December 24 - Day 12

Chitose shook her head, running a palm down her face as the memory of her awkward wording played out inside her head once more. 'Next time I should better use my words right…' she thought to herself, followed closely by yet another facepalm and a sigh.

"How clean do you want my room to be? Just asking," the voice of Izuku echoed from within his room alongside a loud smacking sound as if a whole box of things just fell off a table. "Can you tolerate a little bit of clutter here and there?"

"Just shove them out of sight like last time. Maybe put them under the bed?" Chitose replied, instinctively shrugging even though the person she's talking to is not even in sight. After a few minutes, Izuku responded with a quick 'Okay give me ten minutes'.

'Ten minutes…'

Carefully taking the two bundles of cash off her lap and placing them on one of the hoodies Izuku left beside her, Chitose leaned back and just let her gaze wander around as she waited. But as she's looking about, her sights eventually went towards the particular window All Might exited from. And almost instantaneously, memories of the strange events that happened at UA just a while ago came flooding back into her mind: The supposed interrogation with All Might, the Psychedelic Slugs, and the absolute chaos caused by said slugs…

'I'm already back in the real world, right?' she asked herself in her thoughts as she looked down and stared at both of her hands. So far there are no more strange events happening, and obviously no more interrogation with 'the one thing you fear the most' – or so what Izuku said as told to him by Toshinori regarding the effects of the 'slugs'. She looked around some more, confirming that, yes, she's just in the Midoriya apartment, and not in prison.

Chitose sighed, as much as everything now points to the entire event just being nothing but hallucination, there's just that one nagging feeling telling her that the interrogation definitely happened – and Toshinori is just covering it up… somehow…

A brief flash of a memory of All Might taking a mugshot-like photo of her randomly resurfaced.

'What the hell is really going on…?'

Lifting up a hand and scratching the side of her head - a response to the light confusion clouding her mind, the young woman's gaze eventually re-drifted about the room. 'I should make an article slandering UA… I don't know why, but I just feel like I have to do it…' she thought to herself, once again trying her best to come up with the best titles that could grab the most attention in the shortest amount of time. By all means it should just be easy, and her adult self would have thought of thousands by now.

But once again, she can't think of anything. She tried again, and failed again. And just setting her gaze once to the bundles of cash All Might gave her as compensation is somehow enough to effectively remove the thoughts of even making an article in the first place.

But then again, she's not in Shoowaysha anymore. She can't really publish an article and have it distributed through their online service even if she wanted to. Sighing, her gaze slowly went back to the two bundles of cash just beside her.

'I should go count it-' Chitose immediately stopped, a pained expression instantly etched on her face as she accidentally tried to move her legs. But luckily, the effects of the citrus juice are still active, effectively nullifying the pain almost immediately the moment she stopped moving them. But still, annoyance rapidly crept up in her mind once more, especially at herself for forgetting about her injuries.

"Stupid medi-bot anesthetics…" she grumbled under her breath as she grabbed the nearby bundle and began counting it. To her surprise, the amount is actually quite significant, even more so than the first compensation cash All Might gave her for accidentally slamming her to the ground that one night at Takoba Beach. And almost immediately, Chitose's gaze then went towards the other remaining bundle. 'Well this is… interesting…'

She did a quick mental calculation. With the amount All Might gave to her she can-

Her thoughts abruptly stopped and instantly replaced with, 'Would it be okay to just leave without ever saying anything to All Might?'

Chitose stayed still for a bit and thought about suddenly leaving. On one hand, she's morbidly curious as to how strange All Might is acting, especially about Hokkaido, and wanted to know more about it. But on the other hand, she really needs to get back to the MLA as soon as possible and…

'I'm sure All Might would just be fine if I suddenly leave. The guy has more things to worry about than some person who claims her age got reversed… or whatever the hell is with me and Hokkaido…

"Hey uh, Kizuki? I spilled some chips down here and I'm gonna go clean them for a bit, gimme a few extra minutes."

"Okay, take all the time you need," she responded, quickly thinking up a way to pass the time-

Her sights landed to a particular purse, just underneath the living room table, and just conveniently within reach – it's her Memory Purse (or so what she calls the purse containing all the printed details of the MLA that she can remember as of her last visit to Cybersleuths).

Hurriedly picking it up and pouring out all its contents, she then wasted no time in scanning through them. She read through the Liberation Principles, Destro, the profiles of the high-ranking members (hers included), the profiles of the low ranking members, the locations of the hideouts scattered throughout the country, all the way to the various passcodes and passwords used throughout the army.

But one thing that stood out to her in her entire skimming session, is that she somehow suddenly re-remembered the people she listed on the end of her six-paper print. Lightly scratching the side of her head in confusion, she read through them again, and then a third time, confirming that, yes, she definitely did somehow re-remembered them again. Is it because of the anesthetics? The Psycho Slugs? Or something else? She doesn't know but she was glad it happened, it definitely helped out on a chunk of her memory issues.

"Okay I'm done!" came the voice of Izuku alongside the sound of a wooden door opening. "Computer's up and running! Can you walk now?"

"Well actually I don't- ow!" Chitose yelped out, the wounds in her legs swiftly stinging from sudden movement. She tried to move them again but failed once more. Any movement she does just resulted in sharp stings of pain, although they rapidly disappear once she stopped moving. "Dammit! Looks like I can't move yet, but don't worry I can just crawl there."

"Do you need more orange juice?"

"The orange juice is still pretty much here. It's just that when I move my legs in any way, the pain springs back. Don't worry I'll just get there myself," she said out loud as she hurriedly stashed the contents of her Memory Purse back inside it, before shoving it back to its previous location. Afterwards she then planted both of her hands onto the wooden floor and began pulling herself along. It may look all unwieldy and awkward, with her going backwards and dragging her legs on the floor, but it's nothing too different from back in the day when similar events happened and she needs to move around her apartment. "Gimme a minute," she said as she continued to 'walk' using her hands.

"Want me to pull you?"

"Nah I can do this."

"You're going to take more than a minute if you just keep crawling like that," Izuku said as he walked over. "Come on, Kizuki, there's nothing wrong with asking for help."

"Okay fine, pull me in," Chitose said, a bit reluctantly. And within moments, she felt Izuku's mittened hands hook themselves under her armpits and began pulling her along. "Darn we look utterly ridiculous," she said, finding the situation a little too funny and chuckling a little.

"The Penguin army requires are many more valuable prey, but Blue Alien will do for now," Izuku responded, his voice on the verge of giggling as well. "If you don't want to be eaten, then you must make articles for us! We may just be a bunch of cold-faring fatass birds, but money is money regardless!"

"I-" Chitose burst into a short fit of laughter. "Now you just gave me a very weird mental image of a frikkin' penguin mafia boss…" she said in between giggles as she finally got pulled into the room.

Once again, just like the last time she was here, the room looks like it was just hastily cleaned in for about a minute (yet Izuku somehow still took over 10 minutes), with the vast majority of the so-called 'cleaning' is literally just 'stuffing everything under the bed' judging off of the unusually large amount of clutter located there. One thing she also noticed that, just like last time, it is once again noticeably warmer here than it is in the living room.

"Okay you go stay here for a bit, let me go finalize some stuff on the computer first," Izuku said as he placed the young woman he's pulling onto the side of his raised bed, before walking towards his computer. "I hope you don't mind the warmth, it's really cold this morning and I cranked up the heater a bit. Yeah I know I can't feel heat on normal circumstances but you get the idea."

"I guess there's nothing wrong with that." Chitose shrugged in response. Now finding herself with nothing to do in the meantime, she moved her legs for a bit, stopping immediately after a sudden jolt of pain rushed through them.

'Looks like I really won't be doing any walking for the time being…' Chitose thought for a bit before eventually just brushing it off. It would still be around an hour before the pain fully disappears and she can get back on her feet.

Doing one slightly annoyed eyeroll, her eyes continued to wander around again, eventually finding themselves staring at a nondescript ceiling – and the single ceiling fan attached to it, before going down towards her left side, and seeing a particular calendar poster just stashed there haphazardly.

It's the 'Nagant in Pajamas' calendar poster.

She picked it up and inspected it. It's nothing out of the ordinary. She was about to just put it back to where she found it when she noticed something odd that made her do a double take on the poster. As it turns out, the pajamas Nagant is wearing is also a bit stretched out at the chest portion, with slightly visible gaps between the buttons. Almost immediately she also noticed that by the end of one of her sleeves is a stylized 0-X symbol.

Obelix. Nagant's pajamas are the same brand as the jacket she's currently wearing. And if her pajamas can survive an entire 8-hour sleep schedule (or whatever her sleep schedule is) all stretched out like that, then that could only mean that her jacket supposedly can too. And without wasting any time after putting the poster back under the bed, she hurriedly buttoned up her still-singed jacket. It may be damaged at the front but the fabric surrounding the buttons are still pretty much in mint condition. Either way she just really wants to button her jacket.

And after a few seconds of buttoning, she inspected them. It felt and looked very nice (nevermind the button gaps). Its innate regal and classy feel just amplified itself tenfold. Who knew that all this time she could just straight-up button them in?

"Aaaaaand done!" Izuku said as he took one step back off of his computer chair. "Can you get up now?" he asked, crouching down to Chitose's level. "Or you need a little- You buttoned up your jacket again?"

"What about it?

"I don't think that's a good idea, N-nevermind, so do you need a little pulling again or uh…?"

"No, not really… I can just crawl my way up," came the young woman's reply as she lightly nudged Izuku out of the way and began making her way towards the computer chair by way of using her hands to drag herself across the floor. Upon reaching the seat, she planted both hands onto it and pulled herself up to the best of her abilities, but in the end she just found herself too heavy, and all she managed to do is climb halfway on the seat before getting tired and plopping back down onto the floor again.

"Want me to pull you up?"

Chitose was about to say 'No I can do this' but somehow the only thing that came out of her lips is, "Y-yeah… I need help…"

Izuku muttered a weak 'alright' and hooked his mittened hands underneath the young woman's armpits once more and lifted her up. It was difficult on his part, considering their clear difference in weight and height, but he soon managed to do it. "You seem very reluctant on asking for help," he said, catching his breath afterwards.

"I'm just not the person who asks for help. It's a long story and I'd rather not talk about it."

Izuku opened his mouth as if he's about to say something, but eventually just responded with a nod before gesturing towards the computer screen. "Okay, work your magic," he said before pulling a plastic chair nearby and placing it in front of the study table just to the left side of the computer. "By the way, do you need anything else? Like a drink or so?"

Chitose paused for a bit, before replying, "Uh… I think I need to take a bath first. My legs smell of oranges."

"Kizuki you can barely stand. What do you want me to do? Pull you up while you take a shower?" Izuku's voice trailed off, a light blush coming up his face as he eyes suddenly darted about. "Let's not do any more exposing, okay?"

Chitose immediately felt her face heat up as well, remembering the events in the clinic earlier. "M-my bad… but what about the orange smell?" she asked as she readied up the Shoowaysha web page where she'll begin working.

"Well actually, All Might thought about that earlier so he gave me… so he gave me…" Izuku said as he spun around as if trying to reach for something on his back. "Where the heck did I put it?" he asked himself, eventually standing up and walking towards his bed and crouching beside it. "I'm pretty sure I just put it here."

"What is it?"

"All Might gave me an odor-eliminator mid-flight earlier! You probably just didn't notice it. It was small and -wait! I think I now know where I put it!" he exclaimed as he immediately headed for the door. But before he could exit, he turned around. "Hey Kizuki, do you need anything else? A drink perhaps?"

"Uuuhhhh… I'd like a glass of water?"

"Okay, I'll be back in a minute!" he said, his voice sounding oddly excited.

Chitose on the other hand, just stared on the empty doorway, once again feeling strange heartwarming feelings she cannot explain. She was about to pick out a topic to write an article about when a random thought popped into her mind, 'What happens when I get back to my old age again? Would I forget the things happening now just like how I'm forgetting my old self?'

She suddenly felt a light tinge of worry. Would that mean she'll eventually forget-

Chitose shook her head. Now's not the time for thinking about that. She turned her attention to the computer and scanned the available topics within the '50K Yen Weekly Challenge' section and began picking out those that interested her – mostly the ones that are Meta Ability-centered, before starting the timer. She then minimized the screen and opened up a text document and started typing out an essay about the first topic. She was already past the thousand-word mark on her first essay when Izuku reappeared by the doorway, holding onto a glass of water on one mitted hand, and a plastic bag on the other. "Sorry it took so long," he said as he entered. "Oh and by the way the heater's on, mind if I close the door?"

"Yeah sure go ahead, what do you have there?" Chitose asked in response, looking towards him while still leaving one hand still typing on.

"A glass of water and some stuff outside just lying on the floor," the young man said as he waddled over to sit on the chair in front of the study table beside the computer. He then immediately reached in the plastic bag and pulled out the bundles of cash All Might gave out earlier. "All Might literally just gave out money huh?" he commented as he placed them on the table.

"Yeah. Compensation Money, or as we Mutants like to call it – 'Shut Up' Money," Chitose said with a sarcastic giggle as she turned her attention back to the computer. She didn't need to explain further about how heroes give out money to mutants they beat up by accident, it's a well-known phenomenon at this point.

"It's not a bad amount too, huh? I wouldn't be surprised if some Heteromorphs go into deliberately tricking heroes so they get paid bundles of cash like this."

"Yep. I used to be one of them."

Izuku paused, slowly turning his head to face the young woman beside her, a mix of confusion and concern suddenly on his face. "What?" he asked, one eyebrow raised. "You're one of them…? What do you mean by you're one of them?"

"I was around mid-college back then when I decided to be a part of it. The cash prize is not that bad. And in a world of Backforce, people don't really get injured that much. Although I do have to move out farther and farther out for my shenanigans, mutants can only pretend to be false victims for too much before they get caught," Chitose casually said with a shrug, a light grin etched on her face on remembering the old days.

"So your story about getting beaten up, some of those were deliberate on your side?"

"Yes. I get beat up for money. But some heroes just won't ramp up their punches against female villains, and some are just beginners to the concept of Backforce, and as a result I get bruised-up a lot. But that's fine, those days were long over…"

"That's uh…" Izuku placed his plastic bag onto the table. "That's… that must be tough… Can't you get some actual part-time jobs that don't involve getting beaten up? Like typing online essays?"

"Getting paid for being 'accidentally' beaten up pays far more for far less effort. Yes I get bruises and black eyes a lot but in the end it's all well worth it. And I'm not really that much of a fast typer back in the day anyways," Chitose said with a nod as she continued typing, not even once glancing at Izuku's direction. "You're probably wondering about my dignity? Well let me tell you something, Midoriya, I'm just barely scraping by at that point in my life. I'll do anything for quick money, and coincidentally there's a get-money-fast scheme I can take advantage of by simply being hideously ugly."

"Hmmm…" Izuku paused a bit. "So how did you go from being a living punching bag to executive? It must be one heck of a success story!" he then turned around levitated a sketchbook and a pencil to him. "I bet it's amazing," he added.

"Actually Midoriya, there's not really that much behind it. It's just that one day I'm approached by an agent from Detnerat and told me the CEO liked that one interview I did on some of their employees some time ago for one of my college classes, and then one thing led to another and then BAM! I'm executive now," Chitose said with a light grin on her face, before going back to being nondescript. "Even now I still wonder what made the CEO consider me and personally recommend me to Shoowaysha..."

"Oh come on, Kizuki, look at how talented you are! You can literally continue typing with one hand while talking about something else!"

"Oh it's not that!" Chitose did a joke-swiping gesture at Izuku, feeling her face lightly heat up from the praise. "It's just that I literally just half-assed the interview assignment. I showed no enthusiasm at all and I was just pretty much just acting bored the entire time… and yet they still considered me. Maybe it's just luck?"

Izuku nodded and then opened the first page to his sketchbook. "That may not be the best success story I've heard, but that's still a success story. You deserve it, do you want a hug of appreciation from yours truly?"

Chitose stopped. "Wha- I mean uh… I'm working on this stuff and I don't like to be hugged when working."

"Okay then. So as for me-" Izuku levitated the pencil currently on the table and pulled it to his right hand. "I'm going to sketch some Mafia Space Penguins for a while."

Chitose responded with a gentle nod and continued on her work. But as she was turning back to the computer screen her eyes caught of something odd placed on Izuku's study table, forcing her to do a double-take. It's the All Might odor-eliminator.

She expected it to be more than just a small statuette of All Might standing on top of a regular odor-eliminator, but apparently it's just what it is.


Chitose glanced at the computer's internal clock as she submitted in her third article and started onto the next one. So far none of her fingers nor her eyes are getting sore yet, which is a good thing in itself. She can get more work done (and hopefully finish everything before lunch time).

"Hey Kizuki. What do you think of Mr. Yagi's story earlier? About Spinner?" Izuku randomly asked as he stopped a bit on his sketching. "It's so over-the-top it's ridiculous, right?"

"Over the top? Ridiculous? But aren't you acting all amazed earlier?" Chitose slowed down, raising one eyebrow as she turned to face him, but still her fingers not stopping on typing out an article. "Only now you think it's weird? I think it's weird from the moment he said Spinner can bat All Might out of Japan in a single hit!"

"I was just acting amazed because I don't want him to embarrass himself. But I can tell he's really going over the top at some points."

"The guy's probably just joking, he just can't deliver it well. To be fair, delivering a joke is pretty tough on its own," Chitose said with a light chuckle. She was about to say something when a different thought entered her mind. "Although now that you made me think of it, Mr. Yagi didn't technically answer your question. He didn't say anything as to how the League just keeps evading heroes no matter what, which I find really odd considering he's the personal assistant of the Number One…"

"Yeah I find it kinda odd that he just went around the question and just continued hyping Spinner up out of all of them for some reason… But could it be…?" Izuku's voice trailed off as he slowly turned towards the young woman beside him at the same his facial expression gradually turned into that of an exaggerated shocked look. "…could it be that… High-5 is right all along? Holy crap!"

Chitose paused a bit from her typing. The name (or term) High-5 sounded very familiar, a little too familiar in fact, but she somehow can't piece it back to where it originally is. "High-5?" she asked as she slowly resumed typing. "Who's High-5?"

"You don't know her? The loudmouth reporter lady from NHA?"

"Wait I think-" Chitose abruptly stopped from her typing, feeling a strange sensation for a bit as if something re-wired inside her brain, something as if a bunch of memory fragments suddenly fused together as one, something as if entire neural pathways reconnected- "Oh her!" she said out loud after realizing that (for some weird reason) her memories of that one specific person suddenly returned. While she doesn't know why it's her instead of more useful information like Geten's real name, but she's not complaining. Could this be that her memories are starting to fix itself? Is she going to suddenly grow up and not be stuck in her early twenties anymore-

There was a sudden brief headache.

And just like that, she felt her memories around the specific person Izuku is talking about suddenly get cut in half…

Brilliant…

"Hey Kizuki what's wrong? Do you need more orange juice or something?"

Chitose snapped back to the present. "No no no. It's just that I suddenly remembered who High-5 is and then now I suddenly can only remember fragments of her again," she said with an annoyed tone as she shook her head. "Dammit! I thought my memories are already auto-fixing themselves but it just turns out I'm still forgetting things…"

"Don't worry, we got All Might on the case! He can help!" Izuku's eyes slowly went down onto the girl's (still-injured) legs, "although help is pretty much not the thing they did today huh?"

"I don't trust heroes with these kind of things…" she muttered in response before re-composing herself. "So what is it with High-5? All I can remember now is that she interned under me back when she was still in college… And also she's very annoying and talks too much."

"I think all reporters are on the noisy side anyways, it's a little thing they all share in my opinion. Maybe being noisy and nosy is the secret to being a reporter?"

"It also helps if you're not horrendously ugly…" Chitose inadvertently blurted out as she continued typing, remembering how she got kicked out of her reporting job simply because she has a face not made for television. It may be a long time ago, amidst all her current memory issues, but she can still somehow remember how her old manager's kid started crying and yelling once he saw a preview of her reporting.

And then the next day she's shifted to offscreen journalism…

It still stung up to this day whenever she randomly remembers it.

"Anyways." Chitose shook her head, trying to get the nonsensical negative thoughts swirling around inside her head. "So what's with High-5?" she asked. "Also what's her real name again? I kinda forgot about it."

"There's a running gag about her about people should not be knowing her name, and I think we should go follow that rule," Izuku said, his face looking as if he just held out a laugh. "Let's not talk about her name. Let's talk about her blog!"

"Blog… oh wait… I'm remembering something about a blog…" Chitose's voice trailed off, mind deep in thought, and her typing pace significantly slowing down. She noticed Izuku is about to speak and raised a hand in response to get him to be silent for a brief while as she thinks. Maybe with enough thinking she'll eventually remember something-

"I do remember reading her blogs every one in a while as an inspiration when I want to make articles criticizing heroes..."

"You make articles criticizing heroes?" Izuku asked, raising one eyebrow. "Why?"

"Midoriya… ever heard of click-baits and rage-baits? They get the clicks, they get the ads, they get the revenue. As much as everyone's annoyed by it, they sure do generate a whole lot of cash."

"Ooohhhhh…"

Chitose nodded. As much as the initial purpose of her criticizing articles are simply for Liberation purposes, they do get a lot of revenue simply for being rage-bait: A win/win scenario in her book. "Anyways, other than getting ideas for rage-bait articles, what is with High-5 that she's right about? Are you talking about her LoV-related blogs?"

"Yep!"

"You believe those?" She asked, face full of confusion. As much as the blogs once served as inspiration for her when she wanted to write Hero-Bashing articles, but the rest of her content are all so outlandish and nonsensical (especially the LoV-related ones) that it's just so hard to take them seriously, not to mention the lack of photos and proof to whatever things High-5's talking about (which she kept on insisting that it's because the government is removing all the pictures and videos she's uploading). "No offense but I find her… not really trustworthy… Well actually I stopped reading her blog around 4 or 5 months ago."

"Hold on a sec…" Izuku quickly searched around his multiple pockets and eventually fished out his phone. After a quick check on All Might's number, he immediately went to browse the internet. "I was talking about the newer posts. Yeah there are no pictures but they kind of make sense!"

"Okay let me hear about them." Chitose muttered as she turned her attention back to typing out her article.

"Wait wait wait… let me scroll down towards the latest post aaaaand… okay here we are!"

"Ok what does her latest post say?"

"The latest post is just an apology saying she cannot update in the past few days because she's sick, and as a treat she posted a picture of her on the beach. It has 6753 likes…" Izuku muttered, before faintly saying that he'll make it one like higher because of the 'superb framing and lighting' of said beach photo.

Chitose leaned in to check the photo, instantly feeling annoyed at how staggeringly high the amount of online validation High-5 got from it (And in only one day no less!)… compared to all the glamour shots she posted that couldn't even get one like on GlobalConnect. "Are there any real posts?"

"Hmmm… Wait… there's a post here from December 17… Let me go turn up the volume for a bit…" Izuku held out his phone and pressed something on the bottom most part of the screen, to which the phone beeped twice before a voice started talking out of its speakers.

'December 17. Okay folks! Deika City Terror Attack! I gotta say the first news about it TOOK SOME RESTRAINT to not just say it out loud but guess what what's everyone blaming the attack on, 5 hours later? Huh? Huh? Guess what? HAHAHAHAHA It's the LEAGUE! Everything is being blamed on the League again! HAHAHAHA! Oh god ever since they appeared months ago EVERYTHING's being blamed on them! You know at this point I'm REEAALLLYYY wondering what's taking those heroes so long? If the League is at this level of threat, why is there no ongoing search for them?

GEEZ! I wonder why? Out of all the heroes with tracking Quirks, how come there's not a single one being used to hunt down the League? Why? Whhyyyyyy? Why is the top ten not doing anything about it? How come when Stain got reported there's an instant reaction, but when it comes to this six-member group of losers, it's all crickets and bedtime stories? Oh God the jokes are writing themselves! The heroes are just letting them go I tell ya! They're just deliberately letting them go so they can do crime and the heroes can profit off of them!'

"I told ya she's noisy…" Chitose said, her typing slowing down. "But she does make sense. There is literally not a single major effort being done to take down the League despite them being supposedly wanted across Japan…" her voice trailed off, remembering how easy the MLA prank-called the League into appearing for them.

"I told ya! Mr. Yagi is just overhyping the League because in reality the heroes are just deliberately letting them go!" Izuku said with a chuckle and a sarcastic hand-swipe gesture. "But yeah I'm just joking! The heroes are obviously not deliberately letting them go! That would be stupid! I'm sure they have a real reason for it – maybe super secret government stuff-"

"Does she have a post on December 12?" Chitose suddenly asked. So far there's been a string of strange events related to that specific date. High-5 may not be the most trustworthy source of information, but Chitose's curious as to maybe she has something that can provide her a clue - no matter how minuscule it is.

"Hmmm let me see here… No… But she does have something on December 10 though, let me go play it."

'December 10. I hope you guys are fine with me saying dates because hell yeah I feel like a darn detective! Whoop-Dee-Doo! Okay so anyways so there are those weird rumbling noises atop League Mountain AGAIN! It's REALLY like there's a giant up there, and everyone of you guys knows I'm scared of giants! I like BIG MUSCLY M-E-N, but giants? Heck no! I'd rather-'

Chitose raised her left hand, making Izuku stop the audio playing off of the phone. "Give me a moment," she said as a thought entered her head. 'League Mountain? A Giant…?' the thoughts repeated once more, before it started looping around. What is High-5 talking about when she meant 'Mountain'? Is it the same mountain the League is staying at when Skeptic found them? And what about the Giant? She can clearly remember there is a strange destroyed path back in Deika City that led straight to Re-Destro's tower, is that the work of the giant? Is there even a giant in the first place?

"Backtrack some more. I need to know about if the mountain she's talking about is right next to Deika City."

"Okay… let me see…"

Chitose continued typing out the next article, hurriedly submitting her finished one afterwards.

It took a while before Izuku held out the phone again and pressed the bottom part of the screen.

'November 9. Guys I gotta tell ya. While I do love me some Shigaraki Bowling. I couldn't help but get jealous of the view they must be having up there. Imagine getting a whole view of the entirety of Deika City? God I wish I'm the one up there. But there are still those scary rumbling noises! I tell ya guys, there must be a giant up there. Where are those paranormal experts when you need 'em-'

Chitose raised a hand. So it's true, the mountain High-5 is referring to is the same mountain Skeptic found the League. And once again she mentioned a giant. But what is it about the 'Shigaraki Bowling'?

Something tells her to press for more information, and so she asked again to satisfy her curiosity. "Go further. I want to know what is she doing near that mountain. And also if there's anything about a giant or Shigaraki bowling, play that audio clip."

Izuku chuckled a bit. "You're acting like a detective here huh? Are you getting anything? Because I'm kinda not getting anything."

"I'm getting some clues regarding the League. Press on."

"Okay here goes the next one."

'October 27. Hey guys! So uuuuuhhhh I met up with some heroes again today and I told them I cornered the League here. AND GUESS WHAT?! They said I must be just hallucinating! HAHAHAHA! They didn't even check for anything! They just left me alone! What's the matter, chumps? Afraid to ACCIDENTALLY catch the League because you have no one to blame anymore?!

Come on guys! You just gonna let me play Shigaraki bowling over and over? Holy crap the guy's dumber than the dumbest bag of bricks. By all means he CAN'T beat me and yet HE STILL keeps on attacking like GOD-DANG is there even something inside that skull of his-'

Chitose raised a hand. What does High-5 mean when she said 'she cornered them'? She also mentioned something again about Shigaraki bowling and her being attacked but it's so vague she can't make something off of it. But at the same time she can feel something beginning to connect inside her mind, but she just can't seem to find out what they are yet. "Midoriya, find the first post in which she referenced pushing the League straight up a mountain…"

"Okay boss," Izuku said and chuckled to himself afterwards. "Here it is, the very first one. I still remember when she first posted this…"

'October 10. Guys… You're not going to believe this… I found the League! YES! FINALLY! They're in a landfill collecting garbage! Yeah I know, feels poetic huh? Aaaanyways they're once again out in the open… But since it's night time I can understand there are no heroes about. And as for me, I just got this super fancy night-vision goggles I TOTALLY did NOT buy in a thrift shop unlike my VECTRE…

Now for the moment for truth… let me call the local heroes here…

I'm here to report that I have found the League of Villains. I'm at -*

There was a sudden bleep in the audio. But before Chitose could ask something about it, the audio log re-continued on its own.

'Sorry guys I have to make some cuts in this audio log or else Big Daddy government will remove it because YOU KNOW! Stupid government deleting my stupid videos... And speaking of cutting, the heroes are about to respond now. I do apologize for the next part but I have to cut it off too if I want this log to stay up on the blog.

The same bleep from earlier occurred again.

'Yep! I called at least 14 different hero agencies and somehow FOR SOME WEIRD REASON… none of them agreed to come here but ALL of them told me to leave. GEEZ! I wonder why? Well then, if they won't respond, I'll go beat the League up myself. It's VIGILANTE TIME!"

There was a strange sound. Chitose knew it must be related to High-5's Meta Ability, as there are no sounds like that that can occur naturally. And then there was yet another bleep and then the audio suddenly resumed in a loud crashing noise, surprising the two. And then there were groaning sounds in which Chitose immediately recognized as Tomura's voice.

'Oh geez do you even know when to stop?! This is the fourth time I hurled ya! All strikes too!"

There were crashing noises again, followed by voices as to what Chitose could recognize as the rest of the League. After a brief yelp easily recognizable as Toga, there was then another round of strange sounds, followed closely by more crashing sounds as if she got hurled away.

'Guys look! It's your dumbass loser of a leader flying to the moon, go get him!'

There was Tomura's yelling going fainter and fainter as if he got tossed very high into the air.

'Go on, scram! Go up the mountain so the heroes can further turn your sorry asses into excuses! Shoo!'

Chitose raised a hand, signifying Izuku to stop. While she can't really trust High-5, but her blog does tie in to real world events regarding the LoV – they suspiciously went missing two months ago and by the time Skeptic tracked them, they're up a mountain…

And then there's the giant she's talking about which could have been the same thing that plowed through Deika City… or so according to what she saw the damage is like…

Chitose lowered her head, deep in thought, but still typing out an article. Should she believe the blogs? But they have no solid evidence whatsoever (the voices of Shigaraki and the League could just be edited in). By all means High-5 could just be passing everything off as her own doing when in reality everything is just a string of random events. What's she even like as a person beyond being annoying and noisy? Is she trustworthy-?

"What do you think huh?" Izuku suddenly spoke, snapping Chitose out of her thoughts. "Do you think they really went missing two months ago because High-5 just ran them up a mountain?"

Chitose sighed. "Midoriya, they're really up a mountain. I saw them – We saw them, the news crew I mean. We thought they're just illusions the first time we saw them."

"Oh so High-5 did in fact chase them there? Or maybe they're just illusions? Or the heroes are really just letting them go to-"

"What's High-5's Meta Ability again?"

"Magic Hands. She wanted it named as 'Phasegrasp' but the name's already taken so… she's stuck with Magic Hands!" Izuku said with a chuckle. "But what can I say? I also once wanted to have my Quirk named as Graviton Pull but that one's already taken so uh… it's just Attract again."

Chitose nodded. "That's not bad of a Metapower name to me. Okay I'll just go continue my work for a while, let's not get out heads into the LoV rabbit hole…" she said as she slowly turned back to typing. As she was clacking her fingers onto the keyboard, some specific parts of the audio blog began re-floating around her mind. If High-5, one single person, can supposedly defeat the entire League alone (her Meta Ability can certainly deal with them as far as she can remember what it does), so that means the army really did in fact beat them.

But then there's the giant… and Skeptic's refusal to answer any of her questions… so what really happened?

Chitose shook her head, now highly annoyed that she keeps getting clues but still no solid answer on literally any of her questions – the MLA, the League, her apparent TV death, her missing bank accounts, the particular date of December 12, The Quirk-Erasing Bullet, the assassin Nomu at Takoba, the psycho slugs, and the strange actions of All Might…

'Dammit…'

"Hey uh… Kizuki? You've been typing out articles and submitting them for quite a while now… how many are you planning to make?"

"Oh I was doing the weekly 50K challenge again and I'm very close to finishing."

"The WHAT?! I uh-uh-I'm-er I told you to tell me- You can't just casually drop in 50 thousand Yen into this house! I mean it's nice and all and it's good money but the balance! You're the one going to make me feel guilty about this…" Izuku said, followed by an annoyed facepalm, in which he quickly took out as not to offend the young woman next to him.

"Midoriya, I did the 50K challenge not because of some guilt feelings I did not tell you about." Chitose sighed and slowly turned to him. "It is of my own decision to make this myself. You did good today, no doubt about it. Covering up the real Takoba story to your Mom – and my real identity as well, the orange juice… and even the clinic…" she said, glancing away to hide a small blush that came up upon saying the word 'clinic'. "Anyways," she immediately turned back to Izuku as she cooled down. "the point is that this right here is my payment. No mind games here, cross my heart-"

There was a loud snap.

The gesture caused the nearest button on Chitose's jacket to snap and fly off, hitting Izuku square in the forehead. It was quick, easily missable, and pretty much just bounced off harmlessly…

There was an awkward silence between them, with both just staying motionless for around a quarter of a minute. "Uh…" Izuku weakly muttered as he slowly bent down and picked up the button that flew off, a light blush visible on what's visible of his face. "So uh… I've just confirmed that uh… buttons flying off are uh… are not lethal… animes are lying…" he said as he awkwardly placed the button on Chitose's lap, at which he quickly tilted his head away. "I told you it's not a good idea to button those…"

Chitose slowly took the button and awkwardly stashed it in one of her jacket pockets, before hastily unbuttoning her jacket entirely. "But I thought Obelix jackets can withstand getting stretched for hours… they even made a big deal out of it in one of their advertising campaigns," she said, deliberately not mentioning Nagant's pajamas.

"Obelix what- Oh! You mean that one ad where they got models parading around with stretched up jackets?"

Chitose awkwardly nodded as her right hand slowly began re-continuing the essay typing.

"Er… Kizuki, compared to them… your jacket seemed uh… twice as stretched…"

"Dammit! These stupid wide shoulders!" Chitose blurted out with an annoyed tone coupled with a facepalm as she turned back to the computer to continue the online essay she's typing out. She heard Izuku faintly muttering something about her shoulders being not the issue but then his voice got too weak to even be comprehensible. He's wrong, she knew what she's talking about, and the issue is not what Izuku is trying to say, but simply her wide shoulders, and that's it. She won't accept anything else. "Aaaanyways!" she said in an attempt to cheer up the mood and move away from the awkwardness, "this is the 50K challenge, I did it on my own, you have nothing to fear. I'm not doing any mind games."

"Okay now I'm the one feeling guilty around here…"

"Don't worry, you did good today, you just have to- Wait I got an idea!" Chitose was about to continue but paused a bit as an idea suddenly entered her head. Immediately her attention went to her legs and lightly moved them around, and as expected since enough time had passed already, the pain is very much gone. While she's not sure if the anesthetics nowadays have side effects she doesn't know yet, she can't let this opportunity slide.

If she's going back to the MLA (and she will), then she must act now.

Planting both of her hands onto the computer desk, she pushed herself up, not feeling any sting at all anymore. And before Izuku could speak out of concern for her wounds, she raised a hand and explained that once the pain is gone, the pain is really gone, the wound will now just heal on its own whether she exerts pressure on them or not.

"It's alien biology, Midoriya," Chitose added.

"Er… are you sure…? So what are you planning to do, does it involve a crap ton of walking?"

Chitose paused a bit. "Er… yeah… Anyways I was just going to suggest that since you're feeling guilty why not we eat out?"

"Kizuki, you know I can just order from the phone and have the meals delivered here, we don't need to go outside."

'Crap… how come I didn't think of that?!' Chitose paused, only now noticing a massive loophole in her plans. But instead of just making up an excuse, she decided to just tell the truth instead. "Midoriya, I really need to re-contact my colleagues. What's so bad at eating out and then just dropping me off at Cybersleuths?"

"Are those same colleagues that sent a Nomu after you?"

"No, that's not them! The Nomu is certainly from the League!" Chitose said as she sat back down, planting both hands onto her knees and sighing. "Look… I really need to re-contact them."

"Kizuki you can barely walk an hour ago, what if those wounds re-opened up again? What if something happens again? What if there's another Nomu? What now?"

"What? Don't you have All Might's number?" Chitose asked, one eyebrow raised. "Okay why not we do it like this. We eat out, you get me to Cybersleuths and be ready to call AM if something happens. And if nothing happens we can just continue training your Metapowers at Takoba, what do you say to that? Don't you like it I'm giving you an excuse to call in the Number One?"

"Kizuki… you don't need to endanger yourself just to give me an excuse to call All Might. While yes it feels nice to be able to summon the Number One in mere seconds but come on… we just got off of UA and now you're looking for trouble again."

"Midoriya, those people are important to me. If you're suddenly separated from your mother, wouldn't you try to get back to her ASAP?"

"Well yeah but… the Nomu and the lack of a speedboat and uh… and All Might still technically wants to talk to you and you shouldn't leave him and uh… f-fine, I'll help you out…" Izuku weakly nodded. "I sure do hope no one will attack you anymore."

"Don't worry, I won't leave yet. I'll just re-contact them, that's all. But if they sent in a transport vehicle, then I guess that's goodbye, I guess?" Chitose paused a bit and stretched her fingers . "Now give me a few more minutes on this essay, it'll be over soon. Don't worry, no one will attack me anymore," she said, immediately hearing a faint reply from Izuku as the young man continued on drawing on his sketchbook. Chitose didn't exactly hear what he said, but she still nodded in response.

'I sure do hope no one will attack me anymore…'


Notes:

Aaaaaand Chitose is up to something again! Surely nothing will happen this time, right?

But seriously though, I found it really odd that the heroes had to 'prepare for two months' for the PLF. But when Humarise threatened the globe, most went out of Japan to deal with that first WITHOUT any preparations at all...