Midoriya waits quietly in the shadows as the duo slips into the room he'd just come out of. The
woman hangs back in the doorway as her partner moves towards the window.
"It's not a great view," he tells her, "But, I can see a bit of the first floor through the gate. It's not perfect, but it's something at the very least."
"I told you you're not useless."
The man glances back over his shoulder at the woman. "If I can't get any info then I'm afraid that the detective would disagree with you," he lets out a sigh before turning back towards the window. "Alright, I'm diving in, keep an eye out for anything nearby."
The detective? Are they police? And diving in? Is that part of his quirk? Izuku peeks out of the shadowed doorway as much as he dares. From here it looks like the man has his eyes closed, hands cupped around the ear facing the yakuza's base, though his 'ears' aren't so much ears as they are holes in the side of his head. He stays silent for only a few moments before he begins speaking in a low voice that, by the time it reaches Izuku's ear, has degraded into a hushed, wordless, hum, similar to what he'd heard coming from upstairs.
The woman stands just behind her partner, watching him for a moment before turning to look around at the room they were in, the room Midoriya had just been in. The woman, unlike her partner, is vigilant of their immediate surroundings, obviously keeping an eye out for any unsavory characters. Characters like the infamous Pied Piper hiding in the bathroom just across from them.
I need to get out of here.
The man sighs, drawing his partner's attention. "I think they're watching tv." He doesn't show any signs of pulling away from his position and Midoriya takes that as his sign to move while he still has the woman's attention.
But, the moment he makes to step out of the bathroom the floors creak beneath his weight.
The woman immediately whips around, pulling out a gun from a holster at her waist. She locks onto the vigilante's frozen form, gun trained on him.
That's definitely police issued.
"Identify yourself!"
Midoriya pauses, thrown off by the question. "You... want me to identify myself?" The woman's eyes narrow.
"Sorry, I'm just a little surprised. Police usually know who I am. Ah, I guess it's kinda dark in here though so maybe—."
The woman calls for her partner.
Midoriya's eyes focus themselves back on the gun the woman's holding. He slowly raises his gloved hands, his staff still clenched in one of them. The vigilante's gaze moves past the police officers, spying the house that they were all trying to get info on.
Eri's safety is more important than me getting caught.
"Don't shoot," the boy says quietly, "It could draw attention from across the street."
The woman glances hurriedly back at her partner, the man still has his eyes shut, hands cupped around his ear.
Can he not hear us? If he can't then now is my best chance. Getting into a fight right across from the base could end badly for more than just the three of us.
His eyes flicker towards the exit. He runs.
The woman whips back around at his sprint. She lets out a hiss, "I might get in trouble for this but..." Behind him the woman's hair rises, quirk activating before the whip like strands dart out at the vigilante. "I can't let you get away!"
They catch one of his ankles, pulling his leg out from under him and sending him to the floor. He barely manages to catch himself with his hands, his chin still slamming into the floorboards with the rest of his body. Though the impact isn't as bad as it could've been, it still leaves a jolt of pain coursing through him.
Midoriya lets out his own hiss as he looks back at his ankle, identifying the cause of his fall.
Her quirk.
She begins slowly reeling him back in, a stranded expression on her face as she drags him by his ankle.
The vigilante rolls over, swinging his staff with one hand and reaching for one of his escrima stick with the other. He manages to clip her in the side with the pipe, it's enough to make her wince, but not enough to make her let go.
He swings again, but this time she catches it, the scowl on her face informing him that she won't be letting go.
Beneath his mask a wavering smirk forms.
"...when I first looked at your vigilante gloves it seemed like the palms were coated in a type of synthetic rubber..."
He slams his electrified escrima into his staff, shaky grin pulling at his lips. His thumb is already jammed into the button to activate the weapon, the current traveling through his staff. The woman seizes up almost immediately, hand clenching down around the end of the pipe. Her legs give out and her hair loosens around his ankle as he scrambles up.
She not unconscious, just a little dazed, but the vibrations of her fall alerts her partner. Midoriya quickly slips the escrima stick back into his belt, before heading out the way he'd come, not daring to stick around and see the man's reaction.
"So you ran into the police?"
Midoriya studies his chin in the mirror, grimacing when he prods at the bruise blooming there. "Please don't," the vigilante whines through the phone, glancing down at where he'd propped the device up for their video call.
"Don't what?" Reo's voice crackles through the speaker. "Don't say that I was right?" Midoriya sends him a pleading look.
"I was right."
The vigilante groans, picking up the phone and quietly making his way out of the bathroom. On the other end of the phone his friend goes silent until Izuku reaches his bedroom, quietly shutting the door behind him.
"You've gotta give them time to do their job." "I did give them time."
"Give them more time," Reo begs, "Just the police do their job Midoriya, if only this once. Let them gather what they need and try not to get in their way."
Izuku flops back onto his bed, staring at the ceiling. It's a bitter pill for the fifteen year old to choke down, but it's one that he needs. Three days, he thinks, I'll give them three days before I move with or without them.
"I'll call Giran, see if he has any info on who's in the house."
" See ," Reo says, stressing the word, "That's what you should've done in the first place. Distant recon. Just do what you can, from a distance , and try to find some sense of normalcy again. You've been through a lot."
Midoriya releases a tired sigh.
"She's not the only one who needs saving right?"
The vigilante freezes, startled by the revelation.
"You forgot about that, didn't you."
Izuku's lips quirk upwards, a huffed breath of laughter escaping him. "You know I can be forgetful."
"I can't even remember what movie I watched this afternoon and you want to talk to be about being forgetful?" A laugh of mock outrage escapes the seventeen year old. "Now get some rest. I'm barely able to function in the morning and I sleep more than you."
"We sleep the about the same amount!" The younger boy exclaims, laughter seeping into his voice. "Yeah, yeah whatever you say. Just try telling that to your dark circles."
Reonhatoo reblogged TheOtherInsominac
Some of my favorite Pied Piper moments from the last few months!
[Gif 1: Pied Piper, smoothly delivering a kick to a villain's chin, immediately knocking them unconscious. The vigilante, feigning a deeper voice, says, "Fatality!" ]
[Gif 2: Piper, standing atop a building in the background, dabbing as a clueless hero signs autographs beneath him. Hushed laughter can be heard from the one filming as they zoom in on the vigilante. ]
[Gif 3: Pied Piper, sounding genuinely sincere as he answers the phone of a zip tied criminal. "Sorry, I'm afraid your friend is a little tied up right now. Can you try again later?" ]
[Gif 4: Pied Piper, preparing to fight a bank robber. The vigilante says, "I mean like, fuck capitalism, but also fuck you." ]
[Gif 5: A teenager filming, "Say something cool!" The vigilante, busy tying up a semi-conscious criminal, turns to stare directly at the kid filming him, he shrugs. "Uh... Plus ultra I guess?" ]
pansflute :
He's baaaaaaaaack~
#vigilantes #vigilante #pied piper #i missed him so much #i dont know who is filming this stuff but I love you for it
5,872 notes
Midoriya paces the length of his room, fingers tugging roughly at his shamrock curls. It'd been too long. He'd waited to take action, had done what Reo had asked.
But, he couldn't wait anymore. It's been a week since the vigilante had dropped his info off, three days since he'd said three days, and the house still stood silently. "I can't wait anymore," he murmurs quietly, pausing in his pacing to stare at the back wall of his closet now completely covered in information relating to Eri and Gizō Kogane. He'd tried to take his time, had tried to
wait. He'd called Giran, he'd tried to do the "distant recon" that Reo had suggested, but he'd gotten no new information and the authorities didn't seem any closer to saving her than they had been before he'd given them what information he'd had.
"I can't make her wait anymore. I have to move." The thought scared him, moving in alone scared him.
But, what else was he supposed to do? Every second longer that girl had to stay in that hell his guilt grew tenfold.
If only I'd saved her that first time. If only I'd been stronger, if only I'd tried harder.
He'd tried to have faith in the police, he'd tried to let them do their job like Reo had told him to. But, in spite of that he'd been preparing.
The vigilante sighes, pulling out his phone from Giran and dialing the man's new number. Midoriya waits only a moment before the villain answers. "Calling me at all hours of the day now are you?"
"Giran."
"You sound so serious, what's the matter?"
"I have a different kind of request for you," Izuku murmurs, gnawing at his lower lip.
"Oh?"
"I'm about to do something pretty reckless." The vigilante settles himself on the edge of his bed, springs creaking beneath his weight.
On the other end of the phone the broker says nothing, merely raising his brow as he leans back against a wall, overseeing the movement of a few items in the warehouse.
"Something that could get me killed." Midoriya's hands shake, grip on his phone tightening as his free hand clenches around the fabric of his pants. "If you don't hear from me within the next few days there's something that I'd like you to do for me."
"And you're trusting me to do this?"
"You're the only one I can tell who won't also try to stop me."
Midoriya takes longer than usual to get into his vigilante gear, mind roaring with indecision. He would go of course, but how would he do what he needed once he got there? Rushing in was an option, but it wasn't a very good one. The voice in his head that sounded like Reo's scolding him for even considering it.
Sneaking in and out would be the best option, any sort of confrontation could leave him dead faster than he could think to blink if he ran into the wrong person.
Fear like the sun burns hot in his chest, nearly blinding him to anything but the fear. But, beyond the heat-like haze he can see the wavering form of Eri in the distance.
" Is that even your name? " he calls out to her.
She doesn't respond, her image merely continuing to waver in the heat like a mirage.
He swallows his fear, swallows it for the sake of the little girl trapped in that house. His memories find her wrapped in bandages and crimson eyes blown wide with fear, with terror. And it's her terror, her fear, that lets him dispel his own.
He can't let her wait any longer.
Silently, he apologizes to his friend. I waited as long as I could.
There's no movement on the street the house is on, but it's not surprising to the vigilante considering how late it is. Your average person would have long since been asleep by now. There's no sign of anyone, but Midoriya still proceeds forward carefully. Approaching the house itself is definitely the scariest thing he'd willingly done since becoming a vigilante, but it's the first step to saving Eri.
He doesn't dare go through the front gate, instead making to scale the wall bordering the house. Once over he considers his options as he presses himself into the shadows.
Attempting to go in through the front door is completely out of the question, so Piper slips around the side of the house looking for another way in. Most of the windows he sees are either boarded over from the inside or couldn't be considered an entrance point without shattering the glass. There is a door on the back of the house, but the boy saves it for after he's checked all the windows.
At last he settles his hand on the knob, turning it.
I can't believe I'm doing this.
The knob turns easily beneath his hand.
It's unlocked?
The back door is surprisingly open, though any luck he may have had, and any hope that many have flared with this discovery, quickly fizzles out the moment he cracks the door open. Two sets of eyes stare back at him from what he assumes is the kitchen. The three blink at each other before Midoriya gently closes the door again, face draining of color as his hands tremble and his heart pounds in his chest.
Shit.
There's a few more seconds of calm before there's commotion on the other side of the door and the vigilante quickly shifts to the side, slipping a escrima stick from his belt for later use. The door swings inward a fraction and a head peaks out at him from the crack similarly to how the fifteen year old had done just moments before.
Midoriya smiles at the man sheepishly from behind his mask before jamming the escrima stick, crackling with electricity, through the small opening and into the man's abdomen.
I need to take them down as quickly and as quietly as possible.
The man seizes up, stumbling back as Midoriya pulls the escrima away before collapsing to the creaking wooden floor. The vigilante kicks the door open, his resolve hardening as he exposes the second man that charges towards the boy.
Izuku takes a step through the doorway, freeing up his attack range. His escrima stick is grasped in one hand, and the other holds his signature staff. Piper swings his left hand up, bringing with it the pipe. He sends it towards the man's head with a one-handed baseball bat like swing.
The use of the bo staff was an art, but this was survival. There were innocent lives depending on him.
The pipe catches the man in the side of the face, hitting just beneath his ear and slamming right into the bottom of his jaw. He lets out a grunt of pain before he too collapses to the ground.
Piper makes quick work of subduing the two, hogtying them with zip ties from one of the many pockets on his pants and stuffing rags from the kitchen sink into their mouths. He drags the two outside as quietly as he can. The first man he'd originally tased is back to being fully awake now, glaring at him menacingly. Midoriya's eyes narrow as he takes a step towards the restrained villain. Piper crouches down, balancing himself on the balls of his feet as he reaches for the rag jammed between the guy's jaws, prying it out.
"Where's the girl?" The vigilante asks coldly. "What girl?" the other spits.
"The white-haired girl, Eri."
He pauses for a moment, thinking. "Her?" the man sneers, "The little miss ain't here dumbass," a hint of sarcasm seeps in at the title of 'little miss'. "The boss man won't let her out of his sight after that last time."
Midoriya freezes beneath the weight of those words. She's not here? "If she's not here then where is she?" Piper hisses.
"Like I'd tell you dumbass."
The vigilante's pied eyes darken.
"I'd rather be in jail for not saying anything than be dead for being a snitch. That man kills like he's deciding what to eat."
Piper stiffens, his grip on his staff tightening. The night of his death had been blurred with terror, parts of it repressed just to keep him sane. But, those words that man had spoken refused to be forgotten.
" Don't lie to me, boy. I know who you are. "
" That man kills like he's deciding what to eat. "
Their fingertips brush against each other's and there's a moment where Midoriya simply stops existing.
The boy's chest clenches, heart shuttering, sun wavering, the black holes in his eyes threatening to flare back into existence. The voice in his head coils, winding up like a snake preparing to strike, but he slams down on it. Shuts it out, bars it from even attempting speech with its eldritch maw. Midoriya shuts it tight, tying its mouth shut with the same zip ties he used to subdue criminals. They don't prevent its sinister grin, but they keep its words from being spoken.
He can't afford to waver now. If Eri isn't here, and she's with their boss like he says then that means the boss isn't here either. And their boss...
" ...If you come looking for my things again, you'll find that any usefulness you may have once had will have run out. "
" ...my things..."
Was that him? The boss?
"Who's here then?" he asks the man, "You wouldn't stay in this house if there's nothing here."
"Read my lips," the man sneers, "Like. I'd. Tell. You. Dumbass ."
Piper breathes a frustrated sigh, shoving the dirtied rag back into the man's mouth. "Stay quiet then. I'll find out one way or another."
The vigilante leaves them just outside the door, hoping that no one would find the two, or worse, hoping that one wouldn't be able to escape before he's able to make it out. Zip ties weren't quirk proof, he'd known that from the beginning, that's why he usually tried to knock his opponents out or stood watch over them from a distance until police arrived. He couldn't do that now. He'd already tried to get the authorities to move against this place and for over a week he'd waited while they'd done nothing. Eri had waited while they'd done nothing.
This wasn't a situation where he could wait for help to arrive, he'd already asked them to come once, had warned Tsukauchi that he'd move with or without them.
He couldn't wait any longer, he couldn't let Eri wait any longer.
Yes, he'd been scared, he still was scared, scared of what being tired of waiting entailed.
Midoriya pushes himself up, using his staff to help pull him to his full height as he heads back towards the building, peeking into the kitchen to check for any new people that may have appeared.
It would be preferable if those two were to only enemies inside, but hoping so is an unreasonable wish.
That man could always be lying about Eri not being here. It'd be a reasonable tactic, a smart one even. Midoriya steadies himself. I'll need to check all the rooms myself to be certain, I can't just leave because a villain told me so.
"If she's really not here though," Izuku murmurs lowly, "This would be the best place to figure out where she really is." The vigilante creeps through the kitchen, keeping himself in a position that's easy to defend.
He can hear a tv droning from another room and when he peeks out the kitchen he can see someone passed out on an outdated couch he'd sooner see at Dagobah than in any home. Piper freezes in place, watching the gentle rise and fall of the woman's chest. There's a few empty beer bottles and instant ramen cups scattered around the room and some foreign film murmurs at its unconscious audience.
The figure, who he assumes is a woman, shows no sign of movement at his appears despite being in clear view of the couch and the vigilante can only pray that it stays that way as he creeps further into the house. The fifteen year old tip toes towards the hall on the other side of the room,
breathing a sigh of relief when he makes it to the other side.
There are three doors in the hall, the first of which is open, reveals only a bathroom lit by the tv's flickering glow. He creeps further forward, heart pounding as he glances back warily to check if the woman in the living room had moved.
His freezes at the next door, three locks glinting beneath the light of the tv, bolting the door shut. The vigilante glances at the next door down. There weren't any locks on that one. If they're keeping anyone here, it's in this room.
The boy sends a look over his shoulder at the living room one more time before he begins undoing all the locks before turning the knob slowly, its internal springs creaking.
Please have been lying. Please be here Eri. Please.
The first sliver of the room he can see comes up empty, nothing but barren walls. Then he catches the foot of a dirty mattress lying on the floor and something in his chest twists with hope.
She's here.
He hastily pushes the door the rest of the way open, pupils dilating in an attempt to see through the darkness.
The hope in his chest is quickly crushed when he sees that the figure sprawled silently on the bed is not that of a little girl, but that of an adult man.
His hands are locked together with quirk suppressant cuffs that the vigilante recognizes all too well. The TV's light dies out for a moment, hiding the man's form before it comes back full force.
His hair is longer, face more gaunt, skin more bruised. But, the vigilante had spent hours upon hours staring at this man's face. His missing poster is still taped to the back of the vigilante's closet like some ignored memo begging for acknowledgement, but Midoriya hadn't offered him any. He'd been so caught up in tracking down the Eri that he'd almost forgotten, had almost forgotten that of Gizō Kogane.