Your body was warm, when she was cold,
you would long for love,
her storm was a temporary lie.
…
The police gathered along the narrow corridor, murmuring to each other. The sounds of a flashing camera could be heard, muffled, in the room at the end of the hall.
Naomasa Tsukauchi walked slowly through the crowd. The officers parted to let him through, and turned their heads to gape, but he knew they were looking at the person behind him.
Deku followed him close behind, a silent, masked figure. Looming. His head only slightly turned to look this way and that at the staring officers. Many of them paled and averted their glances, terrified of him.
The two of them sauntered on toward the end of the hallway, to the room where the corpse was. Camera flashes danced on the wall. Click, click, click. Murmur.
Tsukauchi turned to face Izuku. "I appreciate your help taking out the gang," he said, "but you don't need to see this."
Deku just stared back at him for a long moment. Those green eyes gave nothing away.
"Yes I do," was finally the short, deep answer.
I have to see every one, Izuku thought. They're all my responsibility.
He could have been at Shiketsu. He could have been there when it exploded. That news had come in before nightfall, right after they'd finished cleaning up this precinct…
…But he was here instead. He was here, so he had to finish this out. But if I had just managed to get close enough to the school for Danger Sense to activate, then maybe I could have stopped it…
You cannot be everywhere at once, Ninth, said En, the sixth user of One for All, inside his head.
Izuku followed the detective into the room.
It was a small hideout, but a dingy couch in the corner was the only thing taking up significant space, so there were a few investigators able to fit, circling the corpse sitting in the chair in the middle of the room. The woman's head was tilted up to look at the ceiling. Her face was white and sallow, decomposing.
"How long has she been here?" Izuku asked, doing his best to keep his voice level.
One of the investigators looked up. "Med scan says somewhere between eighty and ninety hours."
Tsukauchi hissed through his teeth. "Christ," he muttered. He turned on the flashlight on his phone and slowly circled around to the front of the body.
Izuku trudged around the opposite side. He inspected the couch. There were a few things in evidence bags, mostly empty food and drink cans, but there was also an extremely dim lamp, flickering on the floor. Whoever had last been in here, whoever living that is, had left it on.
"Not a meticulous killer," he muttered.
You fancy yourself a detective now? said Daigoro Banjo, user five.
I'm whatever the situation calls for, said Izuku.
That will not do. It was the voice of the fourth user, Hikage Shinomori, who'd gifted him with Danger Sense. You have one purpose. You cannot afford to spread yourself thin.
Why am I preparing to stop All For One, if not to prevent things like this? Izuku turned to look back at the dead woman's face. Her eyes and mouth were open. It was funny. If he'd seen something like this a year ago, he'd probably have vomited on the spot.
"How many more could there be?" he asked softly. The other men and women gave him strange, apprehensive looks. If she's been dead that long, how many other corpses might we find in these dark, hollow buildings? How long was this district under gang control? I've helped the police carve a foothold here for now, but…
Flashlight beams from the investigators crawled all over her. "Med scan revealed somethin' else, too," one of them told Tsukauchi. "She was unconscious when she died."
"Knocked out?" The dark-haired man asked. "There's no head wound. Just the puncture wounds in the chest…"
Izuku walked to the window and stared out of it. "Midnight," he murmured.
"Hmm? Deku, it's 3AM," Tsukauchi said, turning from the body to stare at the hero's back.
"No. Midnight the heroine. Her Quirk uses…used a gas to knock people unconscious. If you can do a scan of the air in the room for residuals, you should."
The investigators all exchanged glances with one another. Tsukauchi flattened his mouth. "Get someone on it," he muttered to one of the officers. The man nodded and left down the hallway.
Izuku turned back from the window and gazed at the body again. "Also means her eyes were likely pried open after the fact. By the killer." He got close. One of the investigators moved their light beam to her face again. Izuku tilted his head. "Not meticulous, but wanted to send a message for people to find…"
Wait. You know her.
He nearly jumped, so jarred by the abrupt interruption from Yoichi Shigaraki, the first user. "I told you to stop going through my memories," he muttered.
"What?" one of the detectives asked. "Speak up. What did you say?"
"Ah…nothing." Careful, fool. If they realize you have voices in your head…
They're already terrified of me. You can see it in their eyes.
But what about her eyes, Ninth? Look. They're magenta. I see a woman with those same eyes in your memory of the provisional licensing exam. Her face was fuller, yes…but it's her.
"Do we know who this is?" Tsukauchi was asking.
"None. Nothing on her person to identify her."
"She worked for Shiketsu," said Izuku, loudly. His mouth had gone dry. "For their security. I think." He backed away from her face.
Gasps and murmurs filled the room and the hallway.
"Shiketsu…"
"Security…"
"There's not a lot here, but maybe we need to focus on what we don't find. The fact that she has no ID or wallet…this wasn't just a murder." Tsukauchi stared at the corpse grimly. "It was a robbery. Likely a robbery of information or ID that could get someone into Shiketsu."
They'd all heard about the explosion, obviously. The school had been badly damaged. Several dozen people were killed. At least a hundred more were injured, including civilians who were using the school as a shelter.
If it could happen there, it could happen at UA…
No. Mustn't think about that.
"So we're dealing with a killer and a terrorist," Izuku muttered. "What do we know about them?"
"Well, there's no evidence from the school about the bomb or bomber or otherwise," said Tsukauchi. "And we did a scan of the hallway and found no recent footprints or disturbings of the floor. Before we arrived, no one had walked in the hallway for weeks."
Izuku stared at the woman's eyes again. They had been pried open on purpose, he was sure…and with her head tilted back like that, it was almost like she was looking even further than the ceiling…it was almost like she was looking at the top of the wall behind her…
He slowly tilted his head up, and pointed at the air vent. "The killer was small."
More gasps and murmurs from the detectives. Deku walked back across the small room, and reached the wall. He used Nana's Quirk to float himself up just a few inches, and unscrewed the vent cover slowly, deliberately.
"Hey, Tsukauchi, you lettin' this crazy guy do that? What about chain of evidence?"
"Calm down, Ishigami, just let Deku do his thing."
Stab wounds. Of course, there were plenty of Quirks out there that allowed people to be small even as grownups. The yakuza had had that one guy who puppeteered himself around in a little masked sack that was barely a foot tall. Irinaka. And that was a grown man. Maybe it's just my inherent bias, thinking that a murderer and a bomber would have to be an adult male. But the stab wounds. Could Himiko Toga have fit in this air vent? Definitely, especially if she'd used someone else's blood who was smaller than herself.
If it's Toga…she would have no real motive to bomb Shiketsu; that wasn't her style. Which meant she had likely done it on orders from the big man himself.
"Is there a way you can scan to see if any blood was deliberately drained from her body?" Izuku asked behind him as he finished taking the vent cover off.
More stirrings from the detectives. Shuffled footsteps. "It might be too late in the process for that, Deku," Tsukauchi muttered.
You're jumping to conclusions, Ninth. Seeing the Paranormal Liberation Front everywhere, even things that are out of their hands.
This is all their hands. And my hands. It was the battle between us that allowed all this evil to emerge from the shadows.
There was a piece of paper inside the air vent. Izuku slowly procured it, and floated back to the ground.
Naomasa approached him carefully, with wary eyes. "What does it say? What does it say, Deku?"
The ragged, masked hero slowly turned the piece of paper around to show him.
Taped to the bottom of it was a card, business-card sized, with a strange symbol of concentric circles connected to a triangle, gold on a green background. The paper itself was white, and had black text written on it in pen.
Deku read it aloud as Tsukauchi read it with his eyes. "Their future is in your past, pros."
"Pros," Naomasa muttered. "The pro heroes?"
Deku nodded. "And the future they're describing is the future of hero students." He turned the paper back over and read it again, looking down at it. To Naomasa, his voice was as husky and hard to place as ever. "Whether they're working for All For One or not, this person is targeting the hero schools."
…
Tsukauchi and Izuku emerged from the ground floor of the building and met All Might on the street. The tall, gaunt man was leaning against the driver's door of his armored black car, arms crossed, looking down the street with an uneasy expression.
Izuku followed his gaze. The nearby buildings had officers streaming in and out of them, and some civilians had been gathered or herded. Men, women, children, families. Hardly any mutants once again.
"It's the same on the other blocks," All Might muttered. "Met some resistance. People saying the gang protected them better."
"Some?" Tsukauchi asked.
Toshinori Yagi shrugged. "Others were saying the gang killed as they pleased."
"Mixed messages again," Izuku muttered. He stared at one family that was going past. Their frightened eyes practically bugged out of their pale, emaciated faces. A young boy, no older than ten, was wearing a smudged, dirty blanket around his shoulders. Like a cape?
"If only we had more heroes," Toshinori sighed hollowly. "These people need some hope."
A few police officers and people stared at him and the car as they walked past, but no one said anything. Their faces were all empty. Some even looked apologetic, or accusing. When their gazes passed over Deku, they almost universally started, turned away quickly, and kept walking.
All Might nodded up at the building. "What's in there?"
"Murder victim," Tsukauchi muttered. "Connected to the Shiketsu bombing. She worked for security. Magenta eyes."
The skeletal man gasped. "That's Kei Mikuno. She's a major technician there…Principal Nezu was just telling me about her the other day."
Izuku leaned forward. "In what context?"
"Saying he wished he could collaborate with her on the potential UA-Shiketsu tunnel link…but Shiketsu kept saying she was unavailable on calls."
"Well," Tsukauchi commented, with a whistle and another glance back up to the second-floor window, "she was here."
"I have a bad feeling about this," Izuku muttered. "I'm gonna do a quick perimeter sweep of the district. Check for stragglers." He prepared to lift off, green lightning wreathing his feet.
"Wait! One moment please, young Midoriya." All Might gestured for him to stay down, and turned to open the car door.
Tsukauchi nodded to them both, realizing he was about to intrude on a One for All conversation, and took his leave. "I'll see you back at base, Toshinori."
All Might just inclined his head, and then went back to reaching inside the car. He pulled the tablet screen out sideways, attached to a robotic arm that could swivel it from its place in the dashboard to viewable from outside the car. "Hawks and Jeanist wanted to check in."
Deku shifted from side to side, antsily. "I have nothing to report at the moment." Eyes darted up to the sky, above the rooftops of this devastated stretch of town. Need to get moving. He could feel the refugees' frightened, accusing eyes upon him again.
"Yes you do. If this Mikuno-san is dead, then they need to know." All Might pressed a button, and the tablet screen came to life.
Visible was something that looked like a hospital room. Near to the camera and to the left, close enough to be distorted, was the face of Keigo Takami, aka Hawks. He was still wrapped up in gauze, but at least he could actually speak now. A bit further back, sitting in a chair next to a tall potted plant, was Best Jeanist. They both turned to look at the screen, surprised. "All Might!" they exclaimed together.
"What are you doing in a hospital?" Toshinori asked. Behind them was an empty white bed with medical equipment next to it.
"This is the one they're bringing the Shiketsu survivors to." It was hard to tell if the connection was just bad or if Hawks' voice was still mangled from his burns. "Endeavor's been gone for an hour." His eyes were worried.
"It's bad, Yagi. He was totally panicked. The two civilian siblings made it out alright, but…" Jeanist put an anxious hand through his hair.
"Siblings?" Izuku perked up and got closer. "Are you talking about Natsuo and Fuyumi Todoroki?"
Hawks nodded. "Besides Shoto, the whole family was in the Shiketsu shelter. Was easier to extract them there from the postwar hospital. Faster."
Izuku felt his legs turn to jelly. He fought to stay upright, retreating into his own mind. The family. Todoroki's brother and sister and mom. No, Todoroki…I'm so sorry. I should have been there. I should have…
"Is there no word of Rei?" All Might asked.
"That's what Enji went to find out," said Hawks emptily. "He, umm…well. You can imagine. He kinda…blasted out of here in a fury."
Izuku cast his eyes back up at the window. "Whoever did this has to be stopped," he said, loud enough for Hawks and Jeanist to hear on the other end. "We've just found the corpse of a woman who worked for Shiketsu security. There was no ID on her, so the killer must have stolen it. And then used it to plant the bomb."
Hawks gasped, leaning back in his seat, but Jeanist was all business. "You say stopped, Deku. Not arrested. This implies that you think they will do something else."
Izuku nodded. "There was a note left for whoever found the place. We have reason to believe this person is targeting hero schools."
"UA…" Hawks muttered.
"I really have to go," Izuku said, turning toward All Might. The other users were arguing in his head. He couldn't think about it much longer. I have to stop this person. I left UA to keep everyone I love safe, but if the school gets attacked…
"Listen, young Midoriya," All Might pleaded. "Kei Mikuno was very important to Shiketsu's security. It may be that the killer was able to plant the bomb undetected because she wasn't there to help with the re-enforcement effort of the shelter."
Jeanist nodded, jumping on the train. "UA has all of its best security staff and technicians in safe hands."
"And don't forget those asshole little robots," Hawks muttered.
"UA is the safest place for anyone to be right now, and it will remain that way," said Toshinori.
Izuku took a long, long time to respond. For the three pros, watching him, it was impossible to tell what he was thinking or feeling. He was masked, withdrawn, quiet.
"Changes nothing," he finally said. "They still need to be stopped. You all must think I need to stay on the hunt for Shigaraki and All For One. Well, it may be that they're behind this. That this person is working for them."
Hawks and Jeanist exchanged a glance. "Well, it's certainly possible…"
"But unless there's a concrete lead at that crime scene, then it's no better than we were before. None of the criminals we've apprehended have had any useful information."
"The police are investigating the place," said All Might. "In the meantime, Midoriya…"
At that moment, Endeavor burst back into the hospital room. His wife was in his arms.
Hawks and Jeanist leapt to their feet. "Clear the way!" Enji Todoroki barked, sweeping over to the bed, flanked by doctors. Rei was unconscious, her clothes partially scalded.
"Endeavor! Is she…"
"No bones broken!" one of the doctors said. "But we need to check for internal damage…"
"Get her hooked up…"
"Go, go, come on…"
Noise flooded the tablet screen. Hawks turned back to it and said, "Sorry, Yagi-san. Gotta go." And things went dark.
Toshinori sighed again. "Perhaps it was this…Dabi. Touya Todoroki. Perhaps the family was the target."
"No," Deku muttered. "Planting a bomb and hiding the shadows? He wouldn't do it like that even if he was ordered to. He would show his face. He would make it public."
All Might had to admit his pupil was right. Too right, and too cynical.
Deku activated One for All again and took off into the sky, not bothering to say goodbye. All Might watched him disappear behind a rooftop. He tried not to weep.
…
The woman wouldn't stop speaking into her mind.
Nova clutched her ears again, legs pushed together, as the voice echoed like thunder. We are coming for you. You are not safe.
The voice itself had a kind, musical sort of lilt, even though the words were threatening. Nova remained in the corner of the burned-out hotel lobby, clutching herself, begging the woman to stop.
We're to the north. We're to the south. We're to the east.
Silhouettes appeared in the open doorway. Once that opening had contained a glass revolving door, which led into this once-grand lobby of red carpet and gold trim…one of the best hotels in the entertainment district. Nova had taken orders from many clients here over the years. Now it was just a husk. But it was nice and shadowy to hide in, this close to the twilight of dusk…unfortunately, there was no hiding from the Quirk that was causing this voice.
"NOVA!" one of the silhouettes who'd appeared in the doorway called. Oh, Jesus. It was the twins; she could tell by the accent. "NOv…oh for fuck's sake, there she is."
The two men jogged up to her and picked her up by the armpits to make her stand. Nova kicked and struggled.
"The…the woman!" she gasped. "She won't…go away…"
"We know," one of the twins said with an exasperated eyeroll. The two of them began half-escorting her, half-dragging her, out of the lobby and onto the boulevard.
"It's in everyone's head, Nova. You're not special."
"An intimidation tactic. Stupid heroes and their psychological warfare. They'll NEVER take Kijimi back from the outfit…"
Nova screwed her face up angrily as they dragged her onto the pavement of the boulevard. She was barefoot, and some of that nearby broken glass and rebar gathered up around collapsed building areas did not look friendly. They always call it the outfit. Call it what it is. The mob.
The battles that had taken place here in Kijimi had been really bad at first. Then things had sort of organized…personally, Nova had lived here for most of her adult life, and while she'd never been happy, this was by far the worst it had ever been. The mob had always been a presence, and she'd done work for many of them, but they'd never had such control. And now…
Nova looked around at the ruined boulevard street. Half-destroyed colored neon signs flickered in the twilight. A marquee hung vertically off the front facade of a theater. Abandoned luxury cars littered the side of the road. "I can walk by myself," she hissed, forcing her arms away from the twins' iron grips.
One of them chuckled. "Alright, sweetheart. Have it your way. Just stick close to us, eh?" The other one squeezed her thigh as he pulled away. She shuddered, and then the woman's voice came through again. Careful. That was the only word she said.
One of the twins started a little and looked around at the roofs, one hand on his weapon. "Do you think…" he asked in a hushed voice. "Do you think that was directed at us?"
"No, you idiot. She's only capable of sending general messages unless she's identified the exact person."
"She? Who's she?" Nova dared to ask.
"Mandalay. One of them stupid wild pussycats or whatever. It has to be her." The twin frowned.
His brother smirked at him. "Some kinda fanboy, are you?"
"Shut the fuck up. Boss makes it his business to know some of the heroes, and it's good for us to know too. For situations just as this." He tapped his forehead knowingly.
"Nah. You must've seen her nudes or something."
"I told you to shut the hell up."
Nova suppressed a giggle, and unfortunately they both heard it. They turned to look at her in sync as they walked down the sidewalk, now with equally annoyed, testy expressions.
"Something funny, dollface?"
"Something about nudes? We've seen more of you than that, you know."
"That we have."
"Heh."
"Heh."
Nova slapped their hands away from her chest, which was only covered by a loose t-shirt she'd stolen from a hotel room with the door left open. Her legs were totally bare to the elements. "You have to pay for that."
"It seems to me we're paying by protecting ya. Boss didn't order us to do this, ya know. We're doing it out of the goodness of our hearts."
"Yep," said the other twin. "Seems to me like you owe us."
"I don't owe you anything," Nova hissed, though on the inside, she was terrified. "Neither of you have ever tipped me, and I don't need protection."
"Ya sure, hon?" One of them leered closer to her. They had passed a gap between buildings, and now to Nova's right was a deep, narrow alleyway. She gulped, feeling sweat go down the back of her neck.
Stupid fool. You opened your mouth. All these years you've known your place, and this horrible situation has made you too reckless and desperate. Gonna get yourself killed. Of course, they would do other things to her first, but that was nothing she hadn't endured before. Murder, though…it had never been such a problem before the war. Now the mob controlled everything, and henchmen like these scum…they could do anything and bury it away…
One of their hands brushed her hair from off the front of her face. The other twin moved his hand to squeeze her butt…Nova closed her eyes and prepared to just sit back and deal with it.
Get away from her, said the heroine in their heads.
The twins froze.
Nova dared to open one eye. M-Mandalay…? That was what they'd said her name was.
Look down the alley.
"Heh!" One of the men raised his weapon and spun to look the opposite way, down the street. "Like we're stupid enough to…"
"Well, isn't this curious!" said a bright, peppy female voice. Not the same voice that had been in their heads, and it was coming from above. From the sky.
Nova looked up, and gasped. A young woman was descending on bright spirals of yellow light, emerging from her hands and feet. She had a skin-tight teal costume with dark blue highlights, and while half her face was quite pretty, the other half bore some moderate burn scarring. Her hair was periwinkle colored, and cut close to her shoulders.
"Hey, hey, why are you harassing that space lady? Could it be that you're both super lonely?" the heroine asked. She somehow maintained an expression of pure inquisitivity, even putting one gloved finger to her chin and tilting her head cutely.
The twins turned their guns up to the sky. "Crazy bitch-"
Something flew against the arm of one of the men, and knocked him backward against the wall of the alley, pinning him there, and forcing his hand to open and drop the gun. It was a giant snapping clam.
Then, a tentacle wrapped around the other twin's hand and squeezed the gun free. Nova whirled. There was a hooded boy in a white cloak coming their way. He had feet and wings like a bird's, and the tentacles were coming from the fingers on one of his hands. His other hand was entirely like a clam.
He used the tentacle to yank the twin toward him, and swung his clam-hand toward the twin's face. The mob guard, who had the ability to create miniature forcefields on pieces of his body, activated his Quirk on his own face, and the hooded hero's strike rebounded. The twin spun with practiced agility and kicked him aside…
…And the flying heroine descended on him from above, her yellow energy enveloping his body, and shoving him against the wall.
The other brother had gotten himself free, and fastened his arm around Nova's neck from behind. She gasped. "HELP-"
The periwinkle-haired heroine's eyes widened as she turned to that look, and Nova knew that brief expression all too well. A slight falling in the peppy personality. Revealing the woman within. I have to hide it, too, girl. Girl. Yes, it was a girl, really. She couldn't have been older than nineteen.
"Stay away, you scarred freak!" the man snarled at the heroine, "or else I snap the whore's neck-"
The hooded hero fired something from beneath his cloak. It moved impossibly fast, and struck the twin in the head, so hard he fell over unconscious. His arm fell away from Nova's throat. She looked down and saw a pineapple rolling at her feet.
"That's a funny Quirk," she said, weakly, then felt her legs begin to go.
"Hey, hey, whoa!" Suddenly the cloaked hero was holding her, keeping her up. "Oh, nice catch, Amajiki-kun."
The hero who was holding Nova took the white hood off his head. He was a dark-haired boy with pointy ears and a nervous face. "I tried my best…" he muttered.
"Thank you for saving me," Nova told him, managing a smile. "But maybe you should leave the tentacle and clam hands for later?"
The boy stared at her, not understanding, but then his eyes widened, and with a furiously red face, he turned his hands back to human hands. His female partner laughed, and he lowered his head, letting a shadow fall over it. "Sorry," he muttered. His hands were rigid and sweaty. "We should find you some clothes."
Oops. Nova had returned to the default way she acted around men, especially men who held her like the boy was holding her now. This guy was a hero. Of course he didn't hire girls like her, and had no idea how to react. And he seems like he could still be in high school.
"That was good work though, Suneater-san!" the peppy girl exclaimed, hopping around and inspecting the twins, who were both knocked out on the ground. "They seem to be out cold. Who were they, ma'am? Were they propositioning you? Oh, your eyes and skin are so cool, by the way!" She leaned in close to Nova's face, eyes glimmering with excitement. "Are those little stars in your eyes? Are those galaxies on your thighs? Is it actually your skin, or is it just really good body paint? Have you ever counted how many stars you've got on you? Oh, is that a nebula down there? What were your parents' Quirks? How did you…"
Nova found herself leaning back into the boy with the hood, overwhelmed. "Is she always like this?" she asked him.
The boy, Suneater, sighed. "Yeah. Quit off, Hado."
"Ah, oh. I'm sorry." The girl backed away.
"That's alright. I know I must be funny looking." Nova had been born with skin that looked like a bright, vibrant night sky, complete with all kinds of stars and galaxies and celestial bodies on certain parts of her like tattoos. It was even in her eyes, and when she got emotional, her sky began to drift like a timelapse. "I never knew my parents, to answer one of your questions," she said to the girl. "But my unique look did help me, well…in the business I'm in. At least it made me pretty well off before the war."
"Ah." The girl's face twitched. "You are a sex worker, aren't you?"
"Well…yes." Nova could have sworn that the boy's grip on her faltered a little. She didn't dare look at his face, to see if he was surprised or disgusted.
"Well," said the girl, gently nudging one of the twins with her foot, "I won't ask questions about that. I'm Nejire-chan. That's Amajiki-kun behind you."
"Ah. I'm…Nova. How old are you two?"
"We're freshly graduated from UA. We've been put in charge of patrolling this entertainment district of Kijimi, along some of the pros like Mandalay, who spotted you from the roof over there!" Nejire pointed across the boulevard to the top of one of the casinos. "Well. This district certainly doesn't look very entertaining right now."
"Much of it is in disuse. In its heyday, it was…well, I…" Nova coughed. "Let's just say even a gal like me could make do. Lights and colors and elegance and a lot of money coming through. The mob always had a decent grip on the place, but with you heroes and the police pulling out after the war…"
"It's back under control of scum like this, huh?" muttered Amajiki, looking down at the twins.
"Don't you worry, ma'am. We're gonna get this place cleaned right up. Do you know of other places where innocent people could be hiding? We're trying to extract people to safety before we begin our operation against the mobs," said Nejire.
"Well, I could…" Nova cast a doubtful glance around. "But…they'd come after me if they knew I talked."
"Not to worry. We'll take you out of here for now. To a rally point. After that, you can come live at UA for a bit." It was the boy speaking. The young man, Amajiki.
"Huh?" Nova's starry eyes glimmered. "At…UA? But…" She felt her own voice crack. "No, it can't be true…"
"It's true," Amajiki insisted. He seemed to grow more earnest, less nervous, looking her in the eye. "You won't have to work for food and shelter there. They're providing it for all civilians who enter. We swear it. Hero's honor."
"Hero's honor!" Nejire echoed, with an imitation of a soldier's salute. "At least, if that means anything to you anymore. I understand that it doesn't for many people."
Nova had never put much stock in heroes. But these…these two were young. It felt different. "Well, alright," she said airily, weakly. "But I'd still only be comfortable to give you more info if I was there already. And…out of here. You two would be best to get moving quickly as well. The boss has eyes all over the place."
"Heard," said Nejire. She tapped a communication device in her ear. "Mandalay, come tie these clowns up and get 'em clear! Suneater and I are gonna get this woman somewhere safe."
There was a silhouette moving on the rooftop nearby. Nova winced, expecting the woman's voice to enter her head again, but it did not.
"Alright, let's go," Nejire intoned, biting her lip. Yellow light flared up around her feet, and she seemed to be preparing to lift off.
"I'm…" Nova blurted. "I'm sorry he said something about your scars."
Her face faltered for only a moment. Then it was back to that bright smile. "What do you expect from criminals?" And up she went into the sky.
"Hado, wait, I…" Amajiki hissed. But she was already going. "Carry her, Suneater!" her voice called back.
Nova looked back up at the boy. He was a good deal taller than her. "Can you fly too with those wings?" she asked him.
"Yeah…it's how we got out here from the rally point in the first place…but, I'm pretty new to it compared to Hado, so…sorry if the ride's bumpy. Maybe you should get on my back or somethi…"
Nova threw her arms around his neck and kicked her legs up, forcing him to hold her bridal style. "I'm good like this," she said, starry eyes glimmering a little.
Suneater blushed deeply, but those great feathery wings began to flap, and up they went. He was trembling as he carried her, but Nova pretended not to notice. Soon, all she felt was the strength of his arms, and the sky's wind in her face. It felt like finally ascending out of hell.
…
Nejire waited for Tamaki outside the small shelter, rocking back and forth on her toes. He emerged only a minute later than she'd expected, rubbing his arm sheepishly, back to total human form. His eyes looked everywhere but her face as he joined her on the sidewalk.
Nejire whistled. "She safe and sound in there?"
"Yeah. She seemed reluctant to talk to Gang Orca until we get her to UA…but that won't be possible until we have an official civilian transport. Too many dangerous areas between here and there for people to traverse on foot." Tamaki stumbled sideways, appearing exhausted.
"That mob seems scary if she's that afraid to talk until she's behind the fortress walls," Nejire mused. "But that's what we're up against, I suppose!" She stared off down the street, where the boundaries of Kijimi lay in the distance. Their district. Their responsibility. "Mandalay said we did a good job."
"We saved one woman."
"One is better than none! And she'll lead us to more." Nejire looked back at her partner, smirking mischievously. "Hey. She seemed to like how you carried her."
"That was…! That was her idea. Besides, she didn't know how old we were." Tamaki rubbed his arm in discomfort again.
"We did tell her we'd graduated. She assumed you were eighteen or over, and she was right. Did she put pants on?"
"Yeah. I made sure that was the first thing that happened."
"Aww, c'mon Amajiki-kun. She was quite pretty, what with the space skin and all…"
"She worked as an escort!"
Nejire raised an eyebrow. "And they can't have aspirations of finding a nice dating partner like anyone else?"
"That's…eugh. You know that's not what I meant." His face reddened, and he stammered. "I just mean…she probably has a lot of trauma…trauma that I wouldn't want to resurface by…I don't know. Flirting with her, or something."
"Yeah. I can see why you attempting to flirt would surface deep-buried trauma in any woman." When he gave her a murder look, Nejire held her hands up. "Okay, sorry. I'm sorry, Amajiki-kun. I was just teasing."
"Yeah. Yeah, I know." He relaxed his shoulders again.
"Sorry. It went too far."
"Don't worry about it."
The two of them stood in silence for a moment. Nejire half-expected Gang Orca to bark more orders into their ears from the comms, but he did not. Busy questioning Nova, she supposed. They should let me question people. I'd be great at it.
Tamaki noticed Mandalay approaching first, and stood up straight. Nejire saw her coming half a second later, and noticed her expression. Stricken.
Her mouth opened and could only form one question. "What happened, Mandalay-sensei?"
The auburn-haired heroine took her cat ears off her head and clenched them with white knuckles. "There was an attack at Shiketsu High. A bombing."
…
Izuku watched the building silently for over an hour.
From this spot on the roof of the neighboring apartment, he could see all possible ways someone might approach it. The only someones had been police officers, quite a few of them going in and out at the start of the hour, but the crowd had thinned as they moved most of the civilians out to the shelters.
The area was clear. It was safe and peaceful now. Danger Sense, for once, was quiet. Now he just watched. Watched and waited.
Killers like this…once they know they've been discovered, they can't help but go to stake out the reaction. Return to the scene. It's in their nature. He was making a gamble, a big one. Especially since he could already be patrolling some other area that was still unsafe by now, instead of lingering in this one that was now under police control. An area where he was needed.
But I may be needed here. I'm gonna wait just a little longer.
The One for All users were feeling some kind of emotion in his head. Something like disapproval. He ignored it.
The city was quiet. It was nearly five in the morning, and there were streaks of light in the east, extremely faint.
Izuku knelt on the edge of the rooftop, watching. Watching through his mask, his green eyes penetrating the area. Seeing everything.
…And just as he'd anticipated, expected, hoped, dreaded…a dark figure slipped out of the shadows between two buildings. Slim, hourglass figure, black-clothed. Masked up like Izuku, but unquestionably female. And crept into the building.
Izuku stood up. Toga after all? He'd have to go down and see.
Green lightning sparked out from his feet, and he prepared to fight.
…
I've got a bunch of this fic's plot developments outlined now, and I'm really excited to work my way through it. Apologies to those who want to see Izuku in romantic situations right away, but I'm trying to take it slow and give everything proper development! Not to worry, things will somewhat kick off next time.
