The hallways boiled with chaos, the raid having taken the whole organization by surprise. Swearing, crashes, and screams grew steadily louder and then the two undercover heroes found the fight. Twenty or so yakuza faced off against a team consisting of five police officers, the entire staff of Nighteye's agency, Eraserhead, Fat Gum, Suneater, Rocklock and Kesagiri Man.
Fossa found himself wrestling on the floor with a man who couldn't seem to understand that no, his Trigger was not working and yes, if he tried to get out of this lock he was going to dislocate his shoulder, and his elbow, and his wrist, and maybe some fingers, too. A police officer appeared and cuffed the man before the enemy could rip himself to pieces. "Thanks," Izuku nodded,
appreciating distinctly the advantages of taking part in an operation where everyone involved knew that Fossa and False Flag were heroes.
"Glad to help," the officer replied. The fighting ended abruptly, all enemy combatants detained.
"We need to move quickly," Nighteye said as more officers entered the foyer. "We have blocked off a number of potential exits from the underground maze, but I doubt we've found them all. Capturing Overhaul, his manager, and the Eight Bullets remains the priority. Fan out as planned. Watch for traps. Remember to place radio relays on the corners as you go or you will lose communications."
Fossa and Flag were not nearly as heavily armed or armored as the rest of the operatives, and as such joined one of the small teams of police officers searching rooms while the groups of heroes hurried ahead to apprehend the major threats. Nighteye was confident that all of the most powerful enemies were deeper in the twisting, stone maze. At least there was electric lighting; the musty labyrinth would have been eerie indeed in torchlight... or darkness. Hopefully the yakuza wouldn't have a chance to cut the power. If Izuku were one of the yakuza, that's what he would do.
Flag and Izuku led their group, turning the corners cautiously and surveying the situation. The first two hallways were uninteresting, just deserted storage closets and unoccupied dormitory-style bedrooms. How many people slept below ground in this place? Did anyone? These rooms all looked unused.
The third hallway they searched was heavily guarded. There were five yakuza members Fossa didn't recognize... and there was one of the Eight Bullets... the one whose quirk allowed him to steal things out of his opponents' hands, Setsuno. Izuku stepped back around the corner. "Watch your guns," he told the officers, "the thief is out there." The group nodded grimly. "We'll see what we can do about him. Come when we call." One of the officers relayed their location and situation to the other teams, but their group could handle this... just as soon as the Bullet was out of commission.
"Hey!" Flag called, running down the hallway. "Have you seen anyone--what's going on?" she demanded. Fossa followed, twisting his face into a mask of terrified confusion.
"Heroes," the Bullet rolled his eyes. "We had no idea they were onto us."
"Any chance you think we should just surrender?" Flag asked, feigning terror. This was Setsuno's chance to get out of this unscathed. Given his quirk, a definite "no" would be enough to justify a brutal ambush.
Setsuno rolled his eyes. "I'll fight to the last breath; I'll stab them with their own blades, shoot them with their own guns, but you shouldn't be here, you should--" He had allowed Flag to get close to him, far too close. Had he thought to use his quirk, Setsuno might have had a chance. Flag drew a combat knife from a side pocket and stabbed him in the thigh, burying the long blade to the hilt, kicking him backwards as she did so, and leaving the weapon in place. He would be utterly incapacitated by such a wound, but it wasn't mortal... provided he didn't pull the knife out.
Izuku winced, but he'd seen far worse things. If she'd killed the man outright, Fossa might have been shocked into a misstep. The student kicked out the knee of the largest of the remaining yakuza fighters and smacked the shortest of the lot in the ear with his elbow. Flag sent a third reeling with a well-placed kick. Just as Izuku was forced to dodge a spurt of boiling hot water, the enemy finally coming to their senses and attacking with quirks, the police officers joined the fray.
As he dodged another boiling jet, getting ready to exploit the quirk's recharge time and take this menace to the ground, Izuku caught sight of one of the remaining combatants drawing a gun and leveling it at him. Fossa dove for cover inside a partially opened doorway (oh look, another storage closet full of towels) just as two explosive cracks reverberated through the stone walls. It was unclear whether the yakuza's gun contained quirk erasing bullets or lethal steel ones. The officers had been forced to assume the latter and as Izuku peeked out into the hallway, plotting his return to the fray, he found the scuffle ending; the yakuza fighter who fired at Fossa had been shot dead.
It was a good shot, straight through the heart. Well, it would have been a good shot if instant death had been the intention... but it probably hadn't been. Shooting into melee was always difficult.
The blood flowering across the glassy-eyed man's chest was gruesome but even this was nothing compared to some of the things Fossa had seen. "You killed him," one of the enemy cried, the one who'd been trying to boil Fossa's face off. "You killed him! He was only here because Overhaul forced him to be! It's not fair." On the floor, the Bullet sobbed, hands weakly clutching at the knife in his leg.
"Don't mess with that," False Flag said as she cuffed him. "If you pull it out you'll bleed to death before I can do anything about it. Leave it be. You'll be seen to promptly."
There would be time to process that brutal violence and, perhaps, have sympathy later. For now, there was a search to complete.
Izuku kicked open a door and found himself... in a child's bedroom? Fanciful posters on the wall and a handful of stuffed animals suggested as much, although the rest of the décor was the sort one might find in a haunted mansion's nursery. He caught a frightened squeaking sound...
"Hello," the greenette greeted a little girl. "Are you alright?"
"Who are you?" A fluffy, white head appeared above a pile of blankets. There was one little horn poking through said head's hair.
"Fossa," Izuku replied. "I'm a hero, the sneaky kind. Would you come with me, please? There have been some people doing bad things here," whether or not they had been doing bad things to her remained to be seen... probably. Her every tentative movement screamed "abuse victim." "The heroes are going to make them stop doing bad things. Would you come with me so I can take you upstairs and we can find you some food and some help?" He stepped closer to better assess the situation and found that she was tiny, painfully thin, with bird bones.
"No," she whimpered, "no, he'll come for me. He'll hurt you."
"Who do you think is going to come hurt you, dear?" False Flag asked, having shifted into the form of a dainty woman with silvery, feathered wings.
"He will..." was all the child said.
"Well then, we'll just have to see to it that we outrun him. I can fly, you see," she shook out her wings, feathers rustling musically. "Have you ever seen him fly?" Whoever he was... Overhaul maybe? The little girl shook her head. "Well then, I don't see how he would be able to catch me. Can you tell me your name?"
"Eri," the little girl replied.
"How nice to meet you, Eri," Flag smiled. "Now then, let's get out of here so we're far away before he thinks to look for you." There was a clatter outside the doorway.
A scream. A roar of rage and someone demanding, "Eri! Eri you cursed little girl--" in a tone that Izuku's brain filed under "deranged, slasher movie villain."
False Flag snatched Eri without warning, bundling her up in a light comforter. The girl squeaked and flailed but didn't protest. "Take her and run," the undercover hero told Fossa before shifting into War Dog's form. "That's Chisaki, I'm sure of it. The other heroes will probably be here any second." Nighteye had been confident that his visions of the future would allow him to find Overhaul. "Hopefully this form will give bird brain a bit of a fright, enough to get you a head start."
Izuku darted out of the room, determined that Overhaul was not between him and the exit to the labyrinth, ignored the growing pool of blood at the opposite end of the hallway, and sprinted for freedom as quickly as he could, or rather as quickly as he could with a five year old tucked against his chest.
The floor beneath Izuku's feet began to undulate and the student threw himself to the side instinctively, barely managing to avoid impalement by an enormous spike of twisted stone. What an incredibly interesting quirk... how horrific when abused. Overhaul's roar of anger at Izuku's escape was interrupted by a strangled yelp and False Flag's rabid snarl.
There was a shout of pain, clearly Chisaki's, shortly followed by a triumphant growl. Chisaki howled, "you're gonna' get it now you no good fake!" What gave her away?
Izuku kept running. "There they are!" he heard Eraserhead shout in the distance. Good. The other heroes had found the fight. Flag would be fine after all.
The student didn't stop running despite the heroes' good fortune. He readjusted Eri in his arms, covering her completely with the blanket so she would not be immediately recognized. Fossa still looked like Aoki and rumors of his treachery had not spread, so he attracted little attention during his mad flight through the labyrinth. He twice passed yakuza members who were clearly looking for a fight, but their gazes glossed right over him. One of them called after him, some demand for information, and Izuku shouted back vague things about Overhaul being in a fight "on the other side of the building" and kept running. Fossa ran right out the front door, right out the main gate, and right into the shadow of Ryuukyuu's dragon wings. Wow, she was an impressive sight in person, each of her claws a sword.
It seemed the fighting outside was over already and heroes above ground were either guarding entrances to below ground or guarding captured yakuza. "Mi-Fossa?" Uraraka called for him. Izuku waved to her, panting as he took a seat on a patch of grass and freed Eri from her blanket cocoon. The little girl stared at the chaotic mess of heroes, villains, and yakuza in the street with wide, overwhelmed eyes. She seemed petrified.
Tsu hopped forward and waved hello to the little girl. "Hello. I'm Froppy," she introduced herself. "Could you tell me your name?"
"It's... Eri?" the little girl said, tilting her head inquisitively. Tsu had managed to set her at ease somehow.
"It's very nice to meet you Eri, kero. Do you like caramel?" "Um..." the little girl blinked.
"I have younger siblings who really like it, so I have a bit with me... just in case I run into someone who needs some cheering up. Would you like one?"
"I... I've never..."
"Well, kero, let's see if you like it. It's very sweet. If you don't like it, you can spit it out, alright?" Izuku watched in awe as Tsu coaxed the little girl out of her stupor and administered candy as if it were life saving medicine.
Five minutes later, Tsu and Eri were discussing the season finale of a children's show about quirked horses. EMT's inspected Eri's bandaged wrists while she was distracted. Fossa, warily watching for any sign of Overhaul approaching from below (or above) explained the situation to Ryuukyuu and then a police captain.
Dragon wings snapped out and the number ten pro roared for their attention. "Alright, they've got Overhaul and the last of the Eight Bullets," Ryuukyuu told them. Izuku added his voice to a chorus of cheers. Wow... Izuku had run from the fight with Overhaul more than ten minutes ago. The heroes had been fighting Overhaul for ten minutes ? That might seem like nothing but that was an insanely long fight . Hopefully nobody was dead... that was the kind of duration that made Izuku think someone was dead. Or, maybe they'd subdued Overhaul some time ago but chosen not to say anything until all of the heavy hitters were in custody?
Tsu and an EMT bundled Eri up and carried her into an ambulance. Eraserhead, appearing out of nowhere and looking no worse for the wear, joined them, whispering something to the EMTs who nodded grimly. What was that about?
Izuku stayed to await his mentor, listening to the post-battle rumors that spread like disease. Most of what he heard was gruesome... mad scientist dissection labs, huge amounts of blood in freezers... Eri's lethal quirk... a police officer carried out in a body bag.
Overhaul had torn the man to shreds. Chiba Sora was his name. As he waited for False Flag to join him, Fossa watched the EMTs carry what was left of Chiba away. There wasn't much Izuku could possibly have done about this. Overhaul wasn't the kind of opponent Fossa could face head on without heavy weaponry at his disposal--a single floor-spike attack had made that clear--and Chiba had likely been dead before Izuku and Flag even realized that Chisaki was out in that hallway. Regardless, the greenette's body felt heavy as lead, most of the extra weight seemingly concentrated in his chest. When False Flag finally rejoined him, walking with a distinct limp but otherwise unharmed, she had to drag him to his feet.
This should be nothing after bearing witness to so many other scenes of brutal violence, Hirano's fate chief among them... but this was a different kind of horrible. Chiba had been a good man and although Izuku hadn't hurt him, Izuku hadn't been able to help him either. Hirano... Izuku felt so much more keenly responsible but it didn't bite the same way because... face it, it was because the greenette truly believed Hirano was a monster who had it coming.
False Flag seemed to understand immediately what was wrong as she hustled Fossa towards a car. "It's not even tangentially your fault, you realize, not unless you're going to blame yourself for every death that ever happens to take place in your vicinity, and you can't do that, you really can't."
"I know," Izuku mumbled. "But still..."
"Yeah. It should hurt. He was somebody's kid," was the last she said of it. The yakuza member who died for shooting at Izuku had been somebody's kid, too, hadn't he? "Truthfully, this went unbelievably well. Chiba was our only fatality; there are quite a few injuries but most are mild. A number of yakuza were seriously injured, then there's the one that tried to kill you and paid for it, and two others who got shot dead when they tried to blow up some police officers, but overall... extremely low casualties all around, and a lot of that is because of us, you know."
The pair of spies settled in Flag's (untraceable rental) car. "Back to UA to rest or do you want to talk and debrief now?"
"Let's get that talk over with," Izuku sighed. It would be nice to never address any of this, but that wasn't an option and he'd rather not have that sword hanging over his head any longer than necessary.
Back at Flag's base of operations, the two sipped hot tea, nibbled on chocolate pastries, and went through a standard debrief, discussing what went right, what went wrong, what they should change for similar events in the future, and filling out paperwork. They didn't discuss Nemoto, though, and it clearly wasn't going in any reports. "I've been told that several members of the Eight Bullets as well as Mimic were seen shooting up with Trigger," the undercover pro finished, "and then acting very surprised when the drug didn't work. Priceless faces, the lot of them... Anyway, I don't like to imagine how much damage some of those bastards could have caused with that power boost.
You probably saved quite a few lives today through your foresight, excellent execution... and mysterious past."
Here it was. "We are talking about Nemoto then?"
"Oh hell yeah. We are absolutely talking about Nemoto."
"What do you want me to say?" Izuku spread his arms helplessly. "I... you know what I said and you know it must be true so..."
Flag sighed. "Fossa, look. When I agreed to take you in for work-study, I believed that I knew exactly what was going on with you, but it turns out you're a box of bizarre contradictions that I can't make heads or tails of, and your priceless answer to Nemoto that saved the operation implied pretty heavily that you don't know what's going on with you either. Look, I have a lot of experience with the weird crap that goes on in the underground and have contacts who have even more experience, people in Japan, in America, in Switzerland, in the Rebel Isles, in Isomorph." Oh really? That was... interesting. "I can potentially help you figure it out or help you with... whatever else is going on, but I can't do that if you don't trust me with even the most basic information." That was the same problem he ran into when talking to mental health professionals.
There were no verbal landmines, no obvious ones anyway. She had dropped all pretenses and asked him flat out. Could he bring himself to reply in kind? "Who are you, False Flag?" he asked her. "Who are you really? I..." don't know whether I can trust you. Maybe if I knew who you were...
Flag sighed. "I... am not particularly important. I am one of the busier undercover heroes in Japan. Once upon a time I was a villain by default, as are all those who find themselves born in the Rebel Isles. I was no one of particular importance there, either."
Could he actually believe that? She was impossible to read. He would never be able to tell whether she were lying, not in a million years. "Are you Switcher's child?" he asked her for what it was worth.
She blinked at him, cocking her head. "Perhaps..." she hummed.
Wait. What? He'd expected a flat denial regardless of the truth. In retrospect, why had he even bothered to ask that question? "What is that supposed to mean?"
Flag shrugged. "Leaving Black Forest for Japan is no simple trick. It takes money or influence or both." Heavily implied was that Switcher himself had arranged for her to make her way to Japan and become a hero. Did Flag mean she was literally Switcher's biological child or... adopted or... that could mean a million different things. And none of them made Izuku more inclined to trust her. She frowned, picking up on that.
"Well. I guess we're both going to finish this work-study confused, then. I do hope that, regardless of these complications," that was one word for them, "you have learned something."
"Oh yes," Izuku nodded. There was no doubt about that.
"You're welcome to come back next year... though if you really trust me so little I'm not sure why you would want to." She almost sounded hurt.
"There are... there can be different kinds of trust," Izuku replied carefully. He had never once doubted that False Flag would have his back during a mission. It had never crossed his mind.
"Hm. Too true, that. Regardless... keep my number. I'll be here when you decide it's time to talk. I
have no intention of informing anyone about our conversation with Nemoto. I probably should," she huffed, "because that was a hell of a disturbing thing to say and "Dorman" happens to be a name I'm very familiar with," Izuku gulped, "but it would be rather hypocritical of me to profile you over what may or may not be your family name given the kind of past life I have." She chuckled, then shook her head as if chastising herself for the laughter. "Whatever and whoever you may be, I believe that you have the best of intentions and the skills to back them up. You played those yakuza like fiddles and you did what needed to be done in that fight without hesitation, but only what needed to be done. You've got a shining future in this line of work."
As the pair drove back to UA and Izuku daydreamed about throwing himself into bed, he did venture one more question because, well, it didn't seem particularly risky and he really wanted to clear this up. "Is there any possibility that I might be related to you?"
False Flag blinked at him, startled. "I... suppose so? Why would you think that?"
Was she actually startled or was that an act? There didn't seem to be any reason for it to be an act... He couldn't be certain, but he was upwards of ninety-percent sure this emotion was genuine. It seemed that, not only did Flag not currently believe Izuku was related to her, she had never believed that.
"I..." should he lie? She would know. "I don't want to talk about it." He decided.
Flag sighed again. "I think you might actually be too paranoid for you own good, which is really saying something in our industry. Alright, Fossa. Here we are. UA. Don't be a stranger. Oh, Konno left this for you, here." She grinned at him nastily.
It was one of Kesagiri Man's head bags.
"Uh... Midoriya?" asked Kirishima, obviously concerned.
"Yes?" Izuku asked.
"Uh... why are you wearing a bag over your head?"
"It's preferable to the alternative," he replied. The alternative would be, of course, not wearing a bag over his head.
Ashido walked into the classroom and did a double take. The greenette felt her eyes upon him long after she took her seat.
Todoroki strolled into the room... and it was Izuku's turn to do a double take. Their chaotic classmate had dyed his hair blue. With pink frosted tips. He had also pierced his ears (and who knew what else underneath his shirt) and bought unicorn earrings. He looked totally bizarre. Presumably that was intentional. It seemed Izuku had inspired another wave of teenage rebellion. The way the blue haired teen cocked his head as he studied Izuku left little doubt that Todoroki would soon be experimenting with head bags of his own.
"Do I even want to know what your hair looks like under that, nerd?" Katsuki asked him as he sauntered to his seat.
"No," although it was more his face than his hair that would provoke questions.
"Fair enough."
"What in the world, Midoriya?" Iida asked him, likely shocked by the blatant dress code violation.
Izuku asked, "how did you know it was me?" perfectly deadpan.
"You're sitting in your seat, Midoriya," Mineta pointed out from across the room.
"I think he was joking, dude," Kaminari told the smallest member of 1-A.
"Were... you joking Midoriya?" Iida asked.
"I'll never tell," Izuku grinned behind his obscuring fabric. Uraraka began giggling and a few others joined in.
A semi-conscious Aizawa, who had likely been dealing with the fallout from the Hassaikai raid all night, stumbled in and began homeroom without so much as a glance at Izuku. He did glance at Todoroki, but his eyes didn't linger long.