Unit Beta was first. Neito and Hitoshi took turns singing Crazy Train on the walk over, much to Chizato's delight.
"I didn't know if you'd be able to pull it off, let alone so quickly," Neito admitted as they neared the doors, eyes taking in the familiar view of the courtyard.
"It helps that you're Pro Heroes and that everyone just saw you on the news. I think they tried to spin it as you guys absolutely losing it when Denki was taken by—" Chizato cut himself off, glancing nervously at the soulmates.
"You can say it," Hitoshi said. "Denki is a strong hero. It's not his first time being taken by villains, and we know it's probably not going to be his last, either."
"You seem so sure," Chizato said idly, scanning his badge at the entrance to Unit Beta to unlock the doors.
"We are," Hitoshi said. "We've had a lot of practice. Denki always finds his way back to us."
"Well, once you're in our hands, the Commission has no say over your treatment. If we decide that it's best for you to talk to as many patients as possible, then that's what's going to happen," Chizato explained.
"How does the Commission feel about that?" Neito asked warily.
"They don't know," Chizato said. "Your treatment is none of their business. Not that they won't ask, I'm sure."
Even in the loungewear that they were ripped out of their apartment in, some of the kids on the unit recognized them right away, flocking to them. Those that didn't recognize them out of their costumes recognized their hero aliases shouted by their fellow patients gathering around them in the hallway.
"They will know, though," Neito said as they left Unit Beta and headed toward Unit Echo. "They cornered Denki before we graduated and used information from records here to try to coerce him to signing on with them."
Chizato looked stricken. "We've had some data breeches. No matter how many times we update our firewalls and security systems, it still seems to happen at least every few years, if not more. I've tried bringing this issue up, but even though I'm sort of climbing the ranks, I don't have anything to do with the technology side of things. I'm still just a peon on the units, you know? It sucks that the Commission would stoop so low as to use such a thing against a hero, but at least it wasn't a villain."
Hitoshi and Neito glanced at each other, and Chizato groaned.
"I'm so sorry. I'll bring it up again. There's really no excuse. The lack of security is putting lives in danger. We've had so many heroes come through here before they made it big. It would be so easy to…"
"Everything turned out fine for us, even considering the data breech," Neito said. "Sometimes it happens. We can roll with it—it's whatever. Obviously, or we wouldn't be parading around the units when there's no guarantee that someone isn't going to tell anyone else that we were here, right? But not everyone is us."
Chizato nodded thoughtfully as he scanned his badge at Unit Echo. "I'll bring this up to the higher ups again. Show that there is some real danger in the neglect that we've shown toward the issue thus far."
"Look into quirk-supported technology guarding," Hitoshi supplied helpfully, crossing the threshold into Unit Echo. "It adds a more protective layer than anything just coding can accomplish."
"I'll have to look into that. Do you—"
"Toshi?" a surprised voice asked from down the hallway as they passed the desk.
The three men turned to see a girl standing in the doorway of one of the rooms halfway down the hallway. She had long, black hair and crimson eyes. Her baggy clothes hung off of her as she rubbed at her eyes with one of her hands, pushing her bangs out of her face in the process to try to see if her eyes were playing tricks on her.
"Tohiro?" Hitoshi asked, taking a step forward.
When the girl brightened at the name, both Neito and Hitoshi rushed forward to meet her halfway. None of the technicians bothered to scold any of them for running, just opting to watch as they collapsed together in a laughing pile in the middle of the hallway.
"Have you come to bust me out of this hellhole?" she asked, flopping onto the floor to glare up at the fluorescent lights on the ceiling.
"If we did, this wouldn't be very covert of us," Neito sassed, rubbing at her hair and messing it up.
She stuck out her tongue at him and scrunched up her face, but it quickly dissolved into a smile.
"We're patients, here, actually," Hitoshi informed. "We're just getting the premium treatment and a tour."
"Hero perks?" Tohiro guessed.
"Hero perks," Hitoshi and Neito confirmed.
Other patients had gathered around them, initially peeking their heads out of their rooms and the group room to see what the commotion was, and then hesitantly sneaking closer when they started to recognize the two new strangers on the unit.
When the group therapist came in an announced it was time for group, the teenagers were about to protest, but Hitoshi and Neito hoisted themselves up, pulling Tohiro up with them, and booked it to the group room to take their spots on the floor. The teenagers found it awfully suspicious that they knew exactly what to do, and they didn't seem to be leaving just yet, so in the silent way that only teenagers could seem to communicate with each other despite only knowing each other for a few days for some of them, they all agreed to just play along.
"As always, we'll start with names, ages, quirks, why you're here if you're comfortable with that, and a fun fact," the therapist said with a soft smile, looking around the circle, eyes pausing on new faces before stopping to gape at Neito.
"Neito?"
"Yes!" he said. "I'd love to go first! Thanks for remembering that about me!" Neito shot the shocked therapist a disarming smile. "I'm Neito, also known as Pro Hero Phantom Thief. I'm 18, and I know what you're thinking! I shouldn't be on this unit, and I'm not! Just visiting from Unit Delta! Promise! My quirk is called Copy. A fun fact about me is that my boyfriend recently escaped Tartarus and then was taken by the League of Villains on live television, and instead of offering support, the Hero Public Safety Commission decided to throw my soulmate and myself in a mental hospital because they couldn't find anything to hold us on criminally." Before anyone could respond, he elbowed Hitoshi, "your turn, babe."
Hitoshi laughed. "I'm Hitoshi, also known as Pro Hero Mindjack. It's okay if you haven't heard of me because I'm an underground hero. You might have seen me on the news recently, though, because of said boyfriend breaking out of Tartarus! I'm 18, and my quirk is called Brainwashing. A fun fact about me is that I'm Neito's soulmate, and this is not my first time being a patient in Fields Mental Hospital, but it is my first time on Unit Echo! I'm a native to Unit Beta, actually. I think Neito covered the 'why I'm here' part pretty well."
Before anyone could follow up with any questions, Tohiro rushed to start her own introductions. "I'm Tohiro. I'm 15, and my quirk is called Blood Diagnostics. I'm here for mandatory quirk analysis. While everyone else usually does this at school, because my quirk is a blood quirk, everyone felt more comfortable having a more controlled setting to test my quirk," she explained. "Except me," she muttered under her breath, her shoulders dropping as she sulked. "A fun fact about me is that I'm Hitoshi's favorite foster sister." When the boy next to her opened his mouth to ask a question, she said, "wow! Thanks for volunteering to go next, Igisa! I really appreciate it!"
To give Igisa credit, he rolled his eyes but started his introduction.
Group therapy seemed to drag on for the kids, but once it was over, Hitoshi and Neito were swarmed.
"You were really a patient here before?" someone asked.
"We both were," Neito answered. "I was bounced around all of the units—Children's, Beta, and Echo. Hitoshi was just on Beta, though. Now I get to add Delta to my list. I wonder if I get into a fight if they'll transfer us to Unit Charlie…"
Hitoshi laughed. "Trying to cross every unit off your list? I don't think there's a prize for that or anything."
Neito shrugged. "You never know!"
"I'll fight you," Hitoshi offered. "Then we can find out."
"I don't think they would separate us after we spooked the officer at HPSC headquarters," Neito said with a sad shake of his head, shooting down Hitoshi's idea.
"Wait! Hold on!" the boy from earlier, Igisa, demanded before Hitoshi could offer another idea. "What did Tohiro mean, that she is your favorite foster sister?"
Because to a teenager, that was way more important of a detail than anything about the Hero Public Safety Commission. Those details could wait. A Pro Hero raising up from the dregs of foster care? They had to know!
"She's my only foster sister… and only kind of," Hitoshi said after a second of thought, making Tohiro roll her eyes.
"My foster parents are Hitoshi's old foster family before he was adopted. He still visits all the time with his boyfriends, so I think that counts as him being my foster brother still," Tohiro debated.
"You were in foster care?" Igisa asked, eyes wide. "And you both were patients here? For what? Quirk analysis?"
"Hitoshi was, but I was a frequent flyer," Neito said. "That's why all of the long-term staff recognize me."
"And you still ended up becoming Pro Heroes?" he whispered hesitantly, as if a little afraid to hear the answer.
Hitoshi and Neito smiled at him. This was exactly why they wanted to do this. Even if no one was shouting in these kids' faces that they couldn't do certain things because this was now part of their past, they might still be thinking it. They could tell them otherwise, they could show them otherwise, they could prove them otherwise.
"Where's Denki?" Tohiro asked. "Too scared to tussle with the crazy teenagers on Echo?"
"Weren't you listening?" Neito sassed, rolling his eyes dramatically. "We just said that our boyfriend was taken on live television by the League of Villains during introductions."
"Denki?" Tohiro asked.
"Yes," Neito and Hitoshi confirmed with a nod.
"The blond boyfriend?" Tohiro asked.
They nodded again.
"The electric, sparky one?"
They nodded.
"The one that you're absolutely in love with?"
"Yes—no!" Hitoshi corrected quickly. "Our other blond, sparky boyfriend who we are absolutely in love with," Hitoshi sassed, voice laced with heavy sarcasm, knowing that is Tohiro's main language.
"And you're not freaking out?" Igisa asked, butting into the back-and-forth.
"Why would they be?" Tohiro asked nonchalantly with a wave of her hand. "Denki can literally turn into lightning. I don't think a few villains are going to be able to hurt him."
"Lightning…" Igisa whispered to himself, eyes widening as he spaced out, getting lost in thought at the possibilities.
"Seriously, though. Are you two okay?" Tohiro asked.
"We're fine," Hitoshi reassured.
Tohiro took that at face value and nodded, giving him a smile as she sighed in relief. If brother Toshi was sure that it would work out, then it had to, Tohiro had come to learn. He was never wrong.
"Your quirk is Brainwashing?" Igisa asked Hitoshi but didn't wait for him to answer. "Mine is called Prompt. I can tell people what to do, and if they accept it, they have to complete the task. I thought it was kind of useless at first, but it's actually kind of dangerous. It scares people because I could tell them to go for a swim in the river, and they would accept thinking it's harmless, only for them to find themselves drowning in white water rapids. People stopped accepting my prompts unless I'm super specific… and even then…"
"People were always afraid of mine, too," Hitoshi said.
Igisa breathed out shakily and offered a wobbly smile. "I'd love to experience it someday."
"Seriously?" Hitoshi asked, and then smiled. "Why not today?"
Igisa furrowed his brow in confusion. "Because they drug everyone with quirk suppressants?"
"Not us," Neito declared proudly. "They wouldn't dare come at us like that!"
Hitoshi shook his head. "Don't let him fool you; the drugs don't work on Neito." Neito shoved Hitoshi's shoulder for not letting him have his moment. "But yeah, they didn't even try this time. The League took Denki, and they are being cautious about keeping us ready in case the League want the full set."
A few of the closer teenagers who overheard gathered closer, one asking hesitantly, "the League is coming here?"
"No," Hitoshi said, shaking his head, cursing himself in his head for worrying the teenagers, then cursing himself for worrying about worrying them when he knew they were not fragile and that they could handle it.
"It's just a precaution," Neito said. "It would look really bad if anything happened, even if it was something like a natural disaster. Could you imagine? Two Pro Heroes, drugged up to their eyeballs and unable to assist because the Hero Public Safety Commission wanted them out of the way for three days? Fields is really doing them a favor, here."
Hitoshi shot Neito a grateful look for taking over while he gathered his thoughts and took a breath. Neito returned his glance with a look of his own that dismissed it altogether, because what were soulmates for?
Igisa hummed, and Neito looked down at his hands, a smile growing rapidly over his face, making everyone nervous. Well, everyone except for Hitoshi and Tohiro, who were used to his I-have-an-idea face.
"Hey, Igisa," Neito sang, a terrifying spark in his eye as he held out his hand toward him. "How would you like to experience how your own quirk feels? Huh?"
When Chizato came to retrieve the two Pro Heroes, he thought it would be fine. Maybe he would have to wrestle the teenagers off of them; he snorted at that idea. Him, rescuing the heroes from a group of teenagers.
When he heard a bunch of screaming and wailing coming from the group room, his heart dropped into his stomach and he ran forward, his hand already fumbling with the walkie talkie clipped to the waistband of his scrub pants to get help. But if it was the League of Villains, he didn't know who he was going to call for backup.
The only technician that was half suitable was on the overnight shift, and wouldn't be in for quite a while, yet, and while he did have a half-decent strength quirk, he was too terrified to join in the restraints of the feral five-year-olds, let alone go toe-to-toe with actual villains.
Chizato froze in the doorway to the group room, radio poised at his mouth, ready to deliver the message across for help to be sent to Unit Echo. His finger didn't press down to activate the connection, though, as he stood there, frozen in wonderment.
The teenagers were spread throughout the room. All of them? Chizato did a quick count. Yeah, all of them. Even the ones who normally couldn't be bothered to leave their rooms, sulking until their parents came to get them, grumbling that it was all a waste of time.
There were no villains in sight.
The teenagers were all screaming and dancing, if you could even call most of it dancing. Tohiro was doing some form of retro disco dancing. Igisa was moonwalking, and it was actually pretty impressive. The quiet kid who never came out of her room was doing the worm across the floor. When she hit the wall, she looked at it like it offended her before shrugging it off, turning around, and doing the worm in the opposite direction. The outgoing sporty guy was doing the worst impression of a robot that Chizato had ever seen, making loud "beep, boop" noises at random, at top volume. Three of the teenagers who had been fighting amongst each other two days earlier were playing limbo with an invisible stick while two more cheered them on, not seeming to have a favorite and just cheering loudly for whoever's turn it was to get low, low, low. Was the youngest boy doing the Gangnam Style dance? Oh, no. He just switched to Soulja Boy. And because there was no music, he decided to sing the lyrics aloud as he danced.
What a strange combination of chaos.
"What's going on here?" he asked as he made his way through toward the two heroes in the center of the room, who were looking on with bright smiles on their faces. He just knew they had something (everything) to do with this mess.
"Well, I'm using Prompt on three of them," Neito said.
"And I'm Brainwashing the rest," Hitoshi said.
"This is an abuse of power," Chizato deadpanned.
"We agree," Neito said. Chizato gaped before Neito continued. "It's so rude of the HPSC to just lock us in here for no reason."
Chizato sputtered as he gestured around the room. "Well, I'd say you're giving them reason."
"Are you calling us crazy?" Hitoshi asked with a creepy grin stretching across his face as he turned to look at Chizato.
"Yes," Chizato said without hesitation or any inflection in his voice.
After a pause, all three started to laugh.
"I totally thought you were going to brainwash me and lump me in with the rest of them!" Chizato howled, bending over with the force of his laughter.
"Oh, I could have! My voice was primed with quirk and ready, and you just answered!" Hitoshi spat between guffaws.
"Oh, no! Oh, no!" Neito wheezed. "Do one of these guys have a delirium quirk or something? Ha—I can't—I can't stop laughing!"
After the three men finally got control of themselves, wiping the tears from their eyes, Hitoshi and Neito both dropped their quirks at the same time, only to wind up laughing again as the teenagers started laughing at each other and themselves when they regained control of their bodies. Once everyone had started to calm down, someone would inevitably mimic something someone was doing, like a bad impression of a robot, and the howling laughter would start up again.
Out of breath from their laughing and their erratic dancing, they could only stare in abject horror when Neito crowed, "first one to fall out of plank position owes us thirty jumping jacks!"
When Neito and Hitoshi dropped to the floor to assume the position, competition shining in their eyes as they glared at each other in challenge, the others raced to follow their lead. Hitoshi and Neito's smiles turned into something different, then.
"Oh, this is going to be fun."
A/N: OCs in this chapter:
Chizato – Quirk not revealed, technician at Fields
Tohiro – Quirk: Blood Diagnostics – Patient on Unit Echo, current foster child of the Hamabi family (Hitoshi's foster family before he was adopted by Aizawa and Yamada)
Igisa – Quirk: Prompt – Patient on Unit Echo