drowsiness that the cough medicine induced, Shin made his way into the main corridor of the safehouse where the Hassaikai had stayed for such a long time.
Chisaki, his right hand wrapped firmly around the wrist of the cursed child who was unfortunately at the heart of the Hassaikai's entire operation, looked over at him, eyes flaring for a moment before they settled on the form of little Sezu sleeping in his arms.
"Thank you for taking care of him, Nemoto," Chisaki said, as the pair of them fell into step with each other for a moment, each of them on their way to their own separate destination.
"Of course," he said, bowing slightly as he and Chisaki separated once more.
Making his way down through the corridor to where the getaway vehicles were awaiting them, Shin climbed into a waiting car, adjusting little Sezu's slumbering form as he settled into the back seat of the waiting car. Reaching down, Shin gently stroked little Sezu's right cheek as the car he was in set off at last.
~MHA~
Looking over the rows of tanks, each of them with one of the creatures he had taken from the remains of the diseased Ward he'd been forced to burn, Chisaki narrowed his eyes as he placed his hand on the wall beside the pair of tanks at the head of the double-line. Calling upon the ability that had been granted to him, the one that he had named Overhaul for the capabilities that he had discovered through his experiments , Chisaki destroyed every one of the tanks in the room he stood within.
Each and every one of them had been finalized, so they would make the perfect smokescreen for him and the rest of the Hassaikai to escape under; it was, truly, the only purpose that such diseased wretches could expect to have in their lives.
They'd finally managed to assemble their full forces, with both Tsukauchi and Sir Nighteye working in tandem with so many other Pros to pin down the location that the Shie Hassaikai were operating out of, or at least the one where they were keeping Niseko Sezu and young Eri. All Might, of all people, knew that these kinds of people were far more apt to retreat into the shadows then to stand and fight. He could only hope that they would be able to rescue young Niseko and young Eri; hunting down the remainder of the Shie Hassaikai might very well have to wait.
It wasn't a possibility he enjoyed thinking about, and given the lingering tension in Hisashi's stance All Might could tell that his old friend felt just the same, but it was still something they had to consider; something like that had clearly happened before, after all.
~MHA~
Once they'd all gathered together, even as the sun was setting and Izuku was beginning to wonder just where Bambaa-chan had found to set up the small, portable telescope that she had to take with her for times like this, Izuku found his thoughts turning toward just what their next round of torture – or training, to hear Aizawa-sensei and three out of the five Pussycats describe it – was going to entail. When Pixie-bob began talking about some kind of "test of courage", splitting them up by class and then further dividing them into groups of two… Well, what would have been groups of two, if there hadn't been five members of their class in remedial studies with Aizawa-sensei, Izuku wondered what they were actually going to be doing.
He didn't think it was really going to be as simple as what any of the Pussycats had said, particularly since Aizawa-sensei was involved with those whole thing to some greater or lesser degree; still, the question of what they were really going to be doing remained.
~MHA~
"I'm getting scared, Tsu-chan. And those screams aren't helping," she said, as the pair of them made their way through the dark forest; and sure, while Ochako knew that they weren't in any real danger, she didn't really like the thought of people jumping out and screaming at her.
"That sounds like Jiro-chan and Hagakure-chan. Take my hand, Ochako-chan," Tsu-chan said, holding out her right hand, palm-up. "Don't be afraid. We'll help each other through this."
Ochako was just about to say something else, when she felt something cold and bluish-white splatter against the inside of her left arm, just above her elbow. "What the heck?"
Dodging out of the way of another splatter of what looked a lot like some kind of soap, Ochako swiped off some of the stuff with her fingertips and held it up to her nose. Wait, this smells like shaving foam, she mused, blinking in surprise, even as she caught sight of Tsu-chan, moving forward like she was trying to intercept another of the globs of shaving foam that the both of them ended up dodging. The foam splattered against a nearby tree, and Ochako looked back down the trajectory to find…
Someone in a dark mask and hoodie, someone tall and a bit gangly-looking, coming out from under the deeper shadows under the trees.
"Hey," the man – it sounded like a man; he had a deep, kind of raspy sounding voice, but he also sounded a bit younger than she'd been expecting him to. "You know those nametags you were supposed to collect at the end of this trip?" the young man in the mask and hoodie said, sounding almost like he was grinning under the mask that concealed his identity – though there was something about his voice that Ochako thought she might be able to recognize from somewhere – as he took out a pair of tags from the right pocket at the front of his hoodie.
"Hey!" she exclaimed, feeling a grin beginning to tug at her own face, dodging out of the way of another shot of the shaving foam aimed her way by the man who'd showed up in the woods; Ochako could swear she recognized his voice from somewhere, but now wasn't the time to think about that kind of thing.
She and Tsu-chan needed to get their nametags back, before they could leave the woods and meet up with their classmates and the Pussycats again; she really didn't want to know what new, inventive forms of remedial training Aizawa-sensei and the Pussycats would think up if she and Tsu-chan came back without those tags.
~MHA~
As he made his way up into the mountains, on the trail of the familiar scent that he had found when he'd been dispatched to when he'd gotten the call from Lynx of the Wild, Wild Pussycats and been asked to come out to this place as a test of the students that they were aiming to train, Shuuichi Iguchi found himself momentarily uncertain. Yes, he was fully aware that his main focus should be on helping to test the students that he had been entrusted to Lynx and her teammates, but there was something else that he had to take care of first. Something that would only continue to haunt him, if he didn't take the chance that he was being presented with tonight.
Lynx had been kind enough to let him know just where the girl he was seeking was going to be, once he'd told her about the circumstances that had brought the pair of them together on that night; the night of fire that had changed society in so many ways.
Coming out from under the cover of the trees, Shuuichi paused for a moment to look up at the vast expanse of shimmering stars that were visible beyond the lights of the city. Adjusting the straps of the holster he'd been equipped with when he'd come out to this compound far outside the city – even beyond the suburbs, where he'd once thought to settle before he'd found that the pace of life in the city agreed with him far more – Shuuichi gathered his composure and set off once again. Not long after he'd begun, Shuuichi caught sight of a pair of small silhouettes, standing on either side of something he couldn't quite make out all that clearly.
Whatever it was, it seemed to be mounted on some kind of tripod, so that did narrow down a lot of possibilities as to what it might be.
Putting those thoughts out of his mind, Shuuichi made his way over to where the taller of them – thin and lanky, with a long tail and triangular ears atop her head – was standing, looking down at the child standing beside her for a moment, before the sound of his footfalls drew her attention and she turned her gaze to him. The sight of her reflective eyes – there was some kind of special name for the phenomenon, but he couldn't remember it off the top of his head – brought a slight smile to his face. It was a helpful reminder that there was more that bound the pair of them than tragedy, in the end.
Pausing for a moment to gather his composure once more, Shuuichi Iguchi stepped forward; tragedy might not have been all that bound them, but it was what had brought them together to begin with.
/Hi,/ the girl said, as he came up to where she and the child, most likely the boy that Lynx had described to him when he'd asked her where he'd b able to find Bombalurina-chan.
"Hello," he said, taking the time to sign out what he was saying; he'd learned JSL for two interlinked reasons, both of them having to do with the girl he was standing before tonight. "I've been wanting to tell you this ever since that night," Shuuichi said, bracing himself not to look away as Bombalurina-chan's catlike eyes locked with his. "I'm sorry," he said, making certain that he was forming the right words with his hands, even as he spoke aloud. "If I'd known how to understand you that night, maybe-"
/Hey,/ Bombalurina-chan said, reaching out to gently take his wrists in her hands. /It's all right. Nothing that happened that night ever should have happened, but it did,/ Bombalurina-chan said, not breaking their shared gaze as she spoke, even as Shuuichi had to forced himself to do the same. /It's in the past, so don't go blaming yourself for something you had no way of knowing about. Unless you have some kind of Foresight Quirk you're not telling anyone about, you couldn't have stopped the fires that night any more than I could./
He sighed. "You're probably right about that," he said, continuing to sign so the both of them would be able to understand each other more completely. "But, if I'd actually been able to understand you that night, your parents might have lived."
So might have a lot of other people, but he didn't want to burden her with their lives as well; Shuuichi was more than willing to carry that weight on his own.
"Wait sis, you lost your parents?" the little boy – who'd been there beside Bombalurina-chan ever since Shuuichi had made his way up the side of the mountain to speak to her – asked, tugging lightly on the skirt she was wearing.
/Yeah. You might be a bit young to remember it, but I used to live in Rosaru, which was burned to the ground by some kind of Villain group six years ago. Papa took me in not long after that, though. So that was nice,/ Bombalurina-chan said.
~MHA~
When he'd heard what big sis said, about her parents being killed by Villains, Kota couldn't help but remember the way his own parents had nearly been killed by that Villain not so long ago. That was one of the many reasons that he was more a fan of Sensei than even All Might: Sensei had been the one to come and heal them, when they had been laid out in those two hospital beds after the attack by that Villain.
"I'm sorry, sis," he said, reaching out to hold her furry left hand. "I almost lost my parents to a Villain, but Sensei helped to heal them," he couldn't help but say, feeling a little bad about the way his parents had survived and hers hadn't.
/That's good to hear,/ big sis said, purring at him in a way that reminded him more than a bit of the kitty she looked like. /I'm glad that he could help you and your family, at least./
"Thanks, sis," he said, squeezing her hand to try to comfort her as best he could.
He really didn't know what else he could say.
~MHA~
As their group of Pro Heroes and Police smashed their way into the compound where the Shie Hassaikai and their captives had been staying, All Might raised his fist and smashed through the walls standing before him. The lack of guards and soldiers made him uneasy, the sheer, echoing emptiness of the compound they were making their way through… All Might forced those thoughts aside, knowing that it wouldn't help anyone if he let his mind wander when in battle. Still, he knew that Hisashi would be thinking about it, too.
The both of them would probably end up talking about it once this was all over, of course.
The sight of moving shapes up ahead actually brought him some relief, under the circumstances; finding himself bereft of enemies when he, his fellow Pros, battering their way into an all-but empty compound, was honestly the most unsettling thing he'd ever found himself doing. However, once the moving shapes in front of them had resolved into coherence as they all closed in, All Might nearly stopped in sheer shock as the figures – an all too familiar sight, considering the man he'd found himself facing that day in the Kiyashi Ward mall – came into focus and he found himself facing more of those poor people who had clearly been made into human weapons by the Shie Hassaikai.
He could hear Fatgum cursing beside him, the both of them having fallen into step since they were the ones best positioned to smash through whatever defenses that the Shie Hassaikai might have put in their path, and All Might found himself biting down on the urge to voice his own discontent aloud. Still, the Symbol of Peace could hardly allow himself to be so badly affected by the activities of the Villains he found himself facing. And so, All Might gathered his composure, grinned all the wider, and pushed forward.
It served to motivate his fellow Pros, and it also served to settle his nerves as he pressed forward; both were equally important, of course.
~MHA~
Watching as some stupid lizard chatted with the catgirl, Muscular turned his attention to the kid. He'd been looking for the little brat ever since that white-coated bastard had stolen Water Hose out from under him, and now finding himself just a few meters from the little brat, Muscular grinned. He'd wait for the lizard to leave, but the catgirl was clearly going to be there for a while, and her fur looked really soft.
He'd make a point of tearing it off of her corpse once he snapped her scrawny neck.
Once the lizard had traipsed off back down the rocky cliff where he'd tracked down the Water Hose brat – and ended up finding a cute little catgirl to play with – Muscular grinned as he made his way up to the kids he'd found. The both of them were far enough away from those annoying Pro Heroes that ran the camp down at the base of the mountain he'd been scouting around that he wouldn't have any trouble from them. He'd have all the time he needed, to kill the Water Hose brat and snap the catgirl's neck so he could drag her off and tear that soft fur off her corpse.
The catgirl, with those big ears of hers, was of course the first one to spot him as he made his way up to where the both of them were standing, ears turning in his direction as he made his way over to where the both of them were standing.