Chapter 7

.::Some New Old Friends::.

"Gentle Criminal and Phantom Shadow?"

Mina blinked as she slurped up her ramen noodles, making Kumiko snicker even as she shook a finger at her. "Don't eat with your mouth full, Mina-chan!" her old friend scolded, but the edge was lost in the face of her amused smirk. Still, Mina dutifully swallowed the mouthful of noodles and dropped her chopsticks before speaking.

"Who're they?" she asked.

"Wow, you really do have amnesia, don't you?" Anjou drawled next to her, arching an eyebrow as she tapped away on her cell phone.

"Yeah, that's what I said!" Mina huffed, pouting at her. "Did you think I was lying about that?"

"Nah. You're not smart enough for that." Anjou shrugged even as Mina squawked with offense at the remark, while Kumiko just laughed. Mina pouted and crossed her arms with a huff, pointedly looking away from the smug girl next to her.

For lack of any better ideas, Mina had ultimately decided to just go to school and tell everyone she had a sudden case of partial amnesia. Convincing the teachers had been easy enough since she honestly didn't know their names or where the classes were, and from there her friends had picked up the slack. Kumiko had been her best friend back in middle school so she was familiar, but Anjou was totally new to her. She was a lot more deadpan and snarky than anyone else she knew, and so far Mina liked that about her.

Adjusting to a totally new school mid-year was weird, but between them and Kirishima, Mina figured she'd probably be fine. Speaking of Kirishima, Mina perked up as she noticed an increasingly-familiar head of shaggy black hair towards the side of the cafeteria, practically jumping to her feet and waving eagerly. "Kirishima!" she shouted, several nearby people flinching at her volume. The target of her yells winced and nearly dropped his tray, shooting her a startled look, and Mina just grinned and waved her arms. "Over here!"

Kirishima seemed to shrink in on himself as several pairs of eyes moved his way, his head ducking as he quickly hurried over. "D-don't just call me like that!" he hissed, slipping into the seat next to Kumiko almost hesitantly. "Everyone was staring!"

"But if I didn't call you, how would I know where I was?" Mina retorted with a roll of her eyes. Kirishima frowned but didn't bother arguing, so she counted it as a victory.

In a lucky coincidence for her, Kirishima not only happened to go to the same high school in Kamino, but also moved into the same apartment building, hence why he'd visited her that first day. Between that and already knowing each other in middle school, Mina had a multitude of excuses for latching onto him in her current state of "confusion," and she had no intentions of wasting the opportunity.

In the three days she'd gotten to know him she had found so many differences from her Kirishima. This guy had only bits and pieces of the high confidence he had in UA, he doubted himself so much! It boggled her mind how much he'd changed. They hadn't talked much in middle school, but still, she didn't think he'd been this bad. She had made it her self-proclaimed goal to fix that as soon as possible, because if she was going to get through this mess, she'd need a plucky sidekick to help her out!

...Also, she might want to learn some embarrassing secrets to tease him with after she got home. Hero student or not, Mina was a mischief-maker at heart.

"Anyways," Anjou said, drawing everyone's attention, "Gentle Criminal and Phantom Shadow are a pair of popular phantom thieves." She held her phone to the side so Mina could see. The screen showed a man in a costume resembling a fine suit sitting in a nicely decorated room holding a cup of tea, and a cloaked figure lurking in the shadows behind him.

"Huh, that suit-guy's kinda familiar," she said. Kumiko gave an overly dramatic gasp, her hands fluttering over her heart as she grinned.

"I knew it!" she cried gleefully. "I knew you'd remember Gentle-sama!"

"Gentle-sama?" Mina blinked, surprised by Kumiko's excitement. "Wait, hold on, isn't this guy, like, a thief? He's totally a villain, why are you so excited over him!?"

"He's a chivalrous thief," Kumiko corrected pointedly. "He only steals from deplorable companies that lie to the public and exposes their corruption for all to see. He and Phantom are practically vigilantes!"

"Yeah, villain-themed vigilantes," Kirishima snorted, rolling his eyes. "I'm with Ashido on this one, the fangirls are kinda creepy. Plus the guy looks like he's, like, forty."

"Phantom Shadow's probably younger," Anjou pointed out, pulling her phone back. "No one really knows though, not like anyone's ever seen his face. He mostly just lurks in the background as support. You should see the fan art, lots of interesting speculation."

"He has fan art?" Kirishima asked slowly, and flinched when Kumiko suddenly sparkled. Literally. Her Quirk had been half the reason Mina became friends with her in the first place.

"Yesss!" she hissed gleefully, an almost demented grin on her face as her phone suddenly appeared in her hand. "So much fan art! There are so many different theories! Like, in this one he's a beautiful black-haired boy whose face is so beautiful everyone falls in love instantly! And in this one, he's just a shadow, but like, with a physical form!" She shoved the phone in Kirishima's face as she rambled on, the black-haired boy leaning back with a panicked look.

As her excited rambling continued he shot Mina a desperate look, wordlessly pleading for help, to which she just innocently looked away. Sorry Kirishima, she apologized silently. She had learned long ago that there was no way to stop Kumiko when she got excited, not unless you joined in and out-talked her. This would just be another stepping stone for him to toughen up again.

While her best friend assaulted Kirishima with information she turned her attention to Anjou. "So they seriously have a fan following?" she asked curiously.

"Yeah, guess people like seeing a villain that's not malicious," Anjou replied with a shrug, not looking up from her phone as she continued tapping away. "It's not like they go out of their way to hurt people or steal anything big. Last time they stole some CEO's trophy from their college days."

"Huh? A trophy?" Mina blurted. "But that's so weird! Like, I have three back at home just from participating in sports and stuff! Why not something valuable like—like, diamonds, or rubies, or gold, or, or—I don't know, a boat or plane?"

"They do it more for show than anything, always make a big scene," Anjou said with another shrug. "But after their thefts they upload a video with a bunch of evidence about corruption in the company that leads to a bunch of arrests and scandals. That's probably why Gentle's considered half-vigilante." She snorted and rolled her eyes skyward, thumbs pausing temporarily as they hovered over her phone. "We've already got enough villains running around, we don't need more skulking around in corporations."

Mina frowned at that, slowly sinking back in her seat as she turned back to her food. "Yeah, I guess," she mumbled, feeling a bit more somber. The increase in villain activity compared to what she knew still made her highly uneasy and uncomfortable, but everyone here treated it so normally. The explosion which had closed school had been treated as perfectly routine, people barely even talked about it other than to complain they'd have classes tomorrow (on a Saturday!) to make up for the lost day.

She didn't like it, this world felt wrong and scary.

Pursing her lips, she slapped her cheeks and shook her head, banishing the dark thoughts before plastering on a bright grin. "Kirishima, we should go to the arcade after school today!" she announced, interrupting Kumiko's lecture. Kirishima startled, snapping a wide-eyed look at her.

"B-but I have to study!" he whined. "We have that big science test tomorrow, and my folks'll kill me if I fail!"

"Screw tests, we're only young once!" Mina declared, slamming her hands on the table with a fierce scowl. "We should live life to the max!"

"You're only saying that because you're guaranteed to fail," Anjou deadpanned.

"That too!"

"B-But Ashido—"

"No buts! You and I are going to the arcade so I can kick your butt in Mortal Kombat, no arguing allowed!" As Kirishima sputtered in shock Mina just grinned at him, knowing she'd already won the argument. Whether her Kirishima or this overly timid one, she always did have the edge in arguments like this. Her high enthusiasm just outshone his natural hard-headed stubbornness, which she was really starting to miss.

Well, they'd work on it.

"Yaomomo called two times last night," Kyouka groused as she checked her phone, dragging a hand down her face.

"Again?" Kaminari poked his head out of the bathroom, a towel half-draped over his head as his hair dripped. "Maybe you should call her back and let her know you're, you know, alive...?"

"I might if I actually knew her," Kyouka groaned, flopping back onto the couch. "I don't want to say the wrong thing and make her suspicious."

"...Yeah, that's fair." Kaminari retreated to finish drying off and Kyouka sighed, just staring at the text thread. After their first day in this weird world she'd basically moved into Kaminari's place in fear of Yaoyorozu randomly visiting. It sort of sucked, because Kaminari didn't have a multi-room apartment like she did, just a bedroom and bathroom. She'd been camping out on the couch, not daring to touch the bed for fear of what he might have done in it. But she doubted Yaoyorozu would ever think to look here.

Avoiding a classmate felt weird and a bit uncomfortable, especially one who she considered such a good friend, but Kyouka didn't feel like they had many better options at the moment. Yaoyorozu was smart, easily the smartest girl in their class, if not the smartest person. At UA that made her an asset and valuable ally, but here, that only made her dangerous.

In this world, the most dangerous people would be those who were close to their counterparts and could tell if they changed. Based on the text conversations, Kyouka had apparently become best friends with Yaoyorozu at some point, even closer than they'd been at UA. If anyone would notice Kyouka acting differently, it would probably be her. For now she'd avoided suspicion by claiming she was experiencing some sensory overload from her Quirk and needed to stay somewhere quiet for a few days, but she couldn't avoid Yaoyorozu forever.

It sucked, because in any other circumstance Yaomomo would be an absolute asset. Especially now.

She sighed, letting her phone's screen go dim as she stared at the ceiling. This world sucked. She wanted to hurry up and go home, but they weren't exactly in a good position. They had failed to find any of their classmates online except Mineta, who they'd both agreed wasn't worth contacting. Even without his perverted tendencies, he wouldn't be much help here; he never did handle pressure well. It didn't seem like he was caught up in whatever this was anyway, just like Yaoyorozu.

Though at this point, she admittedly wouldn't mind seeing their Mineta again. Yeah, the guy was really annoying and gross at times, but as far as perverts went he was actually pretty harmless. He was more talk than anything, too weak and timid to be genuinely predatory. At most he would grab someone's chest if the opportunity arose, which, don't get her wrong, that was still really bad, but not like sexual assault levels of bad. At least it was familiar.

The thought made her bark out into startled laughter, letting her arm drape over her eyes. She heard fumbling from the bathroom before the door opened, Kaminari no doubt peering out wide-eyed. "Jirou?" he asked in alarm. "What's with the weird laugh?" Kyouka's laughter faded to a chuckle, low and grim as she smirked at the ceiling.

"I think I'm actually missing Mineta," she replied, her voice coming out hoarser than she'd expected. There was a long moment of silence on Kaminari's end, the boy perfectly still. Then, she heard a low, "Shit," followed by the door closing and more loud fumbling.

Lifting her arm a bit so she could see, she twisted her head towards the bathroom door just in time to see the blond soon burst out clad in a t-shirt and shorts. His body still hadn't dried completely, causing the white shirt to stick to his chest and look partially translucent while his hair continued to drip. Some people would probably find the sight to be seductive and utter fan service, but Kyouka found any such effects totally offset by A) it being Kaminari, and B) his comically panicked expression.

"Uh, d-don't freak out!" he said hurriedly, scurrying over to her while waving his hands almost frantically. "I know it looks bad now, b-but, it's not, like, this is p-permanent or anything! I mean, p-probably not, wait—ah, uh—crap, I don't know how to do this, how do you comfort people—just, um..." He trailed off, visibly struggling for something to say while Kyouka just stared at him almost blankly.

Scrambling desperately for words, he took a deep breath and pushed on, "Plus Ultra?"

UA's motto came out meek and hesitant, the blond wincing even as he held both hands in a thumbs up with a smile plastered on his face that looked more like a grimace than anything cheery. Kyouka continued to stare at him blankly, the silence causing his smile to falter more towards the "grimace" end of the spectrum as it stretched on, and his hands began to lower.

Finally, Kyouka spoke.

"You look like a total dork," she informed him flatly. Kaminari squawked, his hands falling to his sides as his jaw dropped in disbelief before he glared at her. Or at least, as much as a person like Kaminari could glare when obviously embarrassed.

"I was trying to cheer you up!" he sputtered defensively. "I mean, you're acting all weird and mopey lately! I'm trying really hard not to let us both freak out! Don't just dismiss my efforts so easily!"

"I'm not," Kyouka countered, smirking at him. "I'm just telling you the facts. You looked really stupid there." More stunned sputtering followed her declaration, soon turning into a whine of frustration as he threw up his hands and spun around, marching off to the back part of the room where they'd set up a folding screen to create some privacy. As he stalked away Kyouka's expression became softer, shifting to sit up straight. It hadn't been how he'd intended, but he'd managed to lift her spirits a little.

More importantly, now that Kaminari was done in the bathroom, she could take a shower. She could use one; his apartment wasn't dirty, but it still had that messy vibe like most "bachelor pads" that left it feeling a little less clean than her own room. With that in mind she rose to head to the bathroom, grabbing the bag sitting by the couch containing clothes she'd grabbed from her apartment, only to pause as an electronic ringtone sounded.

She glanced at the coffee table where Kaminari's phone sat, the screen now lit up with a notification of a text. Frowning, she picked it up and glanced over her shoulder at the folding screen. "Oi, Kaminari, you got a text," she called.

"Seriously? Who's it from?"

"It says..." Kyouka paused as she read the name shown on the preview, her eyebrows raising. "'Scary Pink Lady.'"

"...What?" The blond poked his head into view with a puzzled frown, looking a bit worried. "What... what did she say?"

"Dunno, let me check." Kyouka swiped across the unlock screen and quickly keyed in the pin code. Seeing as neither of them really considered these phones theirs, they'd decided to just share their pin codes for easier access. She opened the message app and read it over quickly. "She's asking where you are." The phone buzzed again even as she spoke, a new message coming in. "...She just said, 'Too slow. Are you alive?'"

"Uh... Type yes?" Kaminari sounded hesitant, not that she could blame him. Shrugging, Kyouka typed in the short response he dictated, question mark and all, figuring it would probably be better not to leave the person hanging.

Two seconds after pressing 'send' a heavy knocking suddenly pounded on the door, making them both jump. They exchanged wary looks as the pounding continued, their expressions grim and serious. The timing left no doubt that "Scary Pink Lady" was the one knocking, but they had no idea who she might be. They didn't have time to look at the past message history for clues, and neither of them had their Hero gear to help direct their Quirks, limiting their options if a fight broke out.

Nodding at each other, Kyouka set down the phone and the pair approached the door in silence, quickly stationing themselves on either side. Kyouka crouched down to the side just behind where the door would swing open, gripping the ends of her earphone-jacks in preparation to fight. Kaminari slowly reached for the handle, pausing to glance at her nervously, and she met his gaze evenly with a small nod. Gulping as the knocking sounded again, he turned back and undid the lock.

The second it clicked the door flew open, a blurry figure zooming past him as he jumped back with a startled yelp. Kyouka jolted, nearly activating her Quirk on instinct before realizing the newcomer was a teenage girl wearing the same uniform she'd found in her own apartment. "Finally!" the girl proclaimed with a grin, speed-walking towards the coffee table and dropping a backpack on it. "I've been waiting all week to grab you! Come on, let's get to work Battery-kun!"

She turned to face them and stopped, a static smile plastered on her face as she looked at them. Kaminari had fallen into a half-abandoned battle stance, his hands half-raised to hover around his waist in an almost defensive position while his legs were crooked. Behind him Kyouka remained crouched, still clutching the ends of both earphone jacks as she stared at the newcomer.

A long beat of silence passed, none of them moving as they stared each other down. The girl's smile remained still and unfading, thoughts unreadable, until finally she blinked.

"Oh, so you have a girlfriend now!" she said. "So that's why you've been skipping school!"

"W-wh-wha!?" Kaminari sputtered in shock, while Kyouka deadpanned a flat, "What, no."

"But that's totally irrelevant to me!" the girl continued, ignoring them as she turned back to her backpack and ripped it open. "You still owe me that debt, Battery-kun! And we're now two days behind on testing!" She spun around to face them holding up some kind of bulky device with two antennae sticking out that Kyouka did not recognize. "Now hurry and power it up, I need to see if it works!"

"Um, what?" Kaminari squeaked, paling as he shrunk back. At that point the girl suddenly seemed to almost teleport right in front of him, her face inches away from his and making him jump back against the door with a small shriek. She just kept that unsettling smile, the crosshairs in her yellow eyes almost resembling sparkles as she leaned even closer to his face.

"We're doing the test here and now!" she informed him brightly. "If you wanted to do it in my lab, you should've gone to school!" She pulled away enough to thrust the mysterious device in his face, adding, "Now grab those handles and give it some juice! I want to see if my baby's working yet!"

Kaminari slid down slightly, a scared whimper escaping him as he stared up at her. Next to them Kyouka just watched blankly, her earphone jacks slipping out of her hands as she realized the danger was gone. Or, mostly gone.

"You're that inventor girl from the Support Department," she said, finally recognizing her from the Sports Festival. The girl turned her head to face her, still smiling and jabbing the mystery-device in Kaminari's face.

"I don't know about a support department, but yes, I am the great inventor Hatsume Mei!" she confirmed. "Remember my name, for one day my inventions will revolutionize the world! Starting with this baby! As soon as Battery-kun powers it up." She turned back to Kaminari, who winced and whimpered again as he shot Kyouka a desperate, pleading look.

"...Uh, why do you need Kaminari's help with this?" Kyouka asked, figuring it'd probably be better for her to take the lead.

"Because this baby is too strong for a conventional battery!" Hatsume proclaimed, not taking her gaze from Kaminari as she sort of shook her invention in his face. "With his Quirk, he can charge it directly!"

"What does it even do?" Kaminari asked, eying the object with fear and suspicion. Mostly fear.

"This baby will produce sound waves that will scan the room like sonar and generate a map, which it will then use to create a holographic projection that will cover everything!" A pause, and then, just as energetically, "If it doesn't explode again!"

"Explode!?" Kaminari squeaked, scrambling away from the object with a look of pure horror. "Holy shit, are you serious!? I'm not touching that!"

In response the object moved away from his face to be replaced by Hatsume's face, the girl bent almost ninety-degrees at the waist as she loomed over him with that same unsettling smile. "But you owe me!" she told him, just as energetic and manic as before but with an almost sinister edge. "Battery-kun short-circuited when he bumped into my bag and fried all the stuff in there! That's why you have to help me test all my strongest babies until you've paid off your debt!"

"How much are we talking here?" Kyouka asked curiously as she watched her friend sink further to the floor, Hatsume leaning further in time with him. "Like, a few thousand yen, or..."

Mei temporarily straightened, turning her head to her. "Three hundred fifty-thousand yen's worth of circuitry and hardware!" she chirped, making Kyouka's jaw fell open with shock as she pushed on, "And he's only worked off five hundred of it! So get to work!" she added, turning back to a very pale Kaminari.

At this point, the fourth wall must be broken to explain the severity of young Kaminari Denki's debt.

At the time of writing, the conversion rate of yen to US dollars is 1 Japanese yen equals 0.0089. Rounding up that 0.0089 to a neater 0.01, that would mean one yen is equal to roughly one cent, and one hundred yen is equal to a little under one US dollar. Thus, 350,000 yen would be equivalent to a little over 3,000 US dollars.

In short: Kaminari, with his limited allowance and income as an unemployed high school student, was screwed.

Back within the safe confines of the fourth wall, the young blond was hyper-aware of this fact and appeared to enter a fugue state, his eyes glazing over with blank horror as he stared up at the manic inventor girl currently shoving her latest creation in his face. Kyouka, who wasn't the target of the girl's rambling, still found herself struggling to get her thoughts back on track after hearing the insane number. Frowning, she lightly slapped her cheeks and took a deep breath, trying to organize her thoughts.

Hatsume Mei, she knew, was an incredible inventor. Her demonstration back in the Sports Festival using Iida as an unwilling model for her inventions had been one of the most memorable matches of all, if only by sheer merit of Iida's griping after he returned to the stands. Since then they'd seen her work sporadically, a few of her inventions being used in upgrades to their classmates' hero costumes.

Based on the past five minutes, it was pretty clear that passion hadn't changed here even if she didn't go to UA. Kyouka's mind raced with the implications of this. Hatsume was an eccentric inventor, one who she knew to be competent despite how abrasive her enthusiasm could be. The "exploding" part was a bit off-putting, but Hatsume had just described something pretty big and complicated, as opposed to other devices that might be simpler.

"Hey," she said, cutting into Hatsume's prodding. "Do you take requests?"

"Requests?" Hatsume straightened and turned to face Kyouka completely this time, holding her invention at waist-level and giving Kaminari some much-needed breathing room.

"You said that thing works with sound waves, right?" Kyouka asked, nodding to the device. "Could you maybe do something similar, but with boots?"

"Boots?" Hatsume's smile remained unchanged, but her eyes held a more calculating gleam now. "Where would the sound waves come into play? Amplify the sound of the footsteps?"

"More like I plug my earphone jack in and they become speakers," Kyouka corrected, twirling one of the jacks for emphasis as she spoke. "My Quirk lets me channel my heartbeat into whatever I plug into and basically cause massive vibrations inside it. If I had sturdy speakers, I could turn it into sonic waves and direct them at stuff. I was thinking something similar for my hands, too. Gauntlets that double as Amplifier Jacks."

"Ooh, I see, I see!" Hatsume said, bobbing her head. "And then you'd be able to slam your hands on stuff and channel the sonic waves that way! I like it!" She thrust her invention towards Kaminari as she spoke, the blond scrambling to catch it and grunting as it plummeted into his lap. Hatsume strode towards Kyouka and stopped barely a foot away, their faces now inches away from each other as she leaned forward. "I can definitely do that, easy! But the question is why?"

"Do you really need a reason?" Kyouka asked, leaning back slightly but keeping her tone cool and collected. "You seem like the kind of girl who'd jump on any reason to invent something new."

"I am!" Mei confirmed with an enthusiastic nod. "I love inventing, it is my greatest passion! But," she continued, emphasizing the word, "If my babies are misused, then I'll get in all sorts of trouble! People are so jumpy about villains these days. If my babies ever get tied to a crime, I'll be put under all sorts of restrictions!" Her smile remained intact but her eyes held a colder gleam now, more threatening and ominous as she leaned forward just a little more. "So if you're thinking of using my babies for something bad, then just stop now!"

Kyouka met her gaze squarely, undeterred by the sudden air of warning the other girl emanated. "I'm not a villain," she declared firmly. "I want to be a hero."

"A Hero?" Hatsume repeated, eyes still cold, still calculating, and Kyouka nodded.

"Like you said, everyone's jumpy about villains these days. There's too many villains, not enough Heroes. We might be in high school, but we have Quirks that can fight."

"We?"

"Me and Kaminari." She nodded at the blond, who had set down the invention and shakily risen to his feet during the conversation. He flinched slightly when Hatsume's head swiveled to look at him, but he quickly frowned and stood up straighter, a look of determination in his eyes. "You obviously know what Kaminari's Quirk can do," Kyouka commented as the duo stared each other down. "Imagine if he could direct it at a specific target."

"Battery-kun?" Mei echoed thoughtfully. "The electric shocks would be awesome, just zap his enemies and make them stop!"

"Exactly," Kyouka agreed. "Kaminari and I are both sick of this world. Heroes shouldn't be hiding in the shadows letting villains run amuck like they are. We shouldn't be living in fear of getting kidnapped just for our Quirks." Her voice rang with a firm conviction and honesty, her words fueled by a genuine loathing of this world so different than their own.

They had spent the past four days hiding here, feeling disoriented and paranoid about their safety in what seemed to be a much more violent copy of their own world. If a villain attacked them for any reason, their ability to defend themselves would be severely hindered without their support gear. Both of their Quirks worked best when used with some sort of gear to help control their aim, whether it be Kyouka's boots or Kaminari's sharpshooting gear.

They could still fight without it and defend themselves, but their combat effectiveness was severely crippled in comparison. Their first real battle back at the USJ alone had shown just how much of a difference it made for Kaminari to have a way to direct his electricity.

And the best excuse to explain why they wanted their gear?

"We're going to be vigilantes," Kyouka declared.

Miles away from Kaminari's apartment Yaoyorozu Momo frowned down at her phone, the message app open to her conversation with Kyouka. The other girl had been strangely quiet the past few days, and Momo hadn't seen her in person once. Supposedly her Quirk had acted up and she needed to go somewhere quiet until the sensitivity faded, but Momo had her doubts about that. The lack of responses perturbed her.

The sound of the elevator doors opening broke her from her thoughts, and she slipped her phone into her bag as she stepped out into the hallway. She'd tried waiting for Kyouka to call or text her, but she couldn't stand it any longer. Walking past the rows of doors at a brisk pace, she stopped before the one marked '304' and rapped on the wood. "Kyouka?" she called. "It's Momo."

No response. Her mouth thinned, eyes hardening as she tried the handle. Locked.

Glancing around to check for witnesses or security cameras, she crouched down and discreetly pulled the hem of her uniform shirt away from her stomach, activating her Quirk. Two small, solid metal picks quickly formed, one bent at a ninety-degree angle and the other straight with a curved tip.

They fell into her waiting hand and with a fluid and almost graceful motion she slid the bent one into the bottom of the key hole, slipping the straight one in above it. Sorry, she apologized mentally as she began silently working at picking the lock. It took less than a minute before she heard a final click, and she quickly withdrew the tools and turned the knob to find no resistance.

She hurried inside and closed the door behind her, looking around the room with a frown. Kyouka's apartment looked the same as she remembered, everything still in place and nothing noticeably different from her last visit.

"Kyouka?" she called, walking towards the bedroom door. "If you're here, say something." She hesitated as she reached for the handle, not wanting to defy common courtesy by entering her room uninvited. Offering another mental apology she took a deep breath and pushed it open anyway.

The room was empty, no sign of Kyouka, and Momo bit her lip.

Turning on her heel, she walked briskly past the open bathroom door, pulling out her phone and dialing Kyouka's number. Once again it kept ringing with no answer, but she'd come to expect that at this point. When the now-familiar voice mail message started she hung up and opened up a message app instead, tapping out a quick note. 'Kyouka's not at home and not answering her phone. Any news on activity in Hosu?' She pressed send and held her breath, waiting for the answer.

Soon enough she saw the three dots indicating the other person typing a response. 'Nothing major. Didn't she say her Quirk was acting up?'

'She did, but I don't know why it would suddenly get sensitive. Am I just being paranoid?'

'Maybe, but better safe than sorry. I'll ask the others to keep an eye out. Just stay calm, there's still a chance she's just busy right now. I'll see you tomorrow.'

'Right. See you then.' She exhaled quietly as she slid the phone back into her bag, glancing around Kyouka's apartment one last time. No signs of a struggle at least. That didn't comfort her as much as she hoped.

So on AO3, someone predicted that Jirou and Kaminari would be rich in this AU, and I actually laughed. You now see why. I am oddly fond of that fourth wall break to help explain the debt. Computer parts can get expensive. Also, meet Anjou and Kumiko! Kumiko is loosely based on one of the girls from Kiri's flashback to Mina was friends with in a flashback. For the record, Mina calls Kumiko by her given name since they're good friends, but Anjou is called by her surname since they're not as close.

Also, unpopular opinion time: I don't actually hate Mineta like most of the fandom. Might be because I grew up with the Naruto fandom and thus Jiraiya, but his brand of perversion comes off much closer to comic relief to me. Just, really badly written and executed comic relief. Believe me, I'm not defending him. I absolutely get what's wrong with his actions and totally understand why so many people dislike his character. I don't fault writers for replacing him with someone else or having him expelled right off the bat. But if there's one thing I hate in fan fiction more than anything else, it's when people hyper-focus on one negative trait and use it to paint the REST of a character's personality.

Seriously. Mineta's a pervert, but he's not a stuck-up entitled bastard who sees himself as better than everyone else. Actually he has some pretty big confidence issues. If he got expelled on the first day, I think he'd probably just burst into tears rather than get angry or offended that someone else passed over him. Same goes for Endeavor. He might be a bad dad, but he wouldn't get to the Number Two rank in the first place if he had a civilian body count as high as some people portray. Seriously, I'm pretty sure massive collateral damage would be factored into his ranking. At the very least he wouldn't use his full strength and incinerate a city block to go after a petty thief.

Please don't hyper-focus on one bad trait and ignore the rest of a character's personality. Most of the characters in MHA are actually pretty well rounded and developed, they're not one-dimensional caricatures. Just saying, even serial killers in real life are usually able to hide their true nature and be "upstanding members of the community" when they're not murdering people.