Chapter 24

.::Puns and 8-Bit Ringtones::.

"Good job kids!"

Mina had to fight not to cringe as another random guy called out to her as he passed by the door to the waiting room, shrinking a little more in her chair. "Oh my gosh, I totally screwed up yesterday," she groaned. Kirishima just moaned quietly from his own seat in the far corner of the room, not even bothering to respond verbally.

All day long she'd been getting comments about how she and Kirishima had saved that guy. Apparently there had been a news camera recording the whole thing, and it caught their whole confrontation. They'd cut the footage once they realized she and Kiri were kids, but it was too late and the video was already put online. So now every stranger she saw seemed to be calling out to her and telling her she was doing a great job.

And normally? She wouldn't mind. Seriously, she saved a life! How awesome is that? And she even got Kirishima to help without having to ask him! He came after her all on his own, no pressure from her needed! He was finally starting to man up again! They both deserved some praise.

Except in this world, getting attention for saving lives made you a giant target for villains!

For every person that praised her or shouted a "good job" she got a look of sympathy or pity. On the train this morning one person even scooted away from her, like he expected she'd be attacked then and there! Her homeroom teacher had even called her last night to say not to worry about her homework for a while and ask if she had a safe place to lay low, which, holy shit that was actually kind of terrifying. He talked to her about switching to online classes and everything!

Basically, Mina had royally screwed up and put herself in a lot of danger. She never thought she'd say this, but damn her heroic instincts! The only remotely good thing to come out of this was that the hero from yesterday, Golden Needle, had given her and Kiri his cell phone number so they could contact him. He actually made some hints about a potential future in heroics if they were interested, which apparently might be how recruitment worked in this world...?

Mina didn't know. She didn't really know much about how the hero system worked in this world, and it didn't really matter because this was not her world dang it!

But it was Kirishima's, and that alone brought her new levels of guilt. They'd both been forced to get up at the ungodly hour of nine this morning despite it being a Saturday in order to go to the police station to submit a more detailed report and talk about what they'd do next. The questioning had ended an hour ago, and they'd been sitting in a semi-private waiting room since then waiting to get called back to the office.

The wait was worse than usual because she just felt so guilty. Kiri looked like his whole life had ended, and it basically had. He huddled in a chair in the far corner of the room, knees hugged to his chest and ignoring her. He looked so miserable, it made her heart sink. Making up her mind, she got up and strode over.

"Kiri, are you okay?"

"Leave me alone, Ashido," Kirishima muttered. She winced, a bit stung, but frowned and stood her ground.

"Kiri, you don't need to be so mean!" Kirishima didn't even look at her, just kept hugging his knees and buried his face deeper in his arms with a groan.

"What part of 'go away' don't you understand?" he muttered.

"The part where one of my best friends tells me to leave him alone while he's obviously upset!" Mina countered with a pout and Kirishima finally looked up, but when he did he didn't look at her, he glared.

"But it's your fault!" he snapped and she flinched, startled by the outburst.

"What?" she whispered, and Kirishima barreled on, his voice loud and agitated.

"We're all over the news, Ashido! I couldn't even get my mail this morning without our neighbors staring at me! One woman even dragged her kid away! My mom called me last night freaking out because I'm going to be a target now and I can't deal with this!" He looked ready to cry, his voice growing steadily louder until he cut himself off with a sharp intake of breath. Mina just looked at him silently, not sure what to say as guilt washed over her in full force.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, looking down. Kirishima deflated, his anger vanishing as he hung his head with a low groan.

"I'm sorry Ashido, I know it's wrong to take it out on you. It's just, this is too much. I'm glad we saved that guy and all, but we're targets now. I don't want to get kidnapped." He buried his face in his arms again and Mina frowned, feeling awful for putting her friend in this position. Of course he'd freak out, Kiri was an anxious mess in this world and he knew just how screwed up it was way better than she did.

It really just hammered home how badly she'd messed up yesterday. This was a whole new level of panic from him, so the danger was seriously real. She bit her lip, feeling more and more antsy. She had royally screwed up and put them both in real, serious danger. She couldn't even try to comfort him or say it would all be okay because really, she had no idea if it would.

She heard footsteps from the hallway and turned to see the officer who'd talked to them earlier stepping inside. Behind him was a man with foreign features and teal hair tied into a messy ponytail at the base of his neck, a lazy-looking smile on his face as he nodded at them.

"Yo," he greeted. "Ashido and Kirishima, right?"

"...Yeah." Mina frowned, instantly on edge. Who was this guy?

As if sensing her thoughts the officer stepped forward. "Alright, you two, we've managed to put a stop to most media coverage but some copies have already been put online by third parties. Thankfully the sites in question are doing their best to take them down, but unfortunately they can't keep track of every video uploaded so some copies are guaranteed to slip through the cracks."

"We're screwed," Kirishima groaned as he sank in his chair.

"I always wanted to go viral, but not like this!" Mina moaned. Seriously, why couldn't this have happened in her own world!?

The officer just patiently waited for their whining to fade before speaking again. "Anyways, the first few weeks are the most dangerous in cases like this, so we've got a Pro Hero to keep guard over you until the attention dies down a bit." That got their attention, both of them shutting up and perking as their gazes snapped to him.

"Really? Who?" Kiri finally didn't look like he expected the world to end, and the teal-haired guy stepped forward.

"That would be me," he volunteered, and both teenagers focused on him intensely. Mina... had no idea who he was. Granted, she didn't know a bunch of the heroes in this world so that didn't really mean anything. But Kiri looked just as lost as she did, so she felt justified in her confusion. "The name's Kageyama Kas, also known as Oracle. I work for Team Storm Chaser."

Now that name Mina did know, but it just confused her further. "Wait, aren't you guys rescue heroes?" she blurted. 'And it's still active!?' she wanted to add, but stopped herself before she could.

"On the surface, yes," Kageyama confirmed with a nod and small smirk. "But we also do a bunch of underground work since we've got clearance to go pretty much anywhere. That's my main area, actually, and why I got assigned guard duty for you two." She just nodded with a little "ah," understanding a bit better now.

Guess that's just another difference from my world. Mina only knew about Team Storm Chaser because Uraraka was a big fan of them. They'd been operating as an international rescue team since even before anyone in their class was born, and were one of the only hero teams with clearance to work in almost every country. The team had offices all over the world, and its members came from a bunch of different countries.

Back in her world the team had basically disbanded by the time they all entered high school though. The only one still active was Skylight, a half-American UA graduate, but he'd mostly switched over to villain takedowns and primarily worked out of America. Sometimes he came back to Japan though, and Uraraka said the Storm Chaser HQ's Japan branch branch was still active in Numazu. Maybe they still had some secret underground heroes back home, too?

...Thinking about home made her feel depressed again. "Uh, I'm really glad you'll be looking out for us and all, but how's this gonna work?" Kiri asked. "Are you gonna, like, live with one of us or something? And also, there's two of us. So how...?"

"You guys live in the same apartment building," Kageyama replied smoothly. "I'll just lurk around and keep an eye on it. No need for me to move in with either of you, you'll mainly see me when I have to escort you wherever you need to go. On that note, no solo trips for the next few weeks," he added, growing serious. "I can't be in two places at once, so if you guys need to go to the store, either we all go or I'll send someone to get whatever you need."

"...So basically, you're a glorified babysitter?" Mina asked after a few seconds, and he shrugged.

"Yep, but without a child-friendly filter. Good thing you two are teens." As he spoke they heard a ringtone, making Mina perk up.

"What's that? It sounds catchy."

"That would be an 8-bit remix of the first Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood opening," Kageyama said, smiling sheepishly as he pulled a phone out of his pocket. "Sorry, gotta take this. Be right back." As he stepped into the hall Mina and Kirishima exchanged confused looks.

"What's Fullmetal... whatever?" Mina whispered.

"No idea," Kirishima replied. "The name sounds kinda like an anime I guess, but I don't watch any. Maybe it's some obscure one?" The officer cleared his throat at this point, and they both snapped upright and turned to face him.

"I'll let Kageyama handle everything once he wraps up his call. I'd recommend you two arrange with your school to do classes online for a while though. The less you go out, the better." While Kirishima nodded Mina felt her stomach sink, a sudden dread washing over her as their situation began to really sink in.

They were basically on house arrest now, weren't they? Normally she wouldn't mind too much even if she might go stir-crazy, but now it made her feel a sudden cold, only one thought running through her head: How can I get home if I can't even leave? And with that thought, all of the concern and worries she'd been steadily tucking away suddenly came to the front of her mind.

For the first time in twelve days, Mina finally let herself think about the full ramifications of what was going on.

Ring. Ring.

Shouto stared at the phone as it continued to ring, a bit lost on what to do. Despite being in Odawara for a little under a week now, this was the first time the burner phone Kuroe gave him had actually rang. The caller ID displayed the name "Kite Takoyaki," which gave him no clue as to who might be on the other end.

Kite was likely an English word since it used katakana, but he hadn't seen it enough to know what it meant. Takoyaki, meanwhile, was round and usually had octopus in it, but none of the people he knew were round or had aquatic or marine Quirks. Asui might count, but she'd probably prefer a frog alias. Maybe Shouji though? His Dupliarms did give him multiple arms, which was kind of like an octopus.

In the time he mulled over this the phone stopped ringing, the silence snapping him out of his thoughts. Oops. Sighing, he flipped the phone open and went to the contact list to call the number back. While he didn't really want to go out of his way, he'd been taught that intentionally ignoring calls was impolite.

(Unless it was reporters. Reporters could be ignored for however long you liked. Alternatively, you could give the phone to a kid to babble at them instead. Natsuo loved that particular method, it was the one time he'd grin at Endeavor.)

The phone rang two times before the mystery caller answered. "Well, thank you for at least calling me back, Yuki-san," a familiar voice greeted with a hint of sarcasm, and Shouto blinked.

"Ah, so it's you," he murmured. Funny how he could recognize Monoma's voice so clearly just from the tone alone.

"Of course it's me," Monoma replied. "Who else would use the name Kite?"

Weird point, but now Shouto couldn't help but ask. "Do you have an aquatic Quirk? Or something that lets you make stuff round or something?"

There was a long pause on the other end. "...Just to double-check. You do actually know who I am, correct?"

"Yes. You're..." Shouto trailed off before he could say Monoma's actual name, quickly searching his memory for the alias. "Kaitou." A pause. "Oh." In retrospect, that should have been obvious. "Where does the takoyaki come from?"

"Kite is the English word for kites—the kind people tie to strings and fly around," Monoma replied, and Shouto gave a soft "ah" as the rest of it clicked into place. One of the Japanese words for kites and the one Monoma just used was tako, and tako could also mean octopus. "I'm not surprised you didn't know. It's a stupid pun most people don't get unless they're completely bilingual in English."

"Why use it if you think it's stupid?"

"My suggestions were vetoed," Monoma grumbled. "Kuroe said they all made my Quirk too obvious." Shouto thought that "Maria's Garden Care" and "Odawara Wildlife Rescue" were pretty obvious references to Shiozaki and Kouda's Quirks, but he kept the thought to himself as Monoma continued. "Anyways, we've gotten off-topic. Yuki-san, are you free right now? I wanted to meet up with you to discuss something."

"What is it?" Shouto asked, instantly on guard. He still felt like something happened yesterday he didn't understand, so while Monoma might have been polite so far he didn't want to get too careless. "Could we discuss it over the phone?"

"We could, but I'd rather do it in person. It's about Gentle Criminal." Shouto went very still at the name, eyes narrowing.

"What about him?" he asked sharply.

"One of our members heard some information. They're too shy to speak over the phone, so they asked me to call you. We'd prefer to speak in person, since you never know what kinds of Quirks are about." Shouto remained silent as he listened, already weighing his options.

On the one hand, he still didn't trust Monoma. On the other though, this might be a solid lead to Tokoyami. He hadn't seen anything about Gentle Criminal or his partner in the news lately, and he'd found no other leads on his classmate. For all he knew they may have moved on to another city already, and having to relocate would be too expensive and annoying to bother with unless he had solid confirmation of their location. If this lead was legit, it might be just what he needed.

His mind settled, he asked, "Where do we meet?"

"Do you still know how to get to Kuroe's house?"

Shouto took a moment to review his mental map of Odawara. "Yes, I should be able to find it. Are we meeting there?"

"No." Shouto blinked while Monoma continued, "Go there, and turn right on the corner with the red-roofed house. Go straight until the third stop sign, then turn left and follow that street until you reach Akakusa Park—"

"The one with the All Might statue?" Shouto cut in, and for a moment Monoma was quiet.

"...You've gotten to know Odawara better than I expected," he finally said. "Good, this will save us time. Just go to the park, and at the end of the path—the end with the gazebo structure?" When Shouto made a noise of recognition he continued, "Go straight into the woods, through the gap between the white tree and the one with three scratches on it. If you keep going straight from there you should find a tree that's cut in half, just turn left there and after a while you'll figure out how to reach the meeting spot."

"That is still long and complicated. And the ending sounds vague and unhelpful."

"Yes, well, we don't want to be found too easily. I assure you, the directions will be straightforward once you get there."

Around an hour and a half later Shouto silently reflected Monoma was at least right about the directions not being too complicated as he trekked through the heavily wooded area. Walking to Akakusa Park had taken a while since he'd been pretty far away when he got the call, but Monoma had assured him they would be willing to wait for him until he arrived. He hoped so, because hiking through such a thickly wooded area in winter turned out to be harder than he thought.

It had snowed last night, not too heavy but the thin layer on the forest floor made each step that much much slippery. He had to be mindful of every step since he had no idea what rested beneath the snow. Hopefully the "tree cut in half" Monoma mentioned meant the one that looked like it'd been struck by lightning, because he'd already made the turn fifteen minutes ago. If not, he wasn't sure how long it would take to find the right one.

Eventually the trees gave way to a creek, and he stopped to stare at the running water thoughtfully. Could this the meeting place Monoma mentioned? As he stared at it he noticed footprints on the opposite bank, standing next to the water before turning to lead into the woods. It seemed as clear an indication to follow as any he'd ever seen.

After a second's thought he stepped forward and slammed his right foot onto the ground. Ice shot forward instantly, rippling over the water and forming a small, rough-looking bridge he used to cross the gap. When he reached the other side he momentarily placed his weight on his left foot before hopping off it, creating a small burst of heat that melted the bridge behind him. No point leaving an easily followed trail.

From there he followed the footsteps into the woods at a sedate pace, growing increasingly wary of his surroundings. He hiked his scarf a little higher over his nose as he glanced around, shoving his right hand into his pocket to keep it a little warmer while keeping his left ready to defend himself. Around five minutes after crossing the creek the footprints led him to a road, which he only realized was a road because of the snow-covered signs.

No one's driven here in a while, he thought as he observed the largely pristine strip of snow that stretched in both directions. One end had been blocked by a fallen tree, clearly not a recent phenomenon given how worn it looked. The other curved towards a tall hill and ended in a large tunnel, chains stretching over the entrance to block cars from entering. The footprints headed that direction. Guess that's the meeting place.

Shouto approached it cautiously, eyes flitting around for signs of motion in the trees. It was easy enough to step over the chains blocking the tunnel but he didn't do that just yet, huffing as he stared into the inky darkness. He couldn't even see the other end. "Hello?" he called. "Kaitou?"

"In here!" Monoma's voice responded, distant and echoing from deeper inside the tunnel. A light appeared deep down and began moving towards him, and Shouto could soon make out Monoma holding a flashlight. Allowing himself to relax he stepped over the chain and met him halfway, the blond nodding at him with a smile. "I was starting to think you got lost. Thank you for coming all the way out there."

"Were you just standing in darkness this whole time?" Shouto asked as he followed Monoma back the way he'd come, and the blond's laugh bounced off the walls.

"No, there's a door to some sort of maintenance room partway down. As far as we can tell this tunnel and road used to be part of some private facility that got shut down years ago, so no one comes here anymore. The other end of the tunnel got blocked off by a rockslide or something, by the way, so it's not really a tunnel anymore." Shouto quietly hummed, keeping his guard up as he followed Monoma.

"Is this your base then?"

"No, we don't know you well enough to take you there yet. One of our members happened to stumble upon this place a while back, and it's as good a meeting place as any." Shouto nodded, and the pair lapsed into silence. Soon enough a door on the side of the tunnel came into sight, the white paint gleaming under Monoma's flashlight. He knocked on it twice before pulling it open, the door surprisingly quiet.

"We're here," Monoma greeted as he stepped inside, lingering in the doorway to hold it open for Shouto to enter. As he did he noticed the room was dimly lit, not in an ominous way but simply because the lights themselves were dim. The room was empty as far as he could tell, with a couple of lanterns sitting on crates and black curtains hanging near the back.

The curtains made the person in front of them stand out that much more. They wore a bulky red winter coat with a material that faintly glinted in the lantern's glow, the shade much more subdued than their spiky red hair. As they whirled to face him a glint of gold flashed and Shouto found himself freezing, his whole body going limp. As his legs collapsed under him Monoma shot forward and snagged his arm before he could hit the ground, helping keep him upright.

"Akai, that's not very nice," the blond huffed.

"S-sorry! It was a reflex thing!" Already Shouto could feel control return to his body, and he straightened himself with a full-body shiver as he studied the new person. Akai, as she called herself, had an obvious reptilian mutation, her head basically a gray snake planted on a teenage girl's body. She flinched under his gaze and waved her hands wildly. "D-don't look at me like that! It was an accident, I swear!"

"I... don't blame you?" It came out more as a question than he intended, mostly just wanting to calm her down. He blinked and collected himself before saying more firmly, "Accidents happen. It's okay, I guess." At least he knew what to be wary of from her now. "More importantly, are you the one with information on Gentle Criminal?"

Akai stiffened at the question, turning to face him more directly with her posture more full of confidence. "Yeah, I am..." As she spoke the curtains behind her shifted and Shouto froze. Immediately he started to step back, guard rising higher than ever, but as two figures emerged his mind blanked.

Asui? Ojiro? Even in the darkness he recognized his two classmates immediately. Asui wore a dark green coat and long gray skirt, hair tied in a ponytail as opposed to its usual bow, while Ojiro wore a dark mustard yellow coat with jeans. Asui stopped to stand next to Akai, one finger touching her chin as she tilted her head.

"So you're Yuki-san. We've heard a lot about you, kero. Thank you for taking care of Naota-kun yesterday."

"It's no problem," Shouto replied, though he remained a bit wary. "I couldn't leave a kid alone."

"And we're really grateful for that," Ojiro said, stepping forward and holding out his hand. "I'm Lee." Shouto shook it and Asui stepped forward next with her own hand extended.

"I'm Midori, kero," she introduced as Shouto shook her hand. As she pulled it back another hand took its place, which he gripped.

"And I'm Kaitou, though you already knew that." Shouto stiffened, belatedly realizing the hand belonged to Monoma rather than Akai like he'd assumed. Monoma just smiled pleasantly as their hands released, but instead of letting it fall to his side he looked at his palm with that oddly placid smile.

"Yes, well, now that introductions are out of the way, we do have one more question," he commented, and Shouto regarded him with a renewed sense of caution until ice crystals suddenly formed in Monoma's palm. Oh. Oh no, that wasn't good. Monoma raised his left hand and a tiny lick of fire flickered there too.

Not good at all, Shouto reiterated as Monoma met his gaze. "Why in the world is the son of Endeavor looking for a villain and his sidekick in Odawara?"

When Shouto got back to his own world, he made a mental vow to learn everything he could about Class 1-B.

Fun fact: this chapter was originally how Shouto's first meeting with Monoma ended. The last three paragraphs are a direct copy and paste from the original version. It was just too great to NOT use it somehow. Another fun fact: this was the chapter where Saki and Mail originally appeared before deciding to rearrange stuff, so we'd have gotten to meet THREE OCs in one go.

Lots of fun stuff. Meet Kageyama Kas, aka Oracle. He's a quarter Japanese but doesn't look it, and is very likely dead in the canon universe. For the record, I use the "My Hero Academia takes place ~200 years in the future" timeline as opposed to setting it in the 2010s like some fan fics do (seriously, that's a huge pet peeve of mine), so FMA is actually 200 years old at this point. There's probably been a couple remakes of it and other classic anime over those two centuries, but I doubt it'd still be super-mainstream if there hadn't been a recent adaptation.

Also, if anyone doesn't know, Akai is a canon character, Mongoose Habuko (which sounds weird as hell to say in the Japanese order). It's actually been really tricky writing her because she barely appears and I haven't seen the OVA, but I'll justify any OOC behavior by this AU leading to a radically different childhood than the canon universe. For the purposes of this story, that OVA did not happen so Todoroki does not recognize her.

Questions for next time: what names do you think Habuko, Asui and Ojiro use for their phone contacts? Also, how long will it take for Ashido to go stir crazy from the quasi-house arrest?