"No," Mic said bluntly.
"It'll work though," Izuku said, doing his best to sound confident but not too eager. "I've considered the problem from every angle, and a small team of heroes with varied skillsets providing backup to a single-"
"We're not running a large-scale op during your internship," Mic said. "Forget about it."
"Think about the opportunity we have here," Izuku insisted, holding up a hand to forestall Mic's protests. "We know the Hero Killer's in Hosu because he's only taken one victim there and he's never taken less than four in one location, which means we have the chance to catch him before he moves on."
"Other heroes are working this case," Mic countered. "You're not the only one smart enough to work out that he'll be in Hosu for a while yet."
"I've been doing research," Izuku informed him quickly, "and based on previous victims he has a definite preference for targets who play into a specific gimmick. He seems to have a particular hatred for heroes who come across as polished and artificial, and a hero who leans heavily on a radio DJ persona is exactly the kind of-"
"The kind of thing that'll make me an ideal target, yes," Mic interrupted. "I'm not going to say you're wrong, because you aren't, but I have an intern right now. Being responsible for you means I can't go using myself as bait."
"So we'll use both of us as bait," Izuku said, "that can be your reason for-"
"Absolutely not," Mic cut him off sharply. "The day I use a fifteen year old, first year hero student as bait for a serial killer is the day I turn in both my licenses."
"It's not a bad idea Mic," Nighteye said from behind Izuku. Izuku's head whipped round to look at him, but before Nighteye could go on Mic was speaking again.
"Absolutely not!" he repeated, a little louder this time. "There is no possible excuse for-"
"The boy's reasoning is sound," Nighteye pressed. "He could-"
"Butt out!" Mic snapped, much louder now, and Izuku felt a slight pressure against his front, as though something was pushing him backwards. The conference room didn't have any windows, but if it did Izuku would bet they would have been rattling.
Izuku looked up at Nighteye, to see him looking taken aback. "I'm only trying to say that it would be a worthy experience for him to have. If you listen to what he's suggesting it would be perfectly safe-"
"And I suppose you would be directing the op, would you?" Mic said accusingly, arms folded over his chest. "You would be the one in control, choosing the heroes we worked with and telling Midoriya what to do?"
"I have experience with this kind of operation," Nighteye hedged.
"Take a hike!" Mic spat. "This is way too dangerous a mission for a first year, a kid with no distinct fighting style and very little training-"
"His notebooks-"
"- formal training, Nighteye!" Mic said harshly. "With a teacher! Who knows what they're doing!"
"I'm not about to tell you what to do with your student, Mic," Nighteye said, making Mic scoff loudly, "but don't dismiss the idea over a lack of faith in him."
"I have faith in him," Mic retorted. "I also have faith in the skill of teenagers to get into trouble."
"About that," Izuku piped up nervously.
Mic, Nighteye and even Toogata immediately turned to him. Izuku shrank in on himself, acutely aware of how this was going to sound. He knew that if he were going to bring this up he ought to have done it sooner, but better late than never, right?
"'Lil listener?" Mic prompted, voice much gentler than before.
"I'm worried about Iida," Izuku admitted carefully. "He's really close with his older brother, and Ingenium's injury hit him really hard. He hasn't been acting like himself since then, and, well . . ."
As Izuku spoke Mic was beginning to look more and more alarmed, and when Izuku trailed off he let the silence hang for only a moment before asking, "What happened? What don't I know?"
Izuku frowned. "I mean, you know he's interning in the same district where the attack happened," he pointed out.
"What!?" Mic shouted. Izuku flinched, the strange pressure of Mic's voice forcing him to take a step back, and Mic immediately looked mortified. He took a slow breath, then knelt down on the floor so he was eye to eye with Izuku.
"No, I didn't know," he said, with deliberate slowness. "Why didn't you tell someone you were worried?"
"I figured the teachers knew," Izuku said, looking at Toogata for support. Toogata just looked stunned. Izuku looked back at Mic. "I just thought . . . I just wanted to be sure, and . . ."
He trailed off, not sure what he wanted to say. He had assumed that the teachers had assessed the threat of Iida going off the rails and deemed it negligible, but Izuku knew that teachers often underestimated things like that. He'd only meant to pick up the slack, without stepping on any toes, but to admit that would be to call Mic and the other UA teachers' judgement into question. Mic was looking at him with eyes wide and concerned behind his orange shades, and Izuku's insides squirmed for having doubted him.
"Midoriya has a viable plan," Nighteye chimed in. "And it may be in this other student's best interest."
"It's too late to pull Iida out of his internship now," Mic sighed, bringing a hand to his temple and rubbing absently.
"And it wouldn't look good for UA if you did, if anyone were to look too closely," Nighteye added.
Mic sighed, closing his eyes as though to block out what was being said to him. Izuku had the urge to reach out and touch him, maybe even give him a hug, but he resisted.
"We have the chance to stop the Hero Killer, and help Iida while we do it," Izuku said instead. "We have everything we need. If we hesitate . . . we shouldn't hesitate."
Mic took a deep breath, then let it out in a great, silent gust. Then he opened his eyes and stood, with head high and shoulders back. He squared off against Nighteye, his face set and determined.
"You are not going to be involved in this operation any further than you need to be," he said firmly. "I am running the op, in conjunction with the agency in Hosu, and I am choosing the heroes that will be providing back-up."
"Are you certain you don't want me on site?" Nighteye questioned. "Foresight could be useful-"
"The Nighteye Agency will consult only," Mic said coldly, then turned to look down at Izuku with a hard expression. "And you, 'lil listener, are going to follow my instructions to the letter! You are going to stick by me, no more than five paces away, any time we are out in the open. As soon as I tell you to, you're going to run away, as fast and as far as you can, and let the adults handle the takedown, understand?"
"Yes sir!" Izuku nodded hurriedly.
Mic sighed, then worked the tips of his fingers under his shades to rub at his eyes. "I guess I'd better start making some calls."
As it happened Mic and Nighteye both made phone calls, Nighteye with considerably less urgency than Mic. On at least one of his calls Mic got very agitated at the person he was talking to and had to take several deep breaths before he could continue the conversation. This gave Izuku the decided impression that he himself was causing undue trouble, but as soon as Mic got off the phone he took another deep breath and then gave him a bright smile, which helped Izuku relax somewhat.
Izuku would have taken some of this time to talk strategy with Toogata, but Mic had vetoed the idea of bringing him along even though Izuku had suggested it. Mic seemed to be very angry at Nighteye, and distrustful of anything to do with him. Of course Mic had no way of knowing that Toogata had All Might's quirk, even though Izuku would have liked to tell him as this seemed the kind of thing the next Symbol of Peace should be involved in. Toogata was instead sent home, and even though Nighteye offered to let Izuku talk to some of his contacts Mic insisted Izuku stay by him.
"Don't worry Midoriya!" Toogata said brightly as he passed by on his way out the door. "Yamada- sensei is an experienced hero, I'm sure this will all go smoothly!"
Izuku didn't have quite that level of confidence, but he returned Toogata's encouraging smile anyway.
Eventually Mic announced that they were leaving for the agency in Hosu, and Nighteye waved off Bubble Girl to walk them out himself.
"I've contacted the agency in Hosu, as well as the police force for backup," Nighteye informed them as they walked. "I don't see why you couldn't have done that yourself-"
"That's the extent of what I needed you for," Mic said cuttingly. "I was arranging for our media presence, and contacting the heroes we'll need."
"How difficult can it be to leak information to a few news sources?" Nighteye said, eyes front. Izuku thought he might have been trying very hard not to look at Mic.
"We want this information out quickly and to specific places," Mic retorted. "Not that I would expect you to know how to corral the press."
Nighteye looked like he'd have liked to respond to that, but at that moment they reached the door and Mic took Izuku by the arm and whisked him outside.
Mic was quiet as they got in the car and left the Nighteye Agency, but once they had been on the road for a little while he switched off the radio.
"I didn't think your big debut would come this fast," Mic sighed, keeping his eyes on the road. "Unfortunately there's no keeping you out of it without letting you out of my sight, so you'll have to face the press with me."
"I'm sorry," Izuku said quietly.
"Don't be sorry," Mic warned, "be ready. We don't start teaching students how to maintain their public reputations until second year, so here's your crash course in talking to reporters."
Izuku sat up a little straighter.
"First off," Mic began, "let me do as much of the talking as possible. You flash that pretty smile of yours and keep quiet. Keep your sunglasses in place so they can't get too good a look at you, and be sure they get your good side. That's the side with the heart on your cheek in case you were wondering."
"Yes sir," Izuku agreed hurriedly.
"I'll field as many of the questions as I can," Mic went on, "but eventually they're going to start talking to you. Let me answer any technical questions, things that are facts, like how long we've known each other. Only answer if they ask something that's specifically about you, and only if it's something reasonable. You'll only need to answer a question or two, if any, so pick the least invasive and answer those."
"Any tips on what I should say?" Izuku asked.
"Be vague," Mic instructed. "Be humble. Be courteous. If making a statement about the future, say 'I hope' not 'I will.' Throw the question back to me if you can, and don't talk for too long. That's how they get you to say things you don't mean."
"Got it," Izuku said with a nod.
They spent the rest of the drive doing practice questions. Mic had a lot of suggestions for Izuku's tone, syntax and word choice, and by the time they were nearing Hosu Izuku felt like his speech
had become almost polished. He knew he had a long way to go on that front, but he at least felt like he could answer a question or two.
The sun was just starting to set when they arrived, and they were nearly a block away when Izuku spied the agency. It was easy to distinguish by the cluster of people in front of it, many of them with microphones and a number of them with large shoulder-mounted television cameras. Izuku was surprised to see how many of them there were; assuming each camera represented a different news source there had to be half a dozen there. There was a general flutter of activity as Mic parked behind the building, and when he and Izuku came around the front they were immediately swarmed.
"Present Mic!" called several people at once, and then the chorus devolved into everyone shouting a myriad of different questions at him.
"Hey there listeners!" Mic shot two finger guns at the gaggle of reporters. Not even bothering to head straight for the door, he put an arm around Izuku and steered him in front of the crowd. "We've got a few minutes if you've all got questions!"
"What are you doing in Hosu?" demanded one particularly eager young woman.
"Keeping these streets in tune!" Mic said immediately. "It's official hero business, but it all comes
down to making sure this killer sound reaches everyone, everywhere! Yeah!"
Mic put a little of his quirk behind the last word, shouting upward to the sky. The woman who'd asked the question, and a few of the other reporters, gave a little cry of excitement, all of them beaming like children at the display of Mic's power.
"How long will you be here?" asked a young man, flapping his hand at his accompanying cameraman as he did so.
"Until the song is over," Mic replied easily. "Not sure how long it'll take, but we'll be here 'til the very last beat!"
"Who's the kid?" asked a third reporter, looking interestedly from Mic to Izuku.
"This is Dekiru!" Mic said, grip tightening around Izuku and his other hand making a gesture of presentation. "He's my intern for the week, a little side project I've been working on."
Remembering his coaching, Izuku obediently tilted the side of his face with the heart on it to the cameras and smiled. A few reporters cooed appreciatively, and those with normal cameras instead of video cameras snapped picture after picture.
"How long have you been working with Present Mic?" called someone from deeper in the crowd, past all of the lights shining in Izuku's face, making it difficult to make them out.
Izuku kept his smile in place and said nothing, and after a second Mic answered for him.
"He's a UA first year, one of the superstars from the sports festival!" Mic said. "I will say I had my eye on him even before that though!"
"Dekiru!" called another reporter, this one nearer the front, a lady with long, sharp nails clutched around her microphone. "What's it like working with such a big name hero at your age?"
"Very rewarding!" Izuku replied easily. "It's been an amazing experience, and I'm learning a lot!"
They had talked about how to answer that exact question in the car. Izuku had originally said 'fun,' but Mic had warned him that might make it look like he wasn't taking it seriously, so they'd settled on 'rewarding' instead. There was another round of cooing from the reporters, and Izuku found himself feeling pleasantly light. His heart was pounding, but it felt less like getting cornered behind his old middle school and more like working out with Hitoshi. He smiled a little bigger, feeling like it was a little more genuine, and was rewarded when the sharp-nailed reporter beamed at him.
"Didn't you fight against Shouto Todoroki in the sports festival?" asked another reporter, an older man with hair just starting to go gray.
"And what a fight it was!" Mic laughed, answering for Izuku as per their agreement about factual statements.
"Dekiru," the same reporter went on, cutting off another woman to continue his line of questioning, "is it true you tricked your opponent into obscuring visibility to disguise the fact that you're quirkless?"
Izuku wasn't entirely sure how to respond to that, but thankfully Mic was quick to answer before he could think of a reply.
"We don't have time to talk strategy just now," he said, his tone perfectly casual, but with a tightness to his voice that Izuku recognized. "Any final questions-"
"This question is for Dekiru," the same man said, cutting Mic off mid-sentence. "Is it true that you, a quirkless student from the general education department, displaced a much more promising hero student with a powerful quirk?"
Ice flooded Izuku's veins. He struggled to keep his smile in place, but he knew his lips must be trembling. He wasn't even properly sure of what he was feeling. He might have been scared, or sad, or even angry, but he couldn't pin down the emotion just now. He had no earthly idea how to answer.
Then Mic's hand tightened on Izuku's arm, and Mic's voice came from somewhere above him.
"I think that question shows a considerable amount of bias," Mic said, low and dangerous, and when Izuku looked up at him he could see that Mic wasn't smiling anymore. "In fact, I think such a leading question steeped in such obvious prejudice says far more about your journalistic integrity than the quality of any answer you might get."
The man opened his mouth, then closed it again. Beside him his cameraman was openly gaping. The crowd of reporters all fell silent. Izuku felt a little like he was under the effects of Uraraka's zero gravity quirk.
Then, just as suddenly as it had vanished, Mic's smile was back. "Looks like we're out of time for today listeners!" he said jovially, placing both hands on Izuku's shoulders and turning him toward the door of the agency. "Make sure to tune in again for-"
"One more question!" called a young woman, forcing her way through to the front of the crowd.
Izuku looked at the woman, attention caught by the earnestness in her voice. She hadn't asked a question yet, and from what Izuku could tell she didn't have a cameraman with her, just a microphone and a little recording device clipped to her belt. She was younger than most of the others, and her eyes were twin voids in her face, deep dark pools of inky blackness that almost seemed to suck in the light around them. Not a very powerful quirk. Not a great look for a reporter.
Izuku turned back to her, just a fraction, but she smiled gratefully. "Dekiru," she said slowly. "What do you hope to accomplish in Hosu?"
It was an open-ended question, the kind meant to get him talking longer than he otherwise would have. It was designed to make him ramble, and clarify, and possibly say something newsworthy. It was also asked directly of him, and personal enough that he couldn't easily throw it to Mic. He felt Mic's grip on his shoulders tighten still further, both protective and restrictive, signaling him not to answer.
Still, Izuku didn't think he could ignore a request made so sincerely.
"I hope to save someone," Izuku said, despite the warning. "Not just their life, but their heart." He turned his head slightly, displaying the heart on his cheek, and gave her a smile.
Immediately all the other reporters sent up another clamor, all of them asking questions at once so that he couldn't make out what any of them were saying. The girl with the black eyes, however, was silent, and she nodded in quiet gratitude to Izuku.
"Well that's officially all we have time for listeners!" Mic turned Izuku sharply by his shoulders until his back was to the crowd and he was facing the door. "We gotta get rockin' and rollin', so see ya later!"
With that Mic swept Izuku through the front door and into the agency building. As soon as they were inside Mic spun and shut the door firmly behind them, cutting off the continued voices of the reporters and leaving the two of them in silence.
"Wow," said Izuku, staring straight ahead without taking in any details of the lobby.
"Yeah," Mic sighed. "Bit of a shuffled playlist for your first dance with the press, sorry about that. You did great though."
"Thanks for saving me," Izuku said, turning to face Mic. "I didn't know what to say when-"
"If that bastard isn't fired I'm taking SuperWeb off my contacts list," Mic fumed, throwing an angry glance over his shoulder at the solid front door. "What a wildly inappropriate thing to ask a first year!"
"I mean, that's the kind of thing you have to deal with, right?" Izuku pointed out.
"I do try to support ethical journalism when I can," Mic grumbled, then looked back at Izuku with a fond smile. "You really did do great though. You kept your cool, and that sweet little soundbite you gave that last girl was-" he made a circle of his thumb and pointer finger, then winked, "- music!"
"Told you you'd do great, Dekiru," said a familiar voice from behind Izuku.
Already beaming, Izuku whirled around to see Hitoshi pushing through a door that led deeper into the building. He was wearing a black, loosing fitting shirt and pants, not unlike Eraserhead's costume, and around his neck and shoulders was wound a capture scarf. Behind him came Aizawa, hands in his pockets and looking very, very tired.
"Hito-, I mean, Logical Ruse!" Izuku said happily, running to examine the scarf. "You got a capture weapon! Did Hatsume make it?"
"Nah, it's one of his," Hitoshi jerked his thumb at Aizawa. "Hatsume said she was making something else for me. You look cool."
"Thanks!" Izuku chirped. Then he unzipped his jacket partway, to show off the 'Cool Logo' written on the shirt. Hitoshi chuckled, hiding half his face in his scarf.
"Jeez Eraser, did you have to make the kid into a clone of yourself?" Mic asked from somewhere behind Izuku.
Aizawa merely looking pointedly from Mic, to Izuku, then back to Mic. Izuku looked up at Mic too, to see him meeting Aizawa's gaze with a pout.
"I think you both look like heroes," said another voice, and Izuku peered around Hitoshi and Aizawa to see Shouto and Iida coming through the door, followed by a hero in a blue suit with a finned helmet Izuku recognized as Manual, and woman in a green and white suit with a red scarf around her neck he recognized as Junebug.
"Shouto!" Izuku cried happily as his friends approached. "And Iida! It's great to see both of you!"
"And you," said Iida, smiling slightly. He had his helmet tucked under one arm, so Izuku could see his face, and how strained he looked. "Thank you for thinking of me when you were organizing this operation."
"I'm glad we'll all get to work together," Shouto said simply. Then he swept a glance over their gathering. "Is this all of us though? All the heroes that will be participating?"
"Yeah," Hitoshi agreed, looking around also. "It doesn't seem like this group's very big."
"It's the perfect team though!" Izuku said excitedly. "Manual and Junebug know these streets, including anywhere the Hero Killer could hide, and they won't arouse suspicion if anyone spots them! Manual's water manipulation quirk is ideal for long range combat in a city environment, and Junebug's agility quirk will let her engage safely in close quarters, particularly since we know our opponent uses bladed weapons! Eraserhead is an expert in stealth, and with him on the battlefield providing mid-range support we won't have to worry about the Hero Killer's quirk! And the four of us-"
"Will not be participating in the fight," Manual said sharply. He shot a meaningful look at Iida, who shrank under his gaze. Apparently he had gathered why Iida had chosen to intern here as well.
"As soon as we engage with the Hero Killer all the interns will run for one of the police checkpoints," Aizawa went on. "We're setting them up at even intervals along the route, your job will be to alert the authorities so they can arrest him."
"While we patrol, you're all just extra pairs of eyes," added Junebug, putting a hand on Shouto's shoulder, "and you report anything you see to your supervisor immediately."
"You stay together," Mic concludied, "and keep each other safe until we can come get you, ya dig?"
"Yes sir," Izuku said. Hitoshi and Shouto both nodded, and after a moment's hesitation Iida nodded as well.
Mic threw a look at the closed front door of the agency. "I give it an hour, maybe an hour and a half before it's all over Hosu that I'm here with an intern," he said gravely. "We'll set out for an evening in patrol in two hours. That should be plenty of time."
Izuku looked over at the other interns. Hitoshi and Shouto looked appropriately serious, but Iida's face was set in dour lines, and there was a touch of anger around his eyes. Whether that was at the Hero Killer for what he had done, or at all of them for interfering in Iida's revenge, Izuku didn't know. All he did know was that what was done was done, and this was the only way forward.
"We'll be ready," Izuku said, then deliberately caught Iida's eye. "And we'll get him." Grimly, Iida nodded.
Hizashi redid Izuku's hair while they waited to leave for patrol. He'd have liked to redo it at the Nighteye agency, before they'd had to face the press, but Hizashi hadn't wanted to stay there any longer than necessary.
He knew that Nighteye probably hadn't put Izuku up to this scheme. Certainly Nighteye hadn't done anything to make Izuku keep quiet about Tenya's plans for revenge. The blame for that was on him and the other teachers at UA, particularly the ones who had signed off on the internship. Still, he didn't like the effect Nighteye had on Izuku, how casual he made him about risking his own life. Asking an adult pro hero to be a lure for a serial killer was one thing, but volunteering himself to help bait the trap was quite another.
"You promise me you'll be careful," Hizashi said as he worked hair oil into Izuku's curls. "I promise," said Izuku, easy as piecrust and just as fragile.
Hizashi left the kids to chatting amongst themselves while he himself got ready. At least he thought he could trust Izuku to look out for Tenya, when the show started. Hizashi was a friend of the Iida family from his school days with Tenseii, he and his friends going over to their large house to help babysit the tiny Tenya, and he should have known better than to think any of them would take Tenseii's injury less that brutally. He ought to have been more vigilant. He ought to have been watching.
"Hizashi," said Shouta's voice, startling him as he examined his own reflection in the changing room mirror.
Hizashi turned, to see Shouta looking at him with his usual bored expression, hands in his pockets and half his face hidden in his capture scarf. The blank, half-concealed look was a disguise. Shouta was feeling insecure.
"What is it?" Hizashi asked tiredly. He didn't want to argue with his best friend right before a big mission. That was a bad time for arguing with friends.
"You're upset," Shouta said, voice flat, neither soothing nor judgemental, giving away nothing. "I am," Hizashi agreed, just as unreadably.
"It's irrational," Shouta said. What he meant was I don't like it. The required response was capitulation, an agreement that Hizashi's feelings were invalid.
Hizashi didn't particularly feel like speaking Shouta's language right now.
"You want to know something that's actually illogical?" Hizashi said sharply. "Treating children like tiny adults. They don't think the same way we do Shouta, you know that. You can't expect an inexperienced child to show the same restraint as an adult Pro. Not every adult Pro could show the
kind of restraint you expected from Tenya."
"I assumed Manual would see the danger and course correct," Shouta argued.
"Why bother assuming?" Hizashi demanded. "Why not just reject the internship selection? You had the power to stop this days ago, and now here we are about to go fishing for a criminal who's killed sixteen Pros with an even number of children to adults on our team!"
Shouta was quiet for a moment, then, "I wasn't thinking about-"
"-Tenya," Hizashi finished for him. "You were thinking about Shinsou. Just like I was thinking about Midoriya."
"I know you think of him as Izuku," Shouta said, mostly to say something. "Don't tell me you don't think of Shinsou as Hitoshi," Hizashi snapped. Silence. Hizashi sighed.
"We're a pair, aren't we?" he said, running a hand over his stiffly gelled hair and closing his eyes. "We were so busy thinking about the future and playing dress-up we forgot what we were supposed to be doing. We should be the students here."
"We were never the type to neglect our duty as heroes," Shouta reminded him. "Not even in school."
"Certainly not when there were three of us," Hizashi said bitterly.
Immediately he regretted it. He opened his eyes to find Shouta even deeper in his capture scarf than before, only his eyes peeking out over the folds of white fabric. He said nothing, and Hizashi didn't know what to say to take it back, and for a few moments silence reigned.
"It's almost time," was all Hizashi could think to say. "We should head out."
Shouta nodded mutely, then led the way out of the changing room and back to where their students were waiting for them.
They used the patrol route Iida had been accompanying Manual on to lay their trap. Mic and Izuku walked the route, going slow and stopping for as many photos and autographs as were requested by passersby. On the rooftops -- or one street over running parallel, in the case of Manual and Iida -- the others followed, keeping to the shadows and careful not to be seen. Police checkpoints were set up every four blocks, but unobtrusively, with plain-clothed officers and nondescript cars.
Izuku found himself actually surprised by how often he and Mic were stopped. Mic had chosen how to leak his information well, and everyone in Hosu seemed to know they were here. Even this late at night, plenty of citizens were out and about specifically hoping to run into them. Mic greeted all of them with impeccable charm, and Izuku found it easier and more enjoyable to be recognized the longer the patrol went on.
It would almost have been a relaxing experience, if it weren't for the earpieces.
"I've still got eyes on Dekiru," came Hitoshi's voice in Izuku's ear as he waved goodbye to a trio of young girls. "Not that I would want them anywhere else."
Izuku jolted a little, blushing despite himself and thankful for the mirrored shades that hid his eyes. The girls seemed to think this was their doing, as they all began to giggle behind their hands as they waved goodbye and moved off.
As soon as the patrol had gotten underway, Hitoshi and Shouto had started talking in Izuku's ear. They were mostly making fun of him, giving him weird compliments he knew were meant to be teasing, but it was making him feel all fluttery inside. It was hard to focus on the mission with them talking like that.
"You're supposed to be keeping an eye out for trouble," Izuku hissed once the two fans were out of earshot.
"No fair," Hitoshi teased. "You're the only thing I want to look at."
"The view is much better from this side of the street," Shouto chimed in, his usual flat tone of
voice belying the nature of his words. "I can see the heart on his cheek. It's very cute."
Izuku suddenly felt as though the eyeliner on his cheek had grown thick and heavy, and it tingled
strangely, making him blush.
Another fan, this one a young man with an undercut and denim jacket with clusters of spikes on the shoulders, ran up to Mic and began gushing about his radio show. Izuku took the opportunity of Mic's distraction to try and get himself under control.
Hitoshi and Shouto weren't helping.
"Switch me sides," Hitoshi demanded playfully.
"Not a chance," Shouto replied, and there was a note of teasing in his voice as well.
"You're so mean," Hitoshi pouted. "I wanna see Dekiru's cute face too."
"You two!" Izuku squeaked, then immediately had to smile as the fan turned to him.
"You're awesome too, little dude!" he said loudly.
"Your hair looks soft," Shouto whispered in his ear.
"Thanks!" Izuku said, injecting as much cheer into his voice as he could to hide his growing frustration.
"I should have touched the floof before we left," Hitoshi moaned as the fan gave them a double thumbs up and continued down the street in the opposite direction. "Now it's all I can think about."
"Class Rep!" Izuku whined, barely loud enough that the earpiece could pick it up. "Make them stop!"
Iida didn't answer. Izuku supposed the earpiece must not have picked his voice up after all. "Quiet you two," said Junebug instead. "Focus on the mission."
Hitoshi and Shouto fell silent, and Izuku breathed a sigh of relief.
Not that his reprieve lasted very long.
"Your blush is cute," Hitoshi started up again after only a few minutes had gone by. "Focus!" repeated Junebug before Izuku could respond. "We can't afford to-" Junebug was cut off by the sound of a scream.
Izuku looked up ahead, to see that the once slow trickle of people down the street was growing thicker, with some people running and others at the back fighting to get through. Farther away he could see smoke rising from a point obscured by buildings. Suddenly an explosion to his right caught his attention, and he looked over to see another place -- closer by but still a few streets away -- that was giving off smoke and sparks like there was a fire. An inhuman screech pulled his attention left, to see a large flying . . . something circling a point several blocks over.
"Manual!" Mic shouted, one hand to his earpiece. "You take the closest place where there's fire!" "Right!" came Manual's voice.
"Junebug, see what you can do to help out at that hotspot up ahead!"
"Got it!" Junebug replied. "Shouto, come on!"
"Eraser," Mic finished, "help me take on that flying thing!"
"Way ahead of-" Aizawa's reply was cut off when his earpiece went out of range. "Come on," Mic said, turning to Izuku, "this-"
He paused. For a second Izuku waited, but Mic didn't move or speak. He held himself strangely stiff, as though frozen with indecision. Izuku thought Mic might not have even been looking at him, but rather somewhere over his shoulder. He was between Izuku and the street, and they were standing at the mouth of an alley, so Izuku made to turn around and look.
"Dekiru!" said Mic suddenly, making Izuku turn back to him before he could see anything. "Go help Junebug!"
"What?" Izuku blinked. "But-"
"Now!" said Mic sharply, and without letting himself think any more Izuku began to run.
It wasn't until he was nearly half a block away that he remembered his roller skates. He tapped his heels together, cursing the lost time, and began skating as fast as he could down the street. He didn't have a lot of experience with in-line skates, but whatever was propelling him forward also seemed to be helping keep him stable, because he didn't even wobble as he shot down the street. They were in the back streets of Hosu, so even with the people running to get away from the fight, there weren't many for him to dodge around.
Then he heard the supersonic scream.
It was unmistakably Mic, his quirk enhanced cry of "Stop!" reverberating through Izuku's bones. He turned his feet sideways and skidding to a halt, turning to look back the way he had come. He couldn't understand why Mic was using his quirk, they were nowhere near any of the disaster sites and there had been no enemy nearby. Unless . . .
"Manual!" Izuku cried, one hand to his earpiece to shelter it from the noise of the street. "Junebug! Eraserhead!"
He was met with only static. They were already out of range.
Izuku took off down the street, in the opposite direction from the one Mic had told him to go. His heart was pounding in his chest, his blood cold and skin prickling with panic. His mind was racing ahead of him, adding up the facts that came to a conclusion that was as terrifying as it was inescapable.
Mic had sent Izuku away because he had seen something in that alley. Stain, the Hero Killer, had found his target.
And Mic was going to face him alone.