When you're ahead, she's coming after…
And when you run, she's running faster…
And when she loves, you better hope her love is not a temporary high.
…
The young man stared down through the vent opening at the person he was going to kill.
The hideout was dingy and musty, with peeling walls and water stains on the carpet. A fuel lantern, like one might see in a campsite, was glowing sleepily on top of the torn-up couch.
Food wrappers scattered the floor. The person kicked these out of the way as they paced back and forth across the room, occasionally flashing glances to the narrow, dirty window facing north onto the city street. The sun was nearly set; and the light of the lantern was taking over.
The person was speaking loudly into a satellite phone. It had to be a satellite phone, thought the young man; there was no proper phone service left in this area of the city.
"They were spotted a few blocks from here just yesterday!" the person insisted into the phone, frantically.
"Where are you getting your local info from?" Whoever was on the other end of the phone sounded rather gruff.
"That's none of your business. It's your business to get me out of here." The soon-to-be-dead person was having trouble controlling their breathing.
"That's what I'm trying to do, Kei, but if you don't cooperate…"
"You promised I would have an escort. Two of the bodyguards from the school."
"We can't get them to you. You're going to have to reach the station on your own."
"That's seven blocks! I'll be totally exposed…" The person stared out the window onto the desolate, darkening city street. "I'll be assaulted. The clothes will be stolen off my body and I'll die."
"To get to safety, first you must go through danger. Kei, you're going to starve there if you don't get to us. I can promise you that."
The young man had considered jumping down while they were on the phone. It might be easier that way. But no, the person on the other end of the line said they were from the school. He couldn't risk them even having an inkling as to what had happened.
They were shaking. The phone in their hand rattled. "I'm…I can't do this," they breathed.
"Yes you can. You CAN."
"It's just all too much. Everything is falling apart."
"I know. But it's up to us to mend it. To mend this country before it's too late. Come on, Kei, we need your help here. No one knows security better."
No response. The person just whimpered. The young man sneered in disgust, twitching, barely able to hold himself back from jumping down.
The gruff voice on the other end of the phone sighed. "What do you see in your vision right now?"
"Th-th…the Hayasaka accounting firm…" the person stammered.
"Just out the window?"
"Y-yes…"
"Okay. Okay, I know that area. Here's what you're going to do. You're going to cross the street and take the fire escape up onto that roof."
"But th-that's the wrong way!"
"No, hold on, listen. The firm connects to the apartment buildings on the left. They're a connected complex with a covered bridge that goes over the street. You turn and go that way, staying on the rooftops."
"That bridge was d-destroyed last week. Someone's got an exploding Quirk."
"Completely?"
"N-no…but there's a big gaping hole in it now…"
"Use your Quirk to jump it. We can mark this up as a certain form of self-defense, or we can just leave it off the books. The books hardly matter at this point. Kei, listen! Staying on those roofs should get you just over halfway there. Then it's just around three blocks to the station. You can sprint if you like, or you can hide by that pharmacy for a bit and take it slow. Block at a time."
"Okay," they muttered. "Okay." Chest rose, chest fell. "I…okay. I can see the whole route. In my head. I see what you're saying."
"Right? See, it's going to work. Just use the area to your advantage. You make it to the station and you're home clear. You can do this, Kei."
"I can do this. I can do this." Their head shook. "Alright. I'm going to hang up. And go for it now. Before it gets too dark."
"Good luck. I'll see you soon, okay? We'll see each other again."
"Right…"
The phone beeped. The person sighed and lowered it to their hip.
The young man let out a shriek and plummeted into the room of the hideout. The person was not a screamer, it seemed; all they did was turn in a panic and jump back…but it was far too late already. The moment the young man had found this place, they were done for.
When it was over, the young man opened the window a crack to let the bad air out.
Just outside, passing on the street where that covered bridge had been destroyed, was a gang of people. The young man noticed several monster mutants of above-average height, and their leader had flames dancing in his palms as he took them around the corner. They were patrolling.
A shame, the young man thought, sighing, retreating into the darkness of the room, away from the window. You'd have been dead with or without my input.
…
Yo Shindo, hero alias Grand, and Tatami Nakagame, hero alias Turtleneck, now graduates of Ketsubutsu Academy, entered the upper floor of the abandoned office building with some trepidation.
Tatami had more than a few doubts about this. First of all, they were up against the clock, since one of the most dangerous Tartarus escapees was known to be haunting this area. Secondly, the upper space of this building was all glass walls, making them easily seen from outside. And lastly…were all the people sitting, standing, watching the two young heroes, from the other end of the room.
It was a mix of people, some with ragged street clothes, some with dashes of strange color in headbands or skirts that made them look like they were wearing half-destroyed hero costumes. Some had body enhancements from their Quirks, but they were all noticeably human-looking, with no real monster mutants in sight. That was another troubling thing. All the reports Tatami had heard, either through official means, rumor, or conjecture, indicated that very few monster mutants had made it back to any of the shelters. Either they were all joining the gangs, or they were out there alone, rejected from local groups like this, being hunted.
The last thing she noticed was how nearly all the men had long beards. They had been out here a while.
"Great!" the leader snorted. He had a short sword strapped to his back. "Now they send kids to pick us up? Turn around and go home."
"It's too dangerous here," Shindo insisted, stepping forward. Tatami sighed. Her boyfriend was smiling, but he'd always been too aggressive, and the smile just made it more off-putting. "You won't last long if you don't move. Please accompany us back to the designated shelter."
"Those shelters are barrels for fish," the leader scoffed. "The villains will bottleneck them in a heartbeat. Out here, we're free, and we're not weighed down by others who are weak and hiding."
"Those weak others are your countrymen, and they're smarter than you," Shindo said, testily.
"You haven't seen us work!" someone else spoke up. "We've done for some of this scum pretty quick! We can take care of ourselves!"
"We don't need you!" someone else agreed.
"I trust your ability to handle yourself when it comes to looters and thieves," said Shindo. "But Tartarus escapees are a different story. The reports we've received about the one near here…are worse than troublesome. This individual has little to no regard for human life. They have totally abandoned any kind of moral code. If they find you, you will not survive."
"And you would?" The leader got in Shindo's face. "You pompous heroes believe so highly in your abilities, when your failure is what got Japan into this mess in the first place. No, I think we're just fine taking care of ourselves, thank you. Our mind's made up. Get out, you kids. Of your own will. I don't want to have to hurt kids."
Shindo's smile tensed, and Tatami could tell he was grinding his teeth.
A few minutes later, they were back on the street, putting the glass building to their backs. Shindo walked ahead of her, slouching, clearly in a bad mood about all of it.
"What made Ms. Joke think they'd listen to us?" he muttered. "If they didn't listen to adults, then…"
"Maybe she thought they'd have a soft spot for young people," Tatami said. She intentionally didn't say kids. She certainly did not think of herself as a child anymore, and Shindo probably would have gotten mad at her too.
Looking around at the street, it was a desolate scene. Lamp posts were bent at unnatural angles. Trash rolled across the pavement. One of the pieces was a newspaper; the wind slammed it flat against the side of a bin and displayed the front page clearly: THE END OF JAPAN. One of the buildings up ahead was half-destroyed; a cascade of bricks spilled out into the street from its gaping maw.
"Well, they didn't attack us, at least," Shindo muttered, "though I would welcome a fight at this point." He rubbed his arm.
Tatami's phone rang. She pulled it out, and Makabe nearly screamed in her ear when she picked up the call.
"YOU TWO NEED TO GET OUT OF THERE NOW! I SAW THE VILLAIN WITH MY OWN EYES! HE'S COMING YOUR WAY!"
It was so loud that Shindo heard. His eyes widened. "But what about the civilia-"
"THERE'S NO TIME! RUN!"
A shadow filled the sky.
Tatami and Shindo looked up in horror. The massive, looming hulk had leapt over the glass office building from behind, and slid down its wall, shattering and destroying the facade as he went. "JUST YOU TWO, THEN?" The villain laughed. "WELL, LET'S HAVE SOME FUN!"
Shindo flexed his arms and flattened his mouth. "I guess I gotta be careful what I wish for," he croaked. There was a mix of fear and courage in his eyes.
The villain shook the ground when he landed across the street from them. Tatami could see behind him, up in the office building, the group of civilians they'd just confronted. Their walls now destroyed, they were looking down on the scene with panic and confusion.
"I'll get them!" Tatami told her boyfriend, pointing up.
"Understood." One of Shindo's fists slammed into the other. "I'll knock this guy down."
The villain had muscle fibers growing out of his arms and legs, swelling like nests of snakes. One of his eyes was mangled, and he had spiky blonde hair. He heard what Shindo said, and laughed. "SOUNDS LIKE A PLAN, HERO! COME ON AND TRY IT!"
As Tatami leapt up toward the building, Shindo and the villain ran at each other. Shindo slammed his palms into the ground and began to shake the street, causing an earthquake. The rumbling filled the air as pieces of concrete and brick ruptured and flew out from the battle. Clouds of dust kicked up. Tatami jumped through one and up onto the ledge.
The leader of the civilian gang was pulling out his sword as if preparing to join the battle. "No!" Tatami hissed. "Please follow me to safety! This is the man we were telling you about! He's going to…"
"He can't tread all over our town and destroy our buildings without justice from us!" the leader cried.
"You have no jurisdiction here, girl!"
"Yeah, get lost! This is no concern of yours!"
"We'll protect this town!"
"I won't let you kill yourselves out there!" Tatami insisted…
BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Everyone looked over at the scene on the neighboring building. Somehow, Shindo and the villain…
(Muscular, his alias is Muscular)
…had ended up on the roof, and Shindo was being smothered.
"HAHA HA!" Muscular cackled, his fibers wriggling over the young hero's bloodied form, shoving him further and further into the wreckage. "That's twelve thousand layers of muscle fibers weighing you down, little buddy! No matter how you shake things up, you can't withstand my sheer strength!"
Shindo grimaced through all of it, and forced his eyes open, pressing his hand against the fibers that were pushing against him. "There are certain things I don't do with my Quirk," he said, "because I don't like to hurt people. But you…you have discarded your right to be called a person."
He activated his Quirk, and suddenly, all the muscle fibers began to shake and writhe at once. "TREMORING EARTH!"
Muscular reared back, vibrating, his eyes widened in shock as the Quirk worked its way through his whole body. "I'll turn you into a muscle milkshake!" Shindo promised.
"Then I'll just…add more layers…" Muscular's arms and legs swelled even further up, suppressing Shindo's Quirk, covering it, making it less and less and less effective. Pushing him down again. "Better luck next time, kid! OH wait, there won't be a next time!"
"YO-KUN!" Tatami cried out.
Shindo began to disappear beneath all that. Cracks formed in the building beneath them. He was going to die.
"THIS is what real power looks like!" Muscular cackled.
A green streak zipped across Tatami's vision, so fast that she swayed in place, and wind buffeted her hair and clothes. Murmurs of confusion and interest swept through the crowd of civilians.
KA-POW!
A bright, sparkling impact of power slammed into Muscular's side, so hard and so fast that Tatami blinked and missed exactly what happened. The very next moment, the villain had been dumped onto the street, knocked right off the roof by whatever it was. There was an impossible amount of dust now, billowing up in clouds on the street, obscuring a glowing green silhouette.
No, not dust. Smoke. A ton of smoke.
"Muscular…no wonder my sense of danger was going so haywire." The new voice that spoke was warbled, as if put through a filter, and deep and hoarse and full of pain. Tatami's heart skipped a beat.
As Muscular got up, he was gasping for breath and grinning even more widely. "That Quirk…could it really be you at last?"
The smoke parted to reveal…well. Tatami didn't know how to describe the person. If they were a hero, their suit was incredibly damaged. It was patchy and frayed and could have once been called green, but it was so dirty it was hard to tell. They had big gloves and a filthy yellow cape around their neck. Their face was masked by some kind of grimacing mouthpiece, and a green cowl with pointy ear-like appendages that flapped in the wind. Visible through the dark eye openings were two glowing green points: their eyes.
They were holding Shindo in their arms. They had saved his life.
"I'll show you real power," they promised Muscular, and from there, the fight was not even close.
…
The civilian gang helped Shindo onto a stretcher. "We found three of these in a dumpster," one of them told Tatami. "We take what we can get."
Tatami nodded. "Thank you. I…" She reached out, trying to carry the stretcher herself. Shindo. Her boyfriend. He'd nearly died.
"We'll take it, young lady." The leader's voice was softer now, his eyes sad. "Don't want him dying or anything. You can't carry him alone."
"But I…"
"Just respect our boundaries, and we'll cooperate with you."
Tatami looked to the sky. The mysterious boy had Muscular tied up with black tendrils, and was leaping in great bounds off into the distance, taking the unconscious villain somewhere. "I didn't get to thank him properly…" she muttered.
He asked questions about Tomura Shigaraki and All For One. Could that have been…?
…
The police all raised their guns at the same time. "Who are you? Explain yourself!"
Izuku supposed he had landed rather suddenly. He lifted his arms up to show he didn't mean them any harm. If they opened fire, I'd have to knock them all out, I guess. "Do you have a spare Iron Maiden?" he asked them.
A few minutes later, Muscular was safely contained once again. One more escapee off the streets. Many more to go. Izuku looked back at the police station again as he leapt from rooftop to rooftop, away from it. They were regaining their foothold in the precinct. As for the neighboring area, that civilian gang had been maintaining control…at least until Muscular had shown up.
I can't leave them to their own devices. I have to mark this area down. I'll loop back around to it next week. He had a list now, of places in the major cities he checked up on. At least that police department was still intact. Even then, if it became targeted by a powerful villain…alright, I'll keep checking on the station too. It wasn't too much trouble. It gave him around forty minutes instead of fifty, per week, to linger in each spot, if he added these to the cycle. But that was plenty of time as long as he zoomed everywhere.
Izuku could not afford to leave even just one area unattended.
He looked around at the city as it became drenched in evening shadows. Husks of buildings leapt out at him, accusing him with their unseen eyes.
Failure. Fake. Good for NOTHING.
Muscular hadn't known anything. Not an inkling as to where Shigaraki or All For One were.
The wind threatened to pull Izuku's cowl off; he readjusted it as he made his next leap. His eyes scanned everywhere. Paranoia, paranoia. Shadows leapt across the streets. Was that a person, or an alleycat?
None of you would happen to have a Quirk that lets me see in all directions at the same time, would you? Izuku dryly asked the voices in his head.
Funny, they whispered. You used too much smoke in your fight with the hulking man. You could have obscured your own sightlines and slipped up.
I'll remember for next time, Izuku promised. Mistakes, mistakes. He made them constantly. Right now someone was probably dying within this square kilometer. Someone else was probably being sexually assaulted. Tints of Danger Sense were alarming the corners of his perception, but they were in all directions. Constant. It had been like that the whole time, since he'd set out from UA. Only when a huge flare-up happened, like earlier with Muscular, was he able to do anything.
Useless, useless. Deku. aGH! Do something! Go somewhere! He threatened to hit himself in the face, trying to continue to move, spinning around and looking around wildly at the city. He always got antsy and panicky if he went a few minutes without finding something to solve. There had to be something he could do. Anything.
Calm down, Ninth. Keep your cool.
Shut up. What good is One for All if the user of it is such an idiot? If All Might were…
All Might operated in a time of societal stability. You are not.
Izuku refused to engage them in further conversation right now. Unless they had further notes on how he could improve his combat, he didn't want to hear it. Besides, the fact that society had collapsed…that was his fault too. For not stopping them when he had the chance.
Tomura Shigaraki's terrifying, gaunt, skeletal face, with half the skin sloughed off to reveal the grin of All For One, flashed through his head. Distant cackles, echoing on waves of the past…
They will kill everyone I care about in front of me if given the chance. I HAVE to find them.
Those other heroes back there…they had been students, too. Not UA students, though. Izuku had panicked for a moment when he'd seen them, but they were only from Ketsubutsu. He'd recognized them from the licensing exam, even.
I guess the other schools are letting their graduates go on patrol. He had not seen anyone from UA out here since his crusade had begun, teacher or student or otherwise. UA seemed to be maintaining its policies as a shelter first. Everyone who went there stayed there, behind the fortress walls, until further notice.
Where they'll hopefully be safe. Hopefully. Izuku wondered how many students from the other schools were even bothering to hit the streets, or if many of them were too scared, or perhaps disillusioned like many of the pros had been. In any case, those circumstances were at least lucky. Everyone he cared about was staying out of trouble. If he had to run into students, let them not be from Class A, at the very least…
His phone rang. He knew who it was without even looking. "I'll be right there, All Might."
…
Nezu slid the device across the desk. "This is the area you'll be responsible for," he told the two of them.
Tamaki reached for it, but Nejire swiped it up first. It was a little metal cylinder, smooth to the touch. She turned it over in her gloved hands, pursing her lips, eyes searching the object. She found the switch within a second and flicked it on.
A humming sound emitted from the device, and then it projected an image of a map out sideways. Nejire tilted her head, then realized she had the device oriented wrong, and flipped it over. Now the map was upright in the room, blue-lit, turning slowly as if on a microwave tray. That humming sound continued.
Nejire and Tamaki scanned the map. "Look, Amajiki-kun! There's the mini-golf course there! Down at the bottom is Kijimi Park! Oh, and there's a pizza place I went when I was a kid! I threw up, actually, it was…"
Tamaki gently lowered her pointing hand, which had been darting all over the map, and looked back at their furry principal, sitting across the desk in this bright office in the depths of the UA fortress. "This highlighted area is the patrol zone?" he asked.
"That's right," said Nezu. He slid two more devices across the desk. "These will be your communicators."
"They go in our ears?" Nejire asked.
"Yes…"
"What happens if we break them? What happens then?" Nejire asked.
"Then you come back here for a backup-"
"Why are you sending Amajiki-kun and me to patrol an entertainment district?" Nejire asked.
Nezu sighed, and gave Tamaki a look. "Even I can't keep up with her, Suneater."
"I know. You just kind of learn to take it on the cuff after a while," the dark-haired young man muttered.
Nezu turned back to Nejire. "Miss Hado, that district is under the control of at least three different gangs. They're fighting each other, making alliances with each other, giving and taking territory, rooting out hiding civilians, burning buildings, and encroaching into other districts. To make matters worse, the district is almost completely surrounded by areas that are either gang-controlled, or unclaimed wastelands that probably have independent villains roaming them. There are likely agents of All For One tossed into the mix as well. Our drone intel indicates there are many people still stuck inside the area, including service and sex workers."
"Where's the nearest shelter?" Nejire asked, pointing at the map again.
"The yellow dot you see in the northeast. Another matter is that the gangs could be encroaching that way, and perform an attack on it. If All For One's agents are involved, you can bet they'll be looking to consolidate a powerful enough force."
"I see," said Nejire gravely, nodding. "So you're sending us to the most dangerous area of any of the third-years because we're the Big Three."
"Big Two," Mirio muttered, speaking up from his seat in the corner for the first time. "I should be going out there with you guys, but…"
Nezu gave him a gentle look. "You've only just gotten your Quirk back, Lemillion. Take some time to train."
"We don't have any more time. It's a war out there. It's the apocalypse-"
Tamaki had begun to shake. Nejire noticed. She had a reputation for being dense, but she did know when poor Tamaki got worked up about something…
…But bad things had come from her taking direct action before. So instead, she chose to simply bowl over Mirio's doomings, which were clearly upsetting Tamaki, with her own loud interruption. Another question. It was what she was best at, after all. "Is the highlighted area more of a boundary, or a guideline?" she asked.
Nezu and Mirio cut off, and the principal gave her a funny look. "You have to protect the entire area that is highlighted, Miss Hado."
"That's not what I'm asking. I'm asking if we can protect areas outside the boundary if we want?"
"Nejire…there's only the two of you. Don't overwork yourself. You may have improved your stamina, but…" Mirio looked at her with a worried expression.
Nezu blinked. "You should listen to your friend, young lady. Focus on your objective. If it were up to me, with the injuries you sustained at Jakku, you wouldn't be going at all…"
"Please don't make me go alone," Tamaki squeaked.
"...But we need you graduates out there. You said 'third-years' earlier. You are graduates now. You are pro heroes. You have a duty."
I know that, Nejire thought. More than a little resentment crawled into her brain. But she'd gotten very good at keeping that off her face over the years. Even though her face now was…
Don't touch it. She kept her hand down. "We're pros, but we still have to report back here," she said out loud.
"UA is no longer your school, but it is no longer just a school. We are now one of the last bastions of civilization on the Japanese Archipelago. Speaking of which, I have to actually run and operate said bastion of civilization, so…please get to work." Nezu began to spin around in his chair, indicating their meeting was at an end. "If you have any further questions, take them up with your squad leader. I believe you two are designated Squad Gungan, meaning that would be Gang Orca."
Tamaki bowed before he left. "Thank you, Principal Nezu. W-we won't let you down."
"I believe you," the principal said, softly. It was the first time Nejire had ever heard that tone in his voice.
…
Mirio followed them out. Nejire and Tamaki wired the communication devices into their ears, Nejire struggling with hers a little. The skin on her right ear was still taut and tough from the…
Don't think about it. The three of them walked down the hallway and out into the hospital-like meeting space, where many civilians and students were milling about.
Nejire turned the projection map back off and handed it to Tamaki as they walked.
The dark-haired boy gave her a look. "You want me to hold onto it?"
She gestured down at herself. "You think a suit this skin-tight has pockets, dear?"
Tamaki sighed, his eyebrows low, and he swiped it from her. "Don't call me dear, Hado."
Mirio's eyes looked around at the crowd as they shouldered past another group of students. This open space was in the middle of the UA fortress, and tables had been set up here and there, where people were eating rationed meals from metal trays. "You guys should get to Gang Orca," he said loudly.
"Mirio…" Tamaki's voice was gentle. "I'm sorry you can't come with us…"
"It's fine. It's fine." The blonde boy wasn't smiling, though. "Don't worry about it."
"If you were out there, I'm sure the people would be full of hope." Tamaki lifted his hood over his face. "As it stands, my ability to inspire hope in civilians is…"
"Don't sell yourself short, Suneater. You've got bright and shiny Nejire with ya, remember?" Mirio's eyes danced to her face, and then quickly away. Yeah, as if people aren't gonna look at me and run off, screaming.
"You could have been the next symbol after All Might. Everyone knows it. We always talked about it in class. I don't know if I can be a symbol." Tamaki's hands trembled.
"We're all gonna have to be symbols before this mess is cleaned up. Everyone has to do their part. That's what you've been assigned. Your part. Just worry about that one area, and everything will turn out fine." Someone shouted at Mirio, waving him over. Mirio waved back at them to indicate he'd seen, forcing a smile (he waved over Nejire's head, which made her pout a little at the reminder of how much taller he was), and then turned back to the two of them and said, "I gotta go. Good luck, you two. I love you guys. Stay as safe as you can."
He turned away, but then paused, and said one more thing. "Also, if anyone was going to succeed All Might as the symbol, it would be Midoriya, remember? He's already out there."
Midoriya. Nejire looked down at her gloved hand, and opened and closed her fist. The skin underneath there was still sensitive, but flexing her fist regularly apparently helped. She still remembered Recovery Girl's words: it's too much for me to heal completely, dear. If I used my kiss on you now, your body would die from losing so much energy.
It all came back to her Quirk, didn't it? Her stupid Quirk and the way it affected her stamina.
Midoriya…
After the man who wielded the blue fire had nearly killed her, that boy had used his black tendrils to restrain him. Both of Midoriya's arms had been broken at that point, so he'd emitted a tendril from his mouth.
And even before that…at the yakuza raid, Overhaul had come to the surface and probably would have killed her, if he hadn't followed. Maybe she didn't have all the details right; her mind tended to rush everything in battle. But the facts stood. Midoriya was a real hero.
"Well, there's no time to mope!" she said out loud, brightly. "Let's go protect some pizza parlors, Amajiki-kun!"
"That's not all they have there," he muttered, but he followed her toward the edge of the space, where it opened up into a courtyard.
The UA fortress wall loomed far above them, partially blocking the sun, creating a huge shadow that cast across the ground. A few construction robots zoomed by. Then, a moment later, a squad of policemen marched past in the opposite direction. Other groups milled about in the distance.
"Did you say goodbye to your mom?" Nejire asked her partner.
Tamaki nodded. "She was asking me almost as many questions as you would have."
She managed a smile. That was about as much banter as the boy was likely to make during this whole operation. "My folks wanted to know everything about where I was going. Maybe I should go find them now and tell them…oh, but there's no time." She clicked her tongue and pouted.
"Well, at least you get it from somewhere."
"NEJIRE-SENPAI!"
Nejire turned. Running up to her, out of the shadow of the wall, were two people. Ochako and Tsuyu.
She immediately grew uneasy. Already knowing what they wanted. "You two should be back inside," she told them.
"You're going out, aren't you? Into the streets. Right now."
"Don't try to lie to us, ribbit."
"I would never lie to you," she told them. Well, that wasn't strictly true. Nejire had a reputation for telling mischievous fibs. But that didn't apply here.
"I know you can't say any details," Ochako said. Her brown eyes were swimming with guilt and regret. Nejire knew exactly what it was about. "But…if you just happen to see Deku while you're out there…"
"Bring him back, ribbit," said Tsuyu. "Bring him back to us. Please. None of the adults will listen. You guys are our only hope."
Nejire looked at them both in turn. They were very serious. If something doesn't change soon, their whole class will probably try to break out. It was well-known around the compound that Class A was antsy. It was only a matter of when.
Personally, Nejire thought that Midoriya would be the last thing they'd find. Out there in the wild? And yes, it was the wild now. Streets on fire, looters running the show, supply lines cut…she and Tamaki were heading into a land of cataclysm. They would run into many dangers before they'd ever find "Deku."
And yet…she remembered those fierce looks on his face that she'd seen in battle. He would never give up on something. Never ever. If it was Nejire lost out there, and Ochako had walked up to him and asked him to find her…even though they had barely had five total conversations…
He wouldn't sleep until he'd tied me up with those black whips and dragged me back here.
"I will do what I can," promised Nejire Hado.
…
Well, here is a new fic!
This fic takes place in the "rogue Deku" arc of the manga, between chapters 305 and 330 or so. It will not be canon compliant, however…things will diverge a bit, for the sake of stretching out this whole segment of the story. I think the idea of Japan being a lawless wasteland and Deku out on his own is a fascinating concept that the main manga did not explore nearly enough, so I decided to do my own take on it.
Things to expect from this fic: some action and fighting, but also a lot of thriller and detective elements. I was really inspired by The Batman movie and want to go for a vibe like that for some of the story. Also, romance. It will be an Izuku x Nejire endgame, but other relationships will be teased. I want to sort of lean into the Batman noir vibes and have a few women in Izuku's life pushing and pulling at him as he tries to do his hero work. A femme-fatale type vibe.
The fic will also not cover the final battle with Shigaraki and All For One that comes after this arc in the manga. It is ongoing and does not have a known conclusion. Whatever happens in canon, I will not cover it. Shiggy and AFO and most of the main villains will probably not appear at all, but they'll remain an offscreen menace that affects Izuku's mental state.