The World in My Hand: Blood Red version

by Chivalry12

This is just my luck. Of course I would wake up in the universe of one of my favorite anime. Of course I would end up as one of the villains of said anime, and of course I would end up as a girl too! Ugh. Whatever. Guess if the world wants me to be a villain, I'll change it. Just hope no one else is here. Might cause a clusterfuck.

7. Chapter 7: Line 'em Up

I would say I was excited, but that would be a lie. Standing on a building in Hosu, looking out for a serial killer to stop the injury of a pro hero wasn't my idea of a good time, but I thought it was necessary.

Why put in the effort though? Is this guy worth it like Aizawa?

'I…I'm not sure. But if we save him here it could prevent someone our age from being suicidally reckless and nearly getting killed.'

I-Good point, I guess…

The building I stood on now was the rendezvous Kaito and I had established during our planning. This first action was essentially a service he'd be doing in return for my help in his plan to take down Black Dove.

Looking him over the day before, Kaito had healed quickly, though when I asked, he said it wasn't due to his quirk. He was quirkless, much to my shock. Though it did explain the gadgets and how he had handled fighting such a diverse group of quirks. He had to compensate for his lacking one.

Looking at my phone, the time was nine fifty. I was getting antsy. We had agreed to meet here around 10, but I had ended up getting here over half an hour early due to my own nerves. And having sat here for twenty minutes really wasn't helping. I felt like I needed to move, get my blood pumping. I had a sense of energy that was weird to me, though it was becoming increasingly familiar as time wore on and I adapted more and more to being the driver in Himiko's body.

Those ten minutes before ten felt like an eternity, and I started pacing. Not only was the energy making me antsy, I felt exposed up here, in the daylight. More heroes patrolled at this time, and one wrong move would mean I was caught.

Not to mention Himiko had been giving off weird feelings for a bit. She behaved normally, but something felt off. Like the emotions she was expressing were to hide the real feelings. It was worrying me. This wasn't the same as what she had been like at the start, though I could call it similar. This felt different. I'd need to talk to her about it, but right now, I was distracted.

Finally, I heard the sound of someone else on the rooftop, and I turned to see Kaito in a newly repaired Shade outfit coming toward me. I waved him over. He was unreadable under the silver mask, but I got the feeling he was happy to see me.

"Hey Shady, how's it going?

"Well enough."

I nodded and turned to look out at the city below. The building wasn't that high up, but it was still a good view.

"It feels weird, being out in the day."

He tilted his head slightly to acknowledge he'd heard me, before responding a moment later.

"It is unusual, but I have done it before, if only to see the difference."

It was good to hear he felt the same. I moved on to the next topic.

"Okay, so the first thing we need to do is find Ingenium. Then we follow him until he gets attacked. Any idea how to do that? Ingenium might already be on patrol."

Kaito held up what looked like a small tablet.

"Way ahead of you. I made a friend in school who's working with Ingenium. I managed to get access yesterday to sort of tour the agency. I slipped a silent tracker in when I had the chance."

I raised an eyebrow.

"How do you know it won't be found?"

He didn't look up from his device, seeming to be tuning it.

"I made it myself. It's pretty hard to find once it attaches itself."

I shrugged. Makes sense, I guess. But now I was curious.

"You go to a hero school or something?"

He nodded, seeming to be having a bit of trouble before the device lit up, displaying a map, and a glowing dot.

"I'm a third-year support student at UA. Got it working. Now we can follow Ingenium from a safe distance."

I nodded, pondering things as we began to move, making our way over rooftops and being careful not to expose ourselves too much. He went to UA. A support student, huh? That made sense as to how he had so much tech know how. And some of the materials too. I wasn't completely sure, but with so much chaos going on, no one would notice a few smaller things going missing.

We followed Ingenium for at least an hour or so before we stopped a moment. Kaito simply stared, and he motioned for me to move closer.

"He stopped a moment, and now he's moving erratically in an unlisted place. I think he's in combat. Let's get closer."

I nodded quickly and we ran, getting closer and closer. My heart was pounding. What if we didn't make it? Could we even handle Stain? Then again, we had planned, but I still wasn't sure.

Those questions stalled as we made our way to the edge of an alleyway. We could see the fight going on. Ingenium vs the Hero Killer. Shade took out a few of his projectiles, and I drew a knife, both of us readying, looking for the moment we could drop in. Ingenium was holding his own for now, but it was only a matter of time.

I saw an opportunity, and the signal dropped. My knife soared through the air as I jumped down into the alley, and Kaito's explosives went after them, him following me.

Stain managed to dodge the knife, though barely out of surprise, but he was hit by a few of the explosives, tumbling out of the way and land on his feet, staring us down. Ingenium just seemed surprised. I decided to introduce us.

"My my, this looks like a fun party you're having. Mind if we cut in?"

Kaito said nothing, simply readying more of his gadgets Stain seemed annoyed.

"You…who are you? And why interfere in my mission?"

I tilted my head as if curious.

"What me? I'm just a humble believer in the time honored, highly philosophical idea that murder is bad."

Kaito huffed under his mask, but stepped forward and threw a handful of pellets at Stain, who dodged quickly, and pushed off the wall and charged, sword drawn, straight at us. I drew my own blade (boy was I glad I had grabbed that thing during the USJ) and managed to parry the strike, though my arm definitely hurt. Stain was far stronger than me, so blocking a swing like that was hard on my poor muscles.

Still, I did my best to block the flurry of slashes he sent my way, before he broke off to dodge a kick from Ingenium.

"Forget about me, Hero Killer?"

Stain just hissed in response, only on the defense for a moment before he was back at it, this time coming down toward Kaito, who just barely managed to dodge the strike, retaliating with a ballsy move; a haymaker directly to Stain's jaw, which did knock him back. But yet again, he went again, changing targets constantly as if in a blur, never letting us pin him down. Even with Ingenium's speed he was out matching us, and all it would take would be one wound for things to go really bad. We didn't have the luxury of being on the total offense.

Still we did our best. I flung several knives right at him, managing to catch him in the arm. He grunted but again didn't slow down, blocking a kick from Ingenium and retaliating with a slice of his sword. One that managed to cut him. Ingenium flew back, preparing to charge. Stain, meanwhile, began to move the blade to lick it, only to have a face full of gas, surprising him for the first time. He dropped the sword, grunting in suprise and jumped back, giving himself time to recover.

I couldn't see Kaito's face under the mask, but I just knew he was smug. Stain glared at us, seeming angrier than before. We had managed to stall his mission a good five minutes already.

"You who interfered, you aren't heroes, that I know. Why are you prepared to die for this fake?"

I caught a mumbled "rude" from Ingenium, and I went to speak up, but Shade beat me to it.

"I help people. That is what I do. And I will not let a good man who has put his life on the line numerous times for civilians be killed because he isn't perfect."

Stain only narrowed his eyes, preparing to say something, when sirens could be heard coming close, along with shouts for Ingenium. He hissed in frustration, recognizing he'd been stalled.

"You live for now, Ingenium. And you who defended him,"

He turned his glare to us.

"I will be watching for you. While you are not my priority, you will be purged one day."

He leaped onto a building and ran off, seeming like a blur. How had we managed to keep up with him?

Ingenium sighed and turned to us.

"I'm…not sure what to say. I wasn't expecting anyone to be here aside from me."

I nodded.

"We were in the area and saw you were in trouble. Like Shade said, you're a good man. Just doing our duty."

He tilted his head, seeming confused.

"Your duty? You two are vigilantes, aren't you? What made you believe I wouldn't just turn you in?"

This time Kaito answered, bluntly as always.

"Vigilantism's only technical crime is illegal quirk use. Neither of us used quirks, so we weren't technically breaking the law."

Ingenium seemed to ponder that as the sounds of people got closer.

"Hmmm, then I guess I can't take you in. I can't arrest you with no charges."

I could feel the wink under his helmet. I nodded at him, and Kaito and I turned and started to leave, before Ingenium shouted on last question.

"Wait! Can you at least tell me who you are?"

I turned and winked at him.

"Bloodrush. My partner here's The Shade. Nice to have met ya Ingenium."

And with that we were off.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOOXOXOXO

I managed to catch a recording of the sports festival the next day. It was interesting watching events play out that I had seen so up close, only from such a different perspective. Though from a certain standpoint, they weren't too different. Sure, I had seen them up close, but it was always through a screen, just like now. And now I was watching it through a screen again, and yet I was somehow closer than before. Because I was in the world. These things had happened, just far away from me.

Never knew you were a philosopher.

'Guess Jake's rubbed off on me. He'd just sometimes pull these pseudo guru phrases out of nowhere. You got used to it after a while.'

Huh. He sounds fun.

'Yeah, he was….'

Hey! Don't go pouting on me! He's not dead! Maybe you'll see him again, we don't know how this whole body-jacking thing works!

'I-Thanks.'

No problem ;)

Still, whatever I thought, it was quite the show. Though things seemed off. For instance, I definitely don't remember Shinso getting farther than the first round in the finals, but when I saw it, he made it all the way to fourth place. And Mina had taken Tokoyami down, only to be thwarted by Todoroki. Things were…weird. Was my presence knocking things out of order? Making changes even in events I had no control over? Or was there something else going on? I made note to investigate. But for now I had another task ahead of me.

Kaito had called me the day after the sports festival, told me had to show me something, but to come in civilian clothes. I looked myself in the mirror that day, contemplating. I could go with my usual style, but I felt like I should make a change.

Why though? We look cute as is!

I'm not sure. Maybe the ponytail?

Ugh, I hate that thing! It makes us look all stuffy and businessy!

Hmmm, how about this then?

I undid the buns, and let our hair fall. Looking into the mirror, I looked…different.

This feels right. I don't know why though.

…

Toga? Are you okay?

I'm fine. Just-

She paused.

Thinking.

About what.

I used to hate my hair like this.

Oh. If you want, we can-

No, it's fine now. It's just…I hated it because it reminded me of the past. I thought those memories were horrible. But I've been thinking about it again, and some of them were bad. But maybe the rest weren't as bad as I thought.

So is that why you've been oddly quiet recently?

Yeah. Wear it like that. It's…good on us.

I got the feeling that there was more to it, but I didn't push it. I smiled at the mirror, and my reflection smiled back. And it felt like I meant it too.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOOXOXOXO

Kaito had said to meet him at a place in Musutafu, and I actually knew where it was. A small café I had been to once already, a hang out with Uraraka I'd squeezed in the day before Kaito and I had confronted Stain. It was a nice place too. Good food.

I got there a bit before he'd asked me to, about five minutes early. I checked my phone and looked around. Kaito had struck me as the type to be incredibly punctual, so he would be here on the dot. So I had five minutes to kill. So I wandered a bit. Not too far, but still a bit away. This part of Musutafu had some interesting shops, and I peeked at some of their contents, before a familiar voice caught me by surprise.

"Toga, hello."

I turned and saw Kaito, looking about as expressive as ever, which is to say like a brick. The guy could express emotion, but he seemed to have a resting stoicism to him. I smiled and ran to him, excited.

"Akitamura, Hey! What did you need to show me?"

Kaito's answer was quiet as he leaned in.

"I wanted to show you our target. Black Dove."

I dropped my smile and tried my best to look serious.

"You found him? Where is he? And How'd you find him?"

Kaito simply began to walk.

"Follow me and you'll know. And I never said I hadn't found him already. Just that I couldn't touch him."

That was confusing, but I followed after quick, my curiosity now even more stoked.

It wasn't long before we reached the next street over, and Kaito stopped me.

"This is the middle of the area. It won't be long before something happens. He loves to show off at midday."

I cocked an eyebrow. Why would an infamous crime lord want to show off?

Still, we sat down at a nearby bench and waited for a while. Kaito simply watched people go by in silence. I tapped my foot and fidgeted, as staying still like this wasn't my favorite thing to do anymore.

Me either! It's really boring.

Hmmm.

What's the "I figured something out" hum for?

Nothing much. Just pondering.

It was only a little bit in that I decided to break the silence.

"Sooo…"

Kaito tilted his head in acknowledgement.

"So?"

I opened my mouth to say something, but closed it when I realized I didn't have any idea of what to say. Kaito stayed silent, as if waiting for my mind to catch up with my body. Finally, I found the words I wanted to say.

"You always been this cool?"

Or maybe I was just an idiot. Kaito's mouth curved slightly upward, and he chuckled lightly, before the smile turned to small frown as he responded.

"I appreciate the compliment, but no. I wasn't considered cool when I was younger, especially in school."

I arched an eyebrow at that. Those memories must not have been good.

I know that feeling.

Was it really that bad?

I spent most of my time at school suffocating under a mask, afraid that no one would like the real me, because I wasn't 'normal'

Oh. Right.

I tried to take my mind off of Himiko's school days, especially as I dimly recalled some of them on my own (not dealing with that, into the bin), and decided to pry a little.

"What, you mean you were bullied?"

He nodded, his frown in a full grimace.

"I'm not sure if you'd understand, but school was horrible to me."

I gave him a serious look.

"Try me. I think I do understand."

He nodded absentmindedly, before continuing.

"I was the target for many of my classmates. While I wasn't the only one in the grade, I was the only quirkless kid in my class."

I winced, thinking about Izuku's treatment. I had a feeling this wasn't going to end well.

"My classmates taunted me and made fun of me at first, but then, it got…physical. The ones with more 'heroic' quirks decided if I didn't have a quirk of my own, I could be used as a testing case for theirs."

He spat the word 'heroic' like it had burned him. Reminded me of how Himiko thought of the word 'normal'.

"I was burned, bashed, and tossed around all through primary school. And the teachers did nothing. They either didn't know because my classmates hid it, or ignored it when the kids didn't bother. I could tell they thought less of me."

I felt a few tears prick my eyes. That was horrible!

No one should be treated like that because of how they were born!

Yeah. I hate that this kind of thing happens. This society is just…

Rotten.

Yeah. A shiny outside, and a rotten core.

I glared at the ground, but then a detail caught my eye.

"You said primary school, right? What about middle school?"

Kaito smiled then, the most genuine I'd ever seen.

"My parents. When I told my dad about it, he enrolled me in a gym, and I trained for months. Then, the next time those same bullies decided to try and use me as a punching bag, I kicked their asses."

I grinned at that.

"Bet that taught them a lesson."

He nodded, wide smile staying.

"Yeah. It did get me in detention for 'causing a disturbance' though. None of the guys who bullied me for years got in trouble. Just me, for defending myself."

I found my anger growing.

"Seriously?"

He nodded again.

"They said I had chosen to use violence unprovoked. It sucked, but it led to one of my favorite memories. They called my mom, and she drove all the way there and just ripped the principal and the teachers to shreds. They retracted the detentions after that. The teachers started being nicer too. I think they were scared mom would come back."

I giggled at that. Just the thought of a mom scaring someone so much they feared her afterwards.

"Your parents sound awesome."

His smile grew wistful, and he looked away from me.

"Yeah. They were."

Before I could process what that even meant, I heard an explosion and commotion coming from further down. Kaito's face returned to its normal state and he got up.

"Right on time. Come on. We don't want to miss this."

I got up and followed suit. This was a confusing day.

We went quick, and as we got closer, it became clear what we were seeing. A storefront was busted and smoking, and a man in a red jumpsuit with flaming hair was carrying something out of it. The entire cash register. Had this guy really caused this much of a scene just to take a register?

He seems dumb.

'Stellar observation.'

Thanks! :)

Flame Hair was shouting something, and as we got closer, it became audible.

"-ack down or I'll roast you all! I mean it! You don't mess with Pyre!"

He was addressing the slowly gathering crowd that was a bit too close. A few even had their phones out. The threat didn't seem to deter the crowd much. I leaned over to Kaito, trying not to be heard.

"Did you just want to go hero hunting together?"

He thought a moment.

"In a way. Let's just watch."

Pyre continued to shout threats, getting hysterical, and distracted. He wasn't trying to get away even. Man this guy was dumb. It wouldn't be long before-

"I'm afraid you won't be doing any harm to these fine people, vile villain!"

The voice sounded like some knight had stepped right out of medieval times. It grated on me. Kaito seemed to respond to the presence worse, outright glaring.

"Knew he would show up."

Swooping in as if by super speed, was a man that I just knew I already hated. He was dressed in silver plate armor, a gold cape flowing behind him and seeming completely unnecessary, while his face was covered only by a black domino mask. His hair, platinum blonde, was pretty long for a guy, kept in a short ponytail. Everything about him radiated arrogant prince. He posed flamboyantly, drawing an elegant looking foil and taking a battle stance

"I, Silver Falcon, am here to stop you in your tracks!"

At that, I heard several women in the crowd crying out. I groaned. Of course some of them would fall for the pretty boy. I might have if I didn't suspect he spent 80% of his free time looking in a mirror.

Pyre glared and began to direct his ire at him.

"Get out of here you fop, before I turn you to ash!"

Silver Falcon simply laughed.

"I'm afraid I must fight you. Destruction of property and theft. You'll be going to jail my friend!"

I raised an eyebrow at Kaito.

"Why are we watching this, exactly? This doesn't seem very relevant to Black Dove."

Kaito grimaced, still watching.

"Believe it or not, that arrogant hero is Black Dove."

I did a double take.

"What."

Kaito didn't answer. I looked back as Pyre and Silver Falcon continued to exchange sweeping declarations and impotent threats. They had wasted a good five minutes already. He had to be wrong there. There's no way.

"Are you sure?"

Kaito didn't look away, glaring at the armored pro.

"Yes. That arrogant foppish façade hides a ruthless criminal mastermind. He plays the role well, doesn't he?"

Finally, the two dumbasses engaged each other.

"That's it, I'm done talking!"

Pyre's hair grew in intensity, and shot out toward Silver Falcon, who seemed to blur as he seemed to move to the side without actually moving.

"What was that?"

"Silver Falcon's quirk, Kinetic Control. It lets him build up kinetic energy and then redirect it, letting him move fast, among other uses."

Something was still bugging me.

"So how did you know that this would happen anyway?"

"That's where it gets interesting. These kinds of attacks happen on a schedule here."

I cocked my head.

"A schedule? You don't schedule villain attacks."

Then it clicked.

"Unless…"

Kaito finished for me.

"You plan them yourself."

My eyes widened.

"You mean he's staging villain attacks?"

"Sort of. He has another use for them. His gang runs a racket around the cities, but especially around here. Stores who get hit in attacks always seem to be ones that refuse it. And then Silver Falcon always swoops in to save the by apprehending the villain. The store owners know not to cross the gang, and he gets hero credit. Two birds, one stone."

I felt my face contort in anger.

"That's despicable! How is he getting away with this?"

Kaito shrugged.

"He's a hero. That gives him a lot of credit and keeps him away from suspicion. Especially since he's in the top thirty. He's used his status to cover up a lot of illegal activities too."

I was just in shock. How had this kind of thing gone without investigation? Then again, Endeavour had gone at least a decade or two with no scrutiny at all, despite abusing his kids and wife.

"How do you know this?"

Kaito sighed, and walked away. By this time Silver Falcon had taken Pyre down and had him tied up and knocked out, waving to the crowd. I spit in his direction and followed Kaito.

Kaito sat on a bench and I followed. He sighed.

"I found him out when I was fifteen. I saw Black Dove in the middle of…something. And I made the connection soon after. Evidence I found as The Shade just confirmed it."

I exhaled a bit.

"This is a lot to take in."

"I know."

I turned and looked at him, curious.

"So you said you had a plan I would be perfect for after I told you my quirk. What do you want me to do to take this guy down?"

Kaito smiled.

"Oh, something simple. Just sneak into his agency and find evidence that Black Dove and Silver Falcon are the same person."

"Oh, that simple, is it?"

"Glad you think so."

"That was sarcasm."

"I'm aware."

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOOXOXOXO

About a week later, The Silver Falcon Agency (of course he would name his agency after himself) was ostentatious to say the least, even at night.

Ost-what?

'Sometimes I forget that I'm college educated, and you didn't finish middle school. We should probably do some learning sometime. It could be good.'

But learning is boring!

'It's also important. Ostentatious means extravagant to a disgusting degree.'

Huh. You know any other long words?

'Yes, but we need to do the mission.'

I looked around for a good area to change, and spotted an alleyway across the street from the agency. Entering, I took out the bottle Kaito had given me, filled with around a cup of blood. I had asked Kaito how he had gotten this, but he had simply deadpanned ("do you want to ask stupid questions or do the mission?") and given me a few other things, notably an ID card and some clothes. I did press him on it, and he confessed that the person he'd taken these from was fine.

I was still a little uncomfortable, but this was to take down a scumbag, so I took the blood, changed, and put the clothes on. Kaito had given me a name and a little bit about the person. Ai Nakamura, a support staffer for the agency, and a trusted one at that. Apparently Silver Falcon wasn't keen on hiring outside companies to do his support equipment, and registered for permission to have his gear done in house.

I needed to do this quick. From what Toga had told me and the info I had from the show, this change wasn't going to last much more than an hour. So I put on the most professional demeanor I could, and the mission began as I walked into the lion's den.

This wasn't the first time I'd used our quirk really, but I never did get used to the feeling of it. Especially the feeling of your previous form basically melting off you. It was gross. Still, it was useful, if you could work around its very specific trigger.

The doors opened, and it appeared as if I had entered a lobby area. There wasn't a receptionist at the desk, though Kaito had told me there likely wouldn't be at the hour I had come, late in the day, when most of the staff was gone, and just a skeleton shift of security was there. Not even Silver Falcon was there, his attention likely focused on his criminal enterprises as Black Dove currently.

The agency was just as gaudy inside as well, as I made my way through its halls. I encountered a few personnel, but it was pretty easily dealt with. A few support staff, a security guard (why at a hero agency?), and a secretary on their way out. They questioned me, Ai had apparently not come in yesterday, but I had managed to explain it away and say I had been caught up in some project at home.

This felt far too easy. I had managed to make it from the first floor to the third, where Silver Falcon's personal offices were, without alerting anyone. Silver Falcon must either be confident no one would think to look into him, or there's something more to this security.

The third floor was eerily quiet, no one going up there unless it was absolutely necessary aside from Silver Falcon himself, and it was dark, though a light flicked on at my movement. I winced at that; motion detectors may be a bad sign.

Still, I needed to get the files quick. I had already spent twenty minutes here. My transformation had maybe fifty- or forty-minutes left. I walked down the halls, passing a few offices before I found the one I was looking for.

Pushing open the door, I was greeted by quite the sight. Silver Falcon's office was not exactly subtle, having numerous news articles about him plastering one of the walls, while a few photos from photo ops were hanging around. The guy really liked himself, that was probably no manipulation. I stood frozen for just a minute before Himiko piped up.

Evan! We need to find that evidence thing before we run out!

'Right, right. Thanks.'

No problem :)

Okay, now Shade said that Black Dove liked keeping physical files along with his digital records. He would notice those missing, so the best way to get the evidence was…I looked over at his computer. Had sticky notes all over it, and I quickly walked over and looked at them.

Let's see here. Meeting at the docks at 10. Nope. Discuss Shade with Takahashi. Hmmm, slightly more interesting. Password: SilverDove. Aha! That could be the computer password. Turning the monitor on, there was a password screen. Typing the password I found in lead to the home screen. Black Dove was not subtle, though very few would make the connection just from that though. I inserted the drive Kaito had given me, and all I could do was a bit of real-life inspection as the download went. Looking through papers didn't find much, mostly a few reports and a few fan letters, though reading them made me gag. I did find a few interesting things though, notably a few paper reports from Takahashi, calling Silver Falcon 'Boss', though that alone was not hard evidence.

Ughhh, this office mission is boooooring. Why can't we just stab this one? He's a bad guy!

'Have we killed a lot of bad guys? Or any for that matter?'

Well…no. Can we stab him a little though?

'Maybe.'

Yay!

Don't get too excited, we still have prep to do, and we need to- aha!

Looking at a few of the older stacks had yielded something promising. An old unsent letter, with a black dove on the seal. I would bet this thing even has his fingerprints on it. I could ask why he had a letter when he had thugs who could deliver a message, but hey. Not gonna turn down some evidence.

By the time I'd tucked the letter and a few other more incriminating papers away, the flash had finished. Kaito had told me there wouldn't even be a trace of the tampering, but then, I couldn't be sure. Still, I had to get out of here. Kaito said he would sort the computer data I got.

Walking out of the office, I made sure to keep everything back where I had found it. Then I took the stairs down, the elevator a bit too slow for me. I had around fifteen minutes left in this body, and then I'd be melting. I wanted to get out of here and get the physical stuff out of these clothes, since I didn't want any residue to cling to them and ruin them.

The way out was fairly easy to find the second time back, and I didn't even bump into anyone unlike on the way in, aside from the security guard who gave me a lazy wave as I walked past. About five minutes, and I was out the door, breaking into a run before getting back into the alleyway. There, I took the papers and drive out, and sighed, letting the form drop.

Again, it was weird feeling my body change and then the previous one melt off me at the same tim, but soon I shook off most of what I had on me, pocketed the evidence, and looked up a map to get back to my place. Kaito said we'd meet the next day to go over things.

Well, that had been easier than I thought. Then again, not everyone accounts for shapeshifters. Black Dove had managed to operate for a decade untouched, and he had gotten arrogant, too set against one opponent. He knew how the Shade operated and could secure against a quirkless vigilante like him.

But me? I was the wildcard, and he'd never saw me coming.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOOXOXOXO

The next day was boring as hell, even as at the same time it was nerve wracking. With Kaito going through data and me having not much to do, the energy I had found was increasingly prevalent made me restless.

I ended up talking with Uraraka a bit, and even from the experiences I'd already had with her, the things I'd seen and read had not been exaggerating her. She was legitimately the nicest person I'd met for a while. Sweet, Kind, and just a breath of air compared to others. Kaito was a good guy, and we had a found a sort of friendship forming, but he could be a downer and too stoic for some things.

Even though we had only hung out once, it was nice to be forming a friendship. I hadn't done that for a while back home, my own problems making it hard to connect with new people. Sure I had the group I had been with since I was a kid, but it could be hard. After the USJ though, it felt like I could really do anything.

Kaito had been serious about decoding, spending nearly the entire day going through it and compiling a sort of 'Evidence Folder' to send to the authorities. The physical evidence could be delivered the same day, secretly.

Kaito had also filled me in on some of the stuff we'd found. The letter was apparently a way to intimidate business owners, as well as give deadline. A week from then, if they didn't pay tribute, something was going to happen. That seemed like a suspicious detail to me. How is it that the police didn't catch on that these letters threatening destruction just happened to coincide with the shops hit by villains that Silver Falcon then captured? You'd think that after enough of them, they would see a pattern.

But hey, it wasn't really my place to be mulling those questions over. It didn't matter in the long term, whether he covered his tracks well, the police were morons, or both. It was all going to come crashing down soon.

Once Kaito had what he deemed the relevant and damning evidence (at least enough to raise alarms and start an investigation), he called me, and we met at a small café, the same one we'd met at before, to discuss strategy. We got one of the more isolated booths, and once we'd gotten our orders, the discussion began. I leaned forward a bit.

"Sooo…now that we've got that part, what now? You find out where the head honcho might be so we can take him down?"

Kaito sipped his tea casually before replying.

"Yes, actually. It appears that Black Dove will be in a vulnerable position two days from now. He'll be meeting with the leader of another gang to talk about an agreement. The meeting will likely be lightly guarded, despite the importance."

I raised an eyebrow at that.

"Seems a little weird."

Kaito shook his head.

"Only on the surface. The more men, the more likely it would be to draw attention. Besides, those that will be there won't be pushovers."

I nodded, giving my own tea a good sip.

This one's my favorite!

'What a coincidence. Mine…too…'

You okay?

'Yeah, just something else to ponder.'

"So, we attack then? When do we get the info to the police? Know anyone trustworthy?"

Kaito nodded.

"I can take care of both the physical and digital evidence. Just have to pull an old identity out of my pocket."

I leaned in a little, feeling curious.

"Old identity? Do tell."

Kaito took a long drink before he started talking.

"For a little while before I was The Shade, I used my skill with computers and hacking to leak information to authorities, be it heroes or police. I called myself Spotlight."

I hummed at that.

"I take it this is a resurrection then?"

He nodded.

"I haven't used my identity as Spotlight for at least a year or so. But this would be a good time to bring him back, at least for a bit."

I smiled. This was all coming together.

"Alright. Two days from now, we show that asshole no one's untouchable, not even a hero."

Kaito nodded, smiling. It was around this time I heard someone walk to our table. Looking toward them, Uraraka was here, smiling slightly.

"Toga! Hi, how are you?"

I smiled back.

"I'm good! Nice to see ya again Uraraka, especially here."

She nodded, before looking over at Kaito, seeming curious.

"Is he a friend? I haven't met him before."

Kaito inclined his head in a small bow.

"Kaito Akitamura. Pleasure to meet you."

Uraraka simply smiled back at him, before returning the small gesture.

"Ochako Uraraka. Same."

Kaito cocked an eyebrow.

"The same one who made it to the final round of the 1st year sports festival?"

Uraraka blushed a little.

"Yeah. That's me."

Kaito was silent for a moment.

"That's good to know. I currently am a third year in the support department at UA. Nice to see the new class of hero students is good."

Uraraka seemed surprised at that.

"You're a support student?"

Kaito nodded.

"I sometimes help tutor the students in the first year too, so I kind of hear the noise around you."

Uraraka's smile somehow grew brighter.

"I'll do my best not to disappoint those expectations!"

Kaito nodded, then paused, before he said one more thing.

"Maybe…you might not need this now, but later in the year, if you want to improve your costume, come to the support lab on a Thursday. You can find me there, though you might need to go to the third floor one. I might be able to help you."

Uraraka nodded furiously.

"Thank you! I might need to take you up on that this year."

She looked over at me, smile still on her face as she talked.

"Oh yeah, I just wanted to say hi when I saw you, but do you want to come hang out soon? I think you might get along with some of the people I met at UA and I would love to get to know you more."

I nodded.

"Would be glad to. See ya."

Uraraka beamed as she waved and ran off.

"Bye!"

'OH MY GOD DID I JUST AGREE TO HANG OUT WITH DEKU?'

Ow.

Kaito kept his slight smile as he turned to me.

"Quite the friend you seem to have made."

I sighed but nodded.

"We don't know each other that well, but we're slowly getting closer."

Kaito nodded, before turning back to our last topic.

"So, we have an outline of our plan. We can do specifics tomorrow. We understand?"

I nodded, grinning impishly.

"Let's knock this guy out."