Chapter 15: Getting Away Again
Chapter Text
Present Mic rushed forward, catching Shimura before he hit the ground, "Shimura-kun!"
Mic reached up to Shimura's neck for a pulse. It was still there, a little weak, but steady. He laid Shimura down softly on the ground, momentarily leaving him be as he reached for the lone phone in the booth. He pulled the phone off the receiver, it already dialing the preset number. It didn't even get through a full ring before he heard another voice on the other end.
"Yamada-kun!" the voice answered, chipper as ever. "I hope the Sports Festival has been moving along smoothly!"
"Event-wise, it's going off without a hitch, which is rockin'!" Mic easily replied, "But we have a situation that requires some advisement, Principal."
Both off and on the job, it's very rare for Present Mic to take on such a serious tone. He much rather prefers to be upbeat and positive, as he's found that it generally helps people calm down after a harrowing event. Even rarer does he, or anyone really, use Nezu's hero name. The major shift in tone and grammar Present Mic employs when he's in one of his "moods" is enough to sober up even the most laidback of heroes.
"Acknowledged. Give me the situation, I'm pulling the footage now," the Principal replied, down to business immediately.
Present Mic nodded, knowing at this point the Principal is already watching through his multiple cameras trying to get a handle on the situation, "I returned from my lunch break and found the door to the announcer's booth open. Upon investigating I found Shimura-san in it. When I asked what was going on, he showed me a piece of paper that read 'Kagero Shigaraki says good luck to the finalists' that was signed by a kiss. He then relayed 'The League was here' to me before fainting.
"We have been infiltrated by at least one hostile, most likely female and aligned with the League of Villains. Should we cancel the Festival or proceed as planned?" Present Mic stayed crouched on the floor, hovering near Shimura as he awaited guidance.
"Proceed as planned," the Principal answered eventually, "If we move towards a Code Three and Red Alert, we'd be causing far more harm than good. We have a high volume of people within our grounds, if we raise the alarm, we'd be inducing chaos that doesn't and shouldn't happen."
"How should we proceed?"
"You said Shimura-san fainted? Find a replacement to cover for your absence and bring him to Recovery Girl. I assume he is our first contact?"
"It appears so, yes."
"Bring him to Recovery Girl for the time being. I'm going through the footage now. You said that you just came back from your lunch break, so I assume the League made themselves known within the past forty-five minutes at the minimum. Stay with Shimura-san until he wakes up."
"Yes, sir."
Present Mic hung up the phone and folded the note before placing it into one of his many jacket pockets. He crouched back down and scooped Shimura back into his arms, turning around to exit the room. On his way out, Eraserhead turned the corner, nursing a cup of coffee in one hand and the other in his pocket.
He came to an abrupt stop, taking in Shimura's unconscious form in Present Mic's arms, "Mic? What happened?"
"We've been infiltrated. The Principal instructed me to take Shimura-san to Recovery Girl and to find a substitute announcer," Present Mic tersely responded, he continued walking but stopped a few steps behind Eraserhead, "He also said to keep the Sports Festival going."
Without waiting for a response, Present Mic walked off. Eraserhead cursed before raising a hand to his ear, activating the comm link that was always present, "This is Aizawa. I need another teacher up in the announcer's box with me. We have a situation and Present Mic will apparently be unavailable for the near future."
He sat back down in his chair, taking a big sip of his coffee before he got a response.
"Ectoplasm," the comm crackled, "I'll send a clone to you."
"Copy."
Eraserhead slouched further into his chair as he waited for his new companion, grumbling the whole while about how 'nobody listens to him, 'why does Mic get to leave, this is literally what he does', and 'even though I can understand the logic behind it, why aren't we canceling this'. He dug into his pocket and pulled out a jelly packet, opening it with one hand, and quickly emptying the contents before tossing the container in the trash.
"I don't get enough respect around here."
The Principal was perplexed.
While not certain, as many things rarely are, he was confident that with the updates to security and increase in number of heroes and police walking the grounds, any potential threat could be dealt with quickly and decisively. He was aware that despite the precautions taken, there would always be a blind spot in the security, whether that be due to human or mechanical error. He was even aware that there were indeed convicted criminals walking amongst the crowds also enjoying the festivities.
At the push of a button, he could have all 357 criminals pinged and their exact whereabouts sent to the nearest hero or police officer that was spread throughout the grounds. He wouldn't do that, of course, because they have yet to commit any crimes, but he still had the ability to do so.
What he didn't have the ability to do, however, was find who the League sent, where they were slash are, when they made themselves known, and how they bypassed every camera and personnel. He shortly entertained the idea of the intruder being invisible like the expressive and mischievous Toru Hagakure, and toggled the camera views between infrared, ultra-violet, and x-ray vision, but found that to be a fruitless endeavor. The sheer amount of people present made it extremely difficult to discern one individual from another.
Kurogiri, the warp quirk user, was a thought as well, but he dismissed it just as quickly. They might not currently have a countermeasure for his portals, but they did against physical entities. Even if they chose to enter in a secluded part of the forest surrounding the grounds or in one of the more isolated gyms, the second the intruder set foot on the ground, a sensor would've triggered, and a staff member alerted. The response to the intruder might be delayed, but at that point, the intruder would have already been tagged and tracked.
He took a sip of his tea, sighing at the pleasant taste. As the Principal sat back in his chair, mulling over the problem, he found himself recalling the words of an author from long before the Age of Quirks came about.
"Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." He mused aloud, "You walked in right through the front gates, in plain view of everything."
With renewed vigor, he changed the scope of his search. Instead of looking for someone suspicious, he was now looking for someone that was normal. Someone that fit in a little too well. He thought back to Present Mic's rushed report. Present Mic said he came back from his lunch break and found Shimura in the announcer's booth, along with the note.
This brought a few instances on when and where he would be able to identify the intruder. The first was when they entered to leave the note. The second was when they came into contact with Shimura, whenever that happened.
Confirming the note should be easy enough.
He saw Present Mic and Shimura's actions in reverse and continued watching through. Once the room was empty again, two minutes before, the note suddenly appeared on the table. The Principal paused, rewound, and played it back again, twice as slow. The feed slowly made its way to when the note appeared, the Principal's eyes scanning everything down to the individual pixels to see any evidence of tampering. He poured over the short moment multiple times before seeing it.
The shadows made by the microphones were slightly longer than they should be after the note appeared.
The Principal's mouth formed a thin line. This does not bode well in the slightest.
Wanting to be thorough, he went through up to when Present Mic and Eraserhead exited the room. The display didn't change as he went further back. The only indication the feed wasn't frozen was the very minute movement of the shadows going east to west. He eventually made it back to the point when Present Mic and Eraserhead's backs entered the room. He rewound all the way to when lunch break started and nothing looked out of place.
He clicked his tongue in annoyance and moved on. There was nothing else he could gather for the note.
Moving on to Shimura's side of the story, the Principal retraced his path before making it to the booth through the cameras. Minutes before, he found when Shimura burst out of a storage room on the second floor of the stadium. Going back a little further, he found something interesting.
The Principal moved to a closer camera and watched the scene play out, "And who might you be?"
The camera quality was excellent, but much to the Principal's dismay, none of the cameras had a good shot of her face. He watched as Shimura get shoved into the room by a brown-haired girl. He quickly flicked through the cameras until he found the one inside the room, but again, the girl's face was hidden from view.
Moving back to the camera in the hallway, he fast forwarded to before Shimura ran out, trying and failing to find when the girl left the room. He stayed on the camera well after Shimura was gone. The feed didn't show the girl exit. Too focused on the door, the Principal missed the very subtle jump in the feed, a faint shadow receding into the top of the camera's frame.
Abandoning this path, he shifted to following the girl's tracks.
Attempting to follow the girl through the cameras proved difficult. There were multiple times when she was visible, but every time she came up, her face was somehow always obscured. Other times, he would lose her entirely, until he eventually found her in a completely different location. Eventually, he found the moment her ticket was scanned, and her face displayed in full view.
He froze the feed, bringing up her face so it was in full view on his screen. He ran the algorithm Power Loader created, letting his computer think before the results came back. The computer dinged, signaling it was finished. He took another sip of his tea before pausing.
"Well that doesn't make sense now, does it?"
The bell jingled as the door to the bar opened.
The occupants all turned their heads, curious to see who the new arrival was. A head peeked in the frame, mid-length brown hair framing her smiling face before the rest of her body followed. Dabi eyed the girl lazily while Kurogiri visibly tensed at the sudden entrance of the newcomer.
She walked up to the bar, arms swinging exaggeratedly before seating herself at the bar. Kurogiri recovered enough to compose himself as the bartender and host and provided her with a coaster, a glass of water followed a moment later. Dabi eyed her suspiciously, while Kagero sat in silence, his head tilted in clear thought.
The air became thick with suspense, to the point of it being near suffocating before she finally caved, "Is no one going to say welcome back!?"
At once, everything clicked for Kagero, "Ah, Toga. Sorry, we didn't recognize you." Dabi rolled his eyes and grumbled. Kurogiri relaxed minutely, still a little wary of her.
Toga pouted, puffing her cheeks out, "What do you mean you didn't recognize me? I'm-" She cut herself off, catching a glimpse in the mirror settled behind the glasses for the bar. "Oh, I'm not me."
Toga's disguise as Namba slowly turned to grey sludge. As it slowly fell off her frame, her blonde hair and messy twin buns became visible, golden, catlike eyes shone dimly.
The sludge kept falling to the floor, Kurogiri gave an audible sigh as he looked over the mess he'd have to clean. As more sludge fell from her body, everyone averted their eyes, realizing she wasn't wearing anything under.
"Jeez, Toga. Don't you have any shame?" Dabi whined, his head turned up and away from her. "Imagine if Mustard were still here."
Kurogiri produced a bath towel from behind the bar and handed it to Toga, who wrapped it around her, letting the remaining sludge either fall completely to the floor or get caught up in the towel.
"Simply fascinating. I wonder if the sludge is fresh enough, and we have enough of the material, we could synthesize a clone of the person Toga took blood from," Kagero muttered. Everyone turned to look at him, Kurogiri quickly realizing he probably watched the entire transformation happen, regardless of what was shown.
"Kagero Shigaraki," Kurogiri quickly admonished. "I understand your fascination for quirks, but there are limits to what you can do, even as a villain."
Kagero had enough sense to look slightly embarrassed, averting his eyes down to the floor, but only just, "Sorry."
Toga turned away from everyone, wrapping her arms around herself as she held the towel tighter, hiding her blush as she caught on to what Kurogiri was hinting at. Dabi watched as the bar lapsed into an awkward silence, smirking at the two's antics.
He was about to speak up, teasing the two before Kagero beat him to it, "So, Toga, seeing as you're back, I assume you were successful?"
Dabi gawked. He was hoping to drag on the awkwardness for as long as possible, always ready to sow what small seeds of mischief he could, but Kagero recovered way too quickly.
"Mhm," Toga softly replied, still not fully facing everyone, "Was able to deliver the message and then some."
"Oh?" Kagero responded, curiosity obviously piqued.
Toga nodded, her side profile now facing the group. She dug into her towel for something, causing Dabi to groan and turn away again. Kagero watched until he felt a thump on his head, he looked at Kurogiri who gave him a disapproving look. He huffed and turned away as well.
"I got this little sample from Shimura-chan," calling attention back to herself. She was holding a little vial of blood, containing barely enough to fill a pipette, "I looked for him as instructed, and was able to swipe some blood. He made it really easy too."
"It was the neck scratching thing right?" Kagero guessed, holding his hand out for the vial.
"Yep!" Toga replied, popping the "P" as she handed the vial over. Seemed like she was finally getting over her embarrassment, "When I cornered him, he started scratching his neck hard enough to bleed, it was so pretty! I even got to taste a little bit!"
Kagero held the vial up to the light, the blood slowly moving as he turned it over, "This is incredible. Good work, Toga! I'll have to pass this off to the Doctor for holding. I don't know what to do with it yet, but I know it'll come in handy."
Toga gave a wide smile, nodding her head up and down.
"I believe we can continue this chat later," Kurogiri intervened. "Toga, please go put on some clothes. This is still an actual running bar; we don't want to attract any undue attention should a real customer come in."
"Okie!" she hopped off her stool, bare feet plopping in the sludge, leaving a trail behind her. Seeing the mess increase, Kurogiri silently moved into the back room to grab a mop.
Kagero and Dabi were left in the bar, both looking at the TV but not really watching the recreational games go down. One oblivious to the elephant in the room, the other unwilling to let it go. He saw Kagero take a long sip of his drink before speaking up.
"So…" Dabi drawled, "Did you enjoy the show?"
Kagero grunted as he felt the alcohol burn his throat, "What? No one cares about the recreational games. They're no different than any other sports festival."
Dabi chuckled. Despite being so observant, Kagero really is as blind as a bat, "Yep. Cause that's what I was talking about."
Kagero picked up on the tone, eyes narrowing. Sarcasm was something he easily identified, "What would you be talking about, if not for the Festival?"
"Nothing, nothing. Just forget it." Dabi propped his head on his arm, lazily sliding his glass side to side with his left hand.
Kagero said nothing, mentally picking apart the short conversation to figure out what Dabi was getting at. The door that leads further into the bar opened again, revealing Toga dressed in her normal sailor uniform and oversized cardigan.
"I'm back!" she announced. "Kurogiri, can I get a Shirley temple, with extra red?"
"Of course, Toga-san. A moment please," called out from behind the bar, putting away his cleaning supplies.
Toga swiveled in the bar stool, looking between Dabi who was snickering silently and Kagero who was still lost in his thoughts, "Hey guys, where's Mustard?"