Shuichi felt quite frustrated as he flopped down onto the mattress.
He'd only managed to stay outside of the apartment for half an hour before cracking and retreating home to the apartment, and here he was laying on the bed feeling pitiful about the whole thing.
Only being able to go out for half-hour to get things done was really starting to wear on him.
Sure a shopping trip wasn't that hard but doing the many odd jobs around the neighborhood? Near impossible.
Which meant money was getting tighter because he was only able to do one or two things before he felt like he needed to get the hell out of where he was and back home, and he couldn't take any of the longer and better paying jobs either.
And considering he was supposed to be helping to contribute to the house finances and barely making money to cover groceries Shuichi felt quite justified in his frustration with himself for his continuing agoraphobia.
Shuichi was actually close to asking Dabi to handcuff him to one of the tables at the bakery.
"Igu-Chan!" Kaori shouted before jumping onto his back, which wasn't the best feeling and he wheezed from the impact, because as small as Kaori was she still weighed more than a throw pillow.
Kaori buried her face in his hair giggling "Thank you for coming with me and playing with my friend Igu-Chan." Kaori told him hugging him from behind.
Shuichi smiled and brought a hand up to rub the girl's head "No problem Imouto-Chan." he replied letting the girl continue to nuzzle him and Kaori even started playing with his hair.
"I'm glad you're feeling better Igu-Chan, you're leaving the house everyday now! And not laying around in bed as much." Kaori exclaimed overjoyed by the simple fact.
Shuichi felt a pit form in his stomach hearing that. Kaori really must have been scared for him if him going outside at all was to be considered an accomplishment worthy of such praise, and he couldn't help cursing his biology for giving him the coping skills he had.
But Kaori was right that him going out as often as he was an improvement compared to before, he still needed to work his way up to leaving the house for more than once a day, or for longer than a half hour though.
"Hey Igu-Chan are you listening to me? Igu-Chan?" Kaori called waving a hand in front of his face and he blinked startled.
"Oh, no sorry Imouto-Chan I spaced out for a minute, what were you saying?" he asked and heard Kaori huff and knew she was likely pouting.
"Can I braid your hair Igu-Chan?" Kaori questioned still a little huffy.
Shuichi blinked at the request, Kaori had always played with his hair before whenever she could get her hands on it, likely because it was her favorite color (pink), but Kaori hadn't asked to do something like braid it before.
"Huh? What brought this on Imouto-Chan?" he asked tilting his head to the side to look at her over his shoulder.
Kaori didn't answer right away "I saw one of the people in your game, they have braids and you'd look pretty with braids too." Kaori told him and Shuichi immediately caught on to what she meant.
The MMO he played with CC and Miles was based on PQ fantasy and had a class of people called lizard-folk, one which he played and he gave his character in game had hair braids thanks to him messing around with the textures.
"Okay Imouto-Chan, do you even have any hair ties though?" Shuichi inquired and Kaori beamed at him, rapidly nodding her head.
"Aki-Chan got me a big bag of them a couple days ago, they're in my room, I'll go grab 'em!" she happily said before scrambling off of him and out of the room, probably to fetch said hair ties.
Shifting to fold his arms and lay his chin on them Shuichi's mind wandered away from his current problems and paused to consider how much he'd lucked out crossing paths with Kaori back then.
Seriously though what were his chances of running into a little girl that belonged to a reptilian family that illegally adopted him in all but name, gain two younger siblings that liked him, make money legally and get an education in a subject he liked?
He certainly didn't expect to be laying on a soft enough bed and have his hair taken care of back then, yet here he was with Kaori on his back once again running her brush through his hair and Shuichi was trying to stifle the grunts he wanted to make when she came across a knot.
Looking at himself in the mirror afterwards Shuichi had to admit that he pulled off a braided mohawk better than he thought he would. "See Igu-Chan, you look pretty with braids!" Kaori proclaimed and Shuichi chuffed, scooping the small girl up.
"Well, if I look pretty you're going to be gorgeous once I braid your hair." Shuichi teased while Kaori squirmed in his grip, probably because he had taken to tickling her as well.
The next day Shuichi was getting ready to go out, unsure where he'd be going today since he got groceries a couple of days ago and there weren't any quick fixes he'd be able to do, maybe he'd hang out for a bit with Dabi since Kaori had already left for the day.
A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts of what to do, Shuichi frowned and checked his phone to double check if someone was coming over, and he found a missed text from Ricki about the guy coming over.
Cursing himself for leaving his phone on silent Shuichi shook his head and headed over to the door as a louder knock came from the door.
Opening the door Shuichi saw it was Ricki there on the other side "Hey Iguchi, long time no see." Ricki greeted waving one of his hands "Nice dreads." he added after noticing Shuichi's braids.
Shuichi chuffed his hand going up to his hair to push some of it back "Thanks, Kaori insists on doing my hair every morning now, so I can look 'pretty'." Shuichi replied and Ricki scoffed mandibles tapping.
"Yeah, saw both of the girls jumping Kiku before I came over, so glad being a bug means no hair for me." Ricki said crossing one set of his arms as he rolled his eyes.
Then he leaned against the door frame and asked "You've finished that tech school and are looking for a job now right Iguchi?"
Shuichi blinked surprised at first than became somewhat bashful and crossed his arms avoiding the guy's gaze "Yep, bit difficult find one though with the um," Shuichi began to explain.
"Agoraphobia?" Ricki finished for him and Shuichi nodded shame flaring up that it was so obvious.
"You're in luck then Iguchi, cause I think I know one where the staying at home thing won't be a problem." Ricki told him with a lazy grin.
"Eh?" Shuichi mumbled caught off guard and more than a little confused.
Shuichi couldn't imagine many jobs in the South Side that would allow him to work from home, even when taking the illegal ones into account and finding work outside of the district would be nigh impossible.
"Come on I'll show you, it ain't that far from this place." Ricki insisted grabbing his wrist and began to drag Shuichi along with him.
Shuichi wasn't really able to protest and barely had the time to close the door behind him, his throat had closed up as soon as Ricki started pulling him along, stomach turning in knots from being taken from the safety of the apartment.
True to his word the walk to the collapsed warehouse was only ten minutes at which point Ricki guided him to a cellar down that was hidden away in the mess.
Oh, Shuichi was very much not liking any part of this and very much wanted to bolt straight back to his room, his body though was nothing but compliant in following along with Ricki as he guided him into the darkness down below the ruins.
They weren't in the dark for long as Ricki turned on a flashlight and led him on through the tunnels under ground to an elevator shaft that, looked fully functional?
Oh god this was so horror movie-like and Shuichi started trembling.
The last time he felt like this he nearly was murdered by a serial killer he followed into a similar situation and that fact left him quaking as he mentally panicked and quickly cataloged how long it would take for people to notice he was missing.
And by his calculations it was way too damn long.
"So, now that we won't be overheard, have you ever heard of the Herd?" Ricki asked after all but yanking him into the elevator and pressed a button.
Shuichi, startled from his doom spiral, snapped his head in Ricki's direction and his mouth fell open.
Who in the Mutant community hadn't heard of them?
The H.E.R.D. was world infamous for cyber group, one that remained anonymous even in the face of the quirk era with tech quirks that could out them existed and they hadn't been caught yet, the only info the public did have was that every member of the group had a mutation quirk and that was it.
"Thought you would being a tech-wiz and all," Ricki said with a chuckle "Well as it turns out, the Japanese branch of the Herd was based in the South Side, and they need some new blood, think you'd be game Iguchi?" Ricki asked cocking his head to the side.
"Wha- Why me?" Shuichi questioned incredulously, he wasn't exactly the first person to come to mind when he thought about someone to recruit to an elite hacking group.
"Yeah, your coding and software skills aren't the best, but we can work on that, you can however rebuild tech way better than anyone else I know, and we need a new mechanic." Ricki answered crossing his top pair of arms.
Shuichi opened his mouth to protest but the elevator opened up and he saw someone standing on the other side of the doors.
Said person was a foot taller than him, wore glasses and a suit, and had a Ram quirk if he was remembering horn shapes correctly, however the fact they were a towering stranger was super messing with his anxiety in the situation.
The person tilted their head and hummed "I believe this is the young man you mentioned to me Shark-bait, a new mechanic for us, yes?" they asked, their eyes going up and down Shuichi's form.
"Yep, this is the boss man himself, call him Dingo." Ricki replied motioning to the guy with horns with one of his secondary hands "Oh and you better get used to nicknames only down here, like Dingo here said I'm Shark-bait so only call me that down here." Ricki whispered in his ear.
"Come then little one, let us see how well you can rebuild machines." 'Dingo' said before turning around and walking deeper in the hall outside the elevator.
Shuichi's mouth opened and closed, unsure what to say in the face of all of this but Ricki just grabbed his wrist and tugged him to follow Dingo.
And as he was dragged through the halls lined with lights and all sorts of things that left him overwhelmed by everything he was seeing.
Only stopping when he was in a room with Ricki, Dingo, and three others puttering around the circular space.
"This hard-drive has stopped working, if you fix it we'll accept you as a member of the Herd." Dingo instructed handing over the presumably broken hard-drive before leaving with a sloth-quirked woman.
"I-I- What?" Shuichi sputtered but Ricki took him by the shoulder and pulled him over to a 'corner' of the room.
"Look I know this a lot but the Herd works for the Vespas, the rabbits that are always helping Deku-Sensei and they pay us handsomely, fix the drive and you're hired here. The stuff here usually only needs quick maintenance so you won't have to be here long and you'll be helping us help Deku-Sensei Iguchi." Ricki whispered in his ear.
Shuichi stilled at that "I can help Deku-Sensei?" he timidly asked back and Ricki rolled his eyes with a scoff.
"Duh, why the fuck do you think I joined them in the first place? The Vespas tap us whenever they need to get access to something high level for Deku-Sensei, city cameras to find people or databases the public can't access, you name it and we help them get into it for Deku-Sensei. If you work here Shuichi you will literally be paid to help Deku-Sensei, and your work won't keep you for long." Ricki explained to him.
Shuichi swallowed a lump in his throat, that was something that actually really enticing.
The idea of working for Deku-Sensei or helping him was something that he wanted to do, it was why he did so many odd jobs around the South Side since most of the places belonged to him.
"How much money?" Shuichi asked.
"Last time there was a slow month we still made ¥1 million each." Ricki answered and Shuichi stared at him shocked then stared down at the hard-drive, glancing back up to Ricki who just raised an eyebrow in return, silently asking 'well?'
Shuichi took a deep breath then began to work on the hard-drive, finding the problem and fixing it in a matter of minutes.
"Impressive." Dingo said surprising Shuichi since he didn't notice the man's return or to find him looking over Shuichi's shoulder.
"T-thanks." Shuichi muttered offering the hard-drive back to the man.
Dingo examined it for a moment then plugged it into a computer to check how it worked before smiling "Well would you look at that, working like a dream again, welcome to the Herd little one." Dingo warmly told him with a smile.
"Cool-lio, you're going to need a name then," Ricki exclaimed wrapping an arm around his shoulders and whispered "Nicknames have to be animal-related and not one connected to your quirk."
Shuichi mentally fumbled for a bit trying to think of one, he'd always used lizard-based ones for games so he had trouble of thinking of something.
"Orb-weaver?" Shuichi lamely suggested and everyone in the room nodded, Dingo offering his hand to Shuichi.
"I look forward to working with you Orb-weaver." the man said.