Chapter 15
.::First Milestone::.
"So you haven't heard from him either?"
"Nope. Totoro never calls, and no emails, either, though not too surprised by that one. Last time I heard from him was after the big scene with you-know-who."
"Figures," Kuroe grumbled under his breath. He currently sat at his kitchen table, his phone sitting next to his laptop on speaker while he typed away. He'd pulled up his email—all of them, even the throwaway accounts he'd used for spam and shadier websites back in high school—and had spent the past few hours combing through them meticulously, but so far he'd found nothing. "I don't think he's emailed me in, wow, three years now."
There was a huff on the other end of the phone. "Better than me, the newest one I can find is four years ago. Makes me wonder how the hell he tracked me down last year."
"Who knows," Kuroe replied with a light shrug, logging out of his accounts and closing the windows as he deemed his search a lost cause. He paused then, and commented, "Actually, that is really weird, since you kinda have to be off the radar."
"I'm starting to think it was just luck," she replied wryly. "That, or the little demon helped him find me."
"Yeah, yeah." Kuroe rolled his eyes at the nickname, faintly amused by the annoyance in her tone. He had met the "demon" in question before and definitely left the encounter with an unsettled feeling, but he wasn't sure it merited such wariness on her part. There had to be some sort of history between the two she hadn't told him.
He kept his thoughts to himself though, knowing better than to ask. She never spoke about her past unless she wanted to, and he often regretted every little thing he learned. For now he just said, "Anyways, he'll probably reach out to one of us sometime soon. He's gotta be desperate by now."
"Assuming they were actually together. We don't have any actual confirmation on that, other than that late-night chat I had with him last year."
"No, but I'd definitely put my money on it if I were a betting man." He sighed, shaking his head. "Just—if he does contact me, what the hell do I say?"
"Friendly reminder I have less social skills than you."
"But you're more experienced at dealing with shady stuff like this."
"Ugh, it's so weird to call this shady," she groaned. "Okay, if we're being serious, I'd say your first step would be to try to get both sides of the story. We have no idea what's been happening since the last time we saw Totoro—and again, they might not even be connected." He heard a sigh, followed by a grumble of, "Knew we should've dragged him to your sister back then..."
"To be fair, Ran's got her own life," Kuroe pointed out mildly. "And that was right around exam time. She literally threatened to murder me if I disturbed her."
"You know she was probably exaggerating, right? Exam season does suck though. Glad we're done with that."
"You never even finished high school, did you?"
"Considering I have not needed to use anything I learned in high school, don't regret it," came the blithe reply, but then softer, "Do regret some other stuff that happened though. Anyways, I need to go now. I have a job in an hour, and I need to make lunch before I go."
"Say hi to your brother for me," Kuroe deadpanned, and heard a small huff.
"Not my brother."
"Alright, fine. Say hi to your unrelated way-younger childhood friend."
"...You're lucky I like you, Kuroe. Later." There was a beep as the call ended, and he closed his laptop with a sigh, rubbing at his forehead.
"Lucky, huh," he muttered, a rueful smirk on his face. Hardly a word he would have ever used for himself. For now though he pushed the thought away, picking up his phone to start scrolling through the messages to find the ongoing chat with his sister. The call had reminded him he needed to call her down to Odawara, the mere thought making him grimace. Nothing quite as awkward as speaking to your largely-estranged sister, but he needed her help with the runaway network.
Yesterday he'd gotten a call from Shiozaki informing him that she'd made contact with Todoroki Shouto and that he'd agreed to do some favors. He'd honestly been surprised the teen offered at all. He'd gotten the sense the boy was naturally wary and suspicious of strangers, not that Kuroe could blame him. In this day and age, being the son of a big-shot hero like Endeavor just made him a walking target.
That had been the reason he hadn't told anyone in the network Todoroki's actual identity just yet. No point making more targets for anyone searching for him. In this case, ignorance wasn't just bliss, it was safe.
He still wondered if he'd done the right thing by inviting the boy to join the runaway network. Todoroki was by far the highest-profile runaway to show up in Odawara, and he obviously had some sort of goal for coming there. With no knowledge of what he'd been up to since disappearing last year, Kuroe very well might have invited a world of trouble onto their small group.
If villains suddenly showed up looking for him, he wasn't sure they'd be able to get everyone out of Odawara without someone getting caught. They'd already lost one kid, losing even one more would crush them.
All the more reason to get Ran down here to meet Todoroki. At least then if everything went to hell, they could make sure he couldn't just disappear and leave chaos behind without having to account for his own actions. With that in mind Kuroe opened the conversation with his sister and typed out a quick invite to Odawara that weekend.
This was it. This was actually happening.
Denki could feel his heart hammering as he and Jirou walked through the alleyways, their hoods pulled over their heads. School had been effectively canceled due to a villain attack—apparently a common occurrence because the school had a system to have the classes online instead, which kind of seriously freaked him out—so they'd taken advantage of it to go on their first vigilante patrol.
"So, do you have, like, any experience with this stuff?" he whispered to Jirou anxiously. "I mean, my internship was pretty boring and uneventful."
"Same, honestly," she replied nonchalantly. "I helped direct civilians to safety a couple times, but I didn't get any action otherwise."
"So neither of us have real experience," he deadpanned. "Great." They hadn't even participated in the attack on the camp. Denki had been safely stuck in the lodge thanks to his remedial classes, while Jirou had been knocked out by the gas and thus missed all of the action. She hadn't even been awake by the time All Might's big battle happened. Which... had to be really disorienting now that he thought about it.
Now was not the time for serious discussions about any emotional trauma his friend might have endured though. Now, they were hunting down villains.
Yeah... This felt kind of insane. The vigilante thing sounded cool at first, but now that they were actually doing it, he felt hyper-aware of how vulnerable and inexperienced they were. If things went wrong, they could actually die. And if things went right, they could still die. "Aizawa-sensei will totally kill us if he ever finds out about this," he groaned.
"Yeah, he would," Jirou agreed as she stopped near the mouth of the alley. "But that would mean he's here too, and in that case I won't mind the lecture. Hell knows we need an adult. Now be quiet, I need to check something." As she talked she pressed a palm against the brick wall, and he could see the tip of her earphone jack protrude from her sleeve to plug into the bricks.
A few seconds passed and she withdrew it back into her sleeve, stepping back and smoothing the fabric. "There's a robbery inside there right now," she said lowly. "One guy, three civilians."
"Wait, what?!" Denki startled, barely remembering to keep his voice low. "Hold on, how did you even know to check that wall!?"
"I had a lot of free time while you were in class," Jirou responded smoothly. "I looked up local villain activity, and it turns out there's a bunch of apps to track that stuff. This area has a lot of crime, so I figured someone would attack this place sooner or later. I mean, it's a pretty popular convenience store, so, yeah. Didn't expect to get lucky on our first trip though."
"Lucky, huh," Denki muttered, and Jirou snorted.
"Yeah, I know. Weird word to use in this situation, right?" She tugged the mask over her mouth and the visor over her eyes, and Denki unconsciously mimicked her, nerves beginning to take root. This was it, the big moment. Their debut as vigilantes.
Letting Jirou take lead was natural. He knew he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, especially when he used up all his electricity, and right now his nerves would get in the way of making good decisions. He followed closely, Jirou leading the way to a back door connecting to the alley (and look, he would never think of that!) and quietly opening it. They slipped inside silently, entering a storage room.
"—the register now!" a deep voice was snarling from the front, probably the villain. He didn't pay much attention though, his gaze locked on the two people crouched by the shut door staring at them wide-eyed. His first thought: Crap, there's people hiding out here!
His second thought: HOLY SHIT IS THAT SERO!?
There was absolutely no doubt one of the two people gawking at them was Sero Hanta. He didn't wear any kind of school uniform, instead wearing what looked like a uniform for this store? Well, it was an ugly long-sleeved shirt with an orange and white color scheme and a dark green apron over it, so, yeah. Denki didn't think he'd wear that for kicks.
He was so shocked he almost didn't notice the other person—a woman with fluffy pink hair that looked like cotton candy—open her mouth, but luckily Jirou did and quickly raised a finger to her mouth. "We're not villains," she whispered. "We're here to help."
"Help?" Sero repeated in a hiss, eyes flicking towards the door before returning to them. "Are you guys, like heroes or something?"
"Or something," Denki muttered under his breath, and didn't miss the skeptical look Sero shot him. The woman gave a quiet gasp though, her eyes lighting up.
"Are you vigilantes?" she whispered, leaning forward expectantly.
"Yeah, we are," he confirmed, turning to her with a nod while Jirou crept towards the door. He figured she was going to use her earphone jack to get a read on the situation in the other room, so he took it upon himself to distract the others. "By the way, did you guys call the police or anything?"
"Can't," Sero scoffed quietly, scowling bitterly. "My phone's dead, and she dropped hers when that guy burst in."
"He surprised me!" the woman whined quietly with a childish pout. "I heard the bell and looked up at that ceiling-mirror-thing by the front door, and that guy took two steps in and then his hair suddenly popped up and made his head look like a giant sea urchin! You know people don't just suddenly activate their Quirks like that unless they're planning to do something!"
"Yeah, you got a point there," Denki agreed with a nod. Sea urchins were spiky, right? And probably poisonous, too. In other words, touching this guy would probably be a bad idea. Good thing neither of them needed to make direct contact.
"Hey," Jirou hissed, drawing his attention. She waved a hand at him to get closer and Denki obediently scurried to her side. She pitched her voice even lower now, making sure the others wouldn't hear. "He's in a straight line from the door, about three meters away and facing a counter. I'm thinking I'll open it and charge in as a distraction. Think you can use a rod and tase him?"
"Yeah, I can do that," Denki confirmed with a nod, feeling way more relaxed and confident now that they had a plan. Jirou nodded back, and they quickly pressed against the wall next to the door. Jirou held up a hand and silently counted down from three with her fingers, and when the last one went down she slammed it open and charged out with a ferocious shout.
The sudden commotion obviously drew the attention of the robber, who roared loudly in indignation. "Who the hell are you!?" Denki could hear something crash, making him hold his breath and the others in the room flinch. He quickly took a peek outside, trying not to be seen.
Just as the pink-haired woman had described, the guy's head looked like a giant sea urchin, the black spikes sharp and dangerous looking. What she didn't mention or notice: his arms had the same spikes in the place of arm hair. It didn't seem like he could launch them, thankfully, but he swung his arm at Jirou with an angry yell, the female vigilante neatly ducking out of its range while the poor cashier ducked behind the counter.
Denki didn't waste the distraction, quickly pointing his index finger at the man's back with his thumb raised high. A cool wave of calmness washed over him, his nerves vanishing as he focused on the villain. "Bang," he whispered, and brought his thumb down on the trigger button on his gloves.
Instantly a slender golden needle shot out from the small compartment on the back of his wrist, a near-invisible wire trailing behind it. It hit the man square in the back, making him flinch and start to turn, but before he could Denki released an arc of electricity. Lightning surged along the thin wire and the man screamed as it reached him, jolting in place with his face contorted in pain and shock. As he staggered back Jirou lunged for his legs, knocking him off-balance and sending him to the ground.
Denki grabbed the wire with his other hand and yanked it back, jerking the lightning rod free with it. Before it could reach him though Jirou snatched the needle from the air and stabbed it into the man's other arm, making him shout in pain. "Do it again!" she hollered, and Denki startled before obeying, quickly sending another jolt of electricity. The man spasmed once and then went still, eyes rolling back in his head.
For a moment all was silent, tension thick in the air. Denki flinched when the man's fingers twitched slightly, holding his breath, but when he didn't make any other moves he hesitantly allowed himself to relax. The cashier slowly rose behind the counter, his four eyes wide and filled with a mixture of shock and awe.
"Holy shit," he whispered, echoing Denki's feelings very accurately. As he stared at the fallen villain he could hear Sero and the woman emerge, padding behind him.
"Is he down?" Sero asked hesitantly.
"I... Yeah, I think so."
"Good." There was a long beat of silence. Then, the woman spoke.
"So don't you have, like, anything to restrain him, or something...?"
"...I knew we were forgetting something," Jirou groaned, hanging her head in exasperation, and something about that looked so funny that Denki just wanted to laugh. All the tension in his body fled at once, his legs suddenly wobbly as his whole body drooped with relief.
"Holy shit, we did it!" he gasped, quiet laughter escaping him. "We beat a villain!"
"That reaction's really reassuring from the guys who just saved us," the cashier spoke up from behind the counter, now looking slightly unimpressed. The woman meanwhile gasped, clapping her hands together with a smile.
"Oh my gosh, is this your debut? Did we just see vigilantes debut!? Ahh, this is so amazing! We're your first saves!"
"Okay, before we go any further, does anyone have anything to tie this guy up?" Jirou cut in exasperatedly. "Seriously, we didn't bring zip ties or anything. And also, can one of you please call the police already?"
"Uh, I can help with the tying up thing," Sero volunteered hesitantly while the cashier pulled out his phone, and rolled up his sleeves to expose the tape dispensers on his elbows. He tore off a long strip and held it to Jirou, who took it while looking at the villain's arms thoughtfully. Since falling unconscious the spikiness had receded, leaving his hair flat on both his head and arms, but they couldn't guarantee the spikes wouldn't be able to break through the tape once he woke up.
Thinking fast, she pushed the guy's torso up and bent him forward. Denki scurried over to help hold it in place while she pulled one of his legs so the knee bent, and from there she awkwardly wrapped his wrist to his ankle. Sero ended up coming over to help with the other leg, a lot more hesitantly than he would if he'd been part of Class 1-A. All the while they could hear the cashier talk to the police, rattling off the location and details about the attack.
As they finished binding the robber's limbs they heard the click of a camera shutter, making all three freeze and snap their heads to see the pink-haired woman holding up a phone. "Sorry!" she said with a smile, lowering it to smile at them above the edge. "It's just so cool to see vigilantes debut! My friends are never going to believe this!"
"Uh, that's fine, I guess?" Jirou muttered, sounding hesitant. Denki felt the same. It was kinda cool to have someone take their picture like this, but they were also kind of breaking the law right now and he really didn't want to get in trouble.
"Oh, and can I know your names?" the woman asked.
"Names?" Denki repeated blankly, and she whipped her head to stare at him in shock.
"Wait, do you guys not have vigilante names yet!?"
"Uh... Not really." The topic of names actually had come up, but they'd ultimately decided against choosing any. They didn't want to get too much publicity so it wasn't like they'd be shouting their codenames for the whole world to hear, and the only names they could come up with related to their Quirks. Might be nice and dandy in their world, but here letting their Quirks get out could tilt the odds distinctly against their favor.
"Huh, that's... weird," Sero muttered. "But also kinda cool? Like, you guys are actually doing this to help people instead of fame, y'know?"
"Yeah, exactly," Denki agreed, relaxing a bit.
"Well, I don't really care about your names," the cashier interjected behind the counter, "But the police will probably be here any minute so if you guys want to avoid getting caught, now's the time to scram." The warning startled them, Denki and Jirou exchanging a brief look before leaping to their feet and racing for the storage room. They didn't waste time questioning why the guy warned them or even saying bye, they absolutely did NOT want to get caught.
Within a minute of fleeing to the back alleys their wariness proved well-founded, because Jirou cursed under her breath. "Police incoming, just up the corner!" she warned, and Denki quietly cursed as they ducked into an alleyway and hid behind a dumpster. Seconds later he heard people rushing past, one man barking into what had to be a radio or something.
Plugging her jack into the wall, after about a minute Jirou nodded and they ran back out, hurrying the way the police had come. They kept to alleyways and other back streets, Jirou taking lead once more since she had the enhanced hearing and had also researched the area. He made a mental note to look up this entire district on Street View or something when they got back to base.
As they got further from the store though he felt some of the initial adrenaline fade, a wide grin making itself known under his mask. Holy shit, they did it. They managed to take down their first villain, and got away with it! Ahead of him he heard a quiet laugh from Jirou, no doubt coming to the same thought.
"Now that was pretty cool," she declared, and Denki laughed open and freely as he bobbed his head in agreement.
"We totally saved the day! We're heroes!"
"Not heroes," Jirou corrected, and he could hear the smirk in her voice even if he couldn't see it. "We're vigilantes."
Today's chapter was very fun to write. I hope you all enjoyed it! Also hope the phone call wasn't too confusing.
Questions for next time: who do you think everyone from Kuroe's phone call are? Also, who will be the next unknowing person to appear from Class 1A or 1B?
Also, an unrelated note: I've been thinking of changing the title. I feel like it doesn't really grab people's attentions. Ideas include "Somewhere In Between", "Heroes Sleeping Safe and Sound", "So the Story Goes", "Gamble an Unknown Price", "Let The Fever Rise", and "Hearts Ignite to the Call". The last one is the full line from the song I got the current title, I just felt like there were too many stories with "heart" in the title but now I'm not so sure. Any thoughts?