Chapter 25

Back home, Shouto hadn't paid much attention to Class 1-B. It wasn't because he looked down on them or anything, they just didn't interact that much. They lived in different dorms and didn't share any classes. Aside from the Sports Festival and the summer training camp, he hadn't really gotten a chance to learn about them or their Quirks.

He knew Shiozaki had a powerful vine Quirk, given how easily she beat Kaminari in the Sports Festival. He also knew Tetsutetsu had a steel Quirk that was functionally identical to Kirishima's. Kendo could make parts of her body larger, a fact he only knew because she used it to hit Monoma quite often when he'd come to challenge or mock 1-A for whatever reason.

Ironically enough though, Monoma, who had left the largest impression on Shouto, had never really shown off his Quirk so he didn't know it.

Until now, anyway.

"You've been officially missing for a year now," he said, circling Shouto with his left hand still holding a small flame. Shouto turned his head to follow him, his eyes narrow and wary as Monoma glanced at the flame. "I mean, with a Quirk like this I can certainly see why. I haven't even really tried it yet, but I can already tell how it must work. The fire and ice offset each other perfectly. It's fascinating, I've never actually seen a Quirk that combined two elements like this. The ones I've heard about are usually much weaker or imbalanced than yours."

"Kaitou," Asui croaked. "You're on a tangent again, kero." Monoma hummed, letting the flames flicker and die out as he turned to face Shouto.

"My apologies," he said. "As I was saying, I do understand why you ran away. Villains would absolutely covet this power once they found out about it. No wonder Endeavor kept its exact nature under wraps. Obviously everyone knows about the fire aspect, but with the ice, you'd be even stronger than him. I wonder, how would he feel knowing his son is looking for a villain?"

"I would appreciate you stop mentioning my father," Shouto said tersely.

"Very well," Monoma agreed easily, and Shouto blinked in surprise. He hadn't expected him to agree that quickly, he seemed like the type of person to continually rub something in his face once he knew it made the other person uncomfortable.

"Endeavor aside, why are you looking for Gentle Criminal?" Ojiro spoke up now, stepping forward with a frown. "You grew up surrounded by heroes. You should know better than anyone how dangerous villains are." When Shouto opened his mouth to respond Ojiro cut in, "And yeah, we know you're looking for his partner, not Gentle Criminal." Shouto closed his mouth while the blond continued, "But it's the same end result. You're looking for a villain."

His voice had an unusually heated note to it, something even Shouto noticed as oddly out of character. While their interactions back home had been somewhat limited, Ojiro always struck him as rather calm and level-headed. Shouto couldn't recall the boy ever seeming quite so agitated.

He didn't have a chance to dwell on it though before Akai spoke up. "You won't even tell us why you need him!" she shouted, pointing a (noticeably human) finger at him accusingly. "All you said is that you can't go to heroes or police! Do you know how suspicious that is!?"

"Maria-chan says even you don't seem sure on why," Asui interjected. "Rockfish asked if it had to be them, and you didn't have a reasonable explanation, kero."

"It's complicated," Shouto said almost automatically, and Akai made a noise of exasperation and pulled at her hair.

"You're doing it again! Did you guys hear that!?"

"Yes, Akai, we heard him," Monoma said dryly, and sighed. "Look, Todoroki, Yuki, whatever you prefer. You have to know how suspicious this is."

"Especially when you have a phone with all of our numbers in it," Ojiro added sharply.

"The point is, we can't trust you," Monoma continued. "As it stands you might be putting us all in danger. You've already met Naota, and he's not the only child."

"Until you tell us why you're here, you're not leaving," Ojiro finished, arms crossing over his chest. Shouto's eyes narrowed at that, calculating his odds as he glanced over the four teens assembled in the room. He didn't want to fight them, either physically or verbally, but more than that he didn't like the obvious threat they posed. He knew Asui and Ojiro's Quirks, and he had a pretty good idea of Monoma's. He sincerely doubted they could beat him.

"If I decide to leave anyway?" he challenged.

Rather than respond Akai used her Quirk, her eyes flashing bright gold. Shouto felt his face go slack with shock a split-second before his body followed suit, collapsing into a pile of limp limbs with his back folding back awkwardly. Oh, he forgot about that one. As he laid there in mild shock Monoma sauntered over and crouched next to him, a smug smirk on his face as they made eye contact.

"I think we can handle you," he said loftily, and ah, there was that condescension he recognized. Shouto just stared at him in mild shock for the scant few seconds before Akai's Quirk wore off, at which point his expression soured. He sat up and pulled his legs from under his body but made no move to do anything else just yet, instead weighing his next move.

On the one hand, he could understand their wariness. After talking to Naota yesterday he understood not even children were safe from villains, so of course someone looking for a person associated with a villain would be a serious threat. On the other hand though, he still didn't know who else was connected to the runaway ring. He still had some concerns about where this "Aya-nee" fit into it. Telling them about his situation could be just as dangerous for himself.

"For what it's worth, I don't think you're bad, kero," Asui piped up, breaking his line of thought. "You protected Naota-kun yesterday, and Kuroe-san seems to think you're a trustworthy person. Even if you saved him, he doesn't trust people easily, kero." Her head tilted, meeting his gaze as she continued in that blunt fashion only she had. "From what Maria and Rockfish say, it sounds like something is bothering you. I know we're strangers and it's hard to trust us, but we just want to make sure everyone's safe. That includes you."

That last part was probably what did it. The way she spoke reminded Shouto of his own Asui, who had repeatedly proven herself to be cool-headed and dependable in class and at the dorms alike. Even though this one might be a stranger, at that moment it felt like he was back home in the middle of some crazy training exercise. Maybe it was just bias from his Asui, but he felt like he could trust her.

A sort of tension eased out of his body as he met her gaze, finally making up his mind.

"I think I'm from another dimension," he said bluntly.

Monoma Neito considered himself rather knowledgeable about Quirks. It came with the territory of being able to copy them. Along with the whole "able to figure out how they work whenever he copied one" thing, he also needed to know how they worked to make sure he didn't accidentally hurt himself. Copying one guy's sensory enhancing Quirk and ending up with the worst migraine ever had been enough of a lesson.

As such, he had spent most of his elementary school years studying every book on Quirks he could find. Not just books meant for children, but higher-level research studies as well, reports and books packed with technical jargon so dense he probably still wouldn't be able to understand half of it even now. So over the years, he'd learned about some pretty outrageous Quirks.

For example, there had been a man whose Quirk let him turn anything he touched into anthropomorphized versions of cartoon characters of his choice. That was weird. Another person had a Quirk that could physically transport them into dreams, and had gotten stuck in one for about a year when they tried it on a coma patient. A bit scary. He'd even found rumors of a man with a Quirk that could take other Quirks—not copy them, but take them completely.

Yes, Neito had learned that pretty much anything could be a Quirk.

That did not make Todoroki Shouto's story any easier to believe.

Neito thought they all deserved some kind of acting award for keeping up their poker faces as Todoroki spoke about going to sleep in a dorm room and randomly waking up in an abandoned building next to a villain. Whom he promptly froze and fled by diving into a river.

"At first I thought he kidnapped me, but then I realized my hair was dyed and thought something was wrong," he explained with a frown. "Then I realized I was in another dimension." It felt like he skipped some steps there. "I've been trying to figure out how I got here, but I don't have much money so I can't go to internet cafes to do much research. UA is closed so I can't go there either, and I couldn't find any hero agencies. I don't think that would be a good idea anyway though."

At that point he paused, and reached up to remove his eyepatch with a frown. "I had all the stuff for a disguise on me, and I dyed my hair. I must have run away a while ago. Turning myself in would probably cause more trouble once this ended. I doubt my father would be willing to listen to my story anyway."

His voice took on a bitter note at the last bit, and Neito noticed Asui and Mongoose exchange discreet but pointed looks. That the two could read each other so well despite their mutation Quirks making their expressions hard to decipher spoke as a testament to their powerful bond.

"You believe Endeavor would not help, kero?" Asui asked.

"He probably wants me to be his heir in this world too," Todoroki replied bluntly. "I figure that's why I ran away, or at least part of it." This time Neito and Ojiro exchanged their own discreet look, and Neito noted that the other blond was not particularly impressed. "Anyways, then I saw Gentle Criminal's last heist on a TV and recognized Tokoyami. He's in my class in my world at UA and always talks about occult stuff, so I thought he might know something and would be able to help."

He fell silent after that, his story apparently finished. For a moment no one spoke, just let his words sink in. "Okay," Mongoose said slowly. "Assuming you're serious and you were actually a student at UA, why didn't you look for other classmates who weren't hanging around villains?"

Todoroki blinked once in apparent surprise. "How?" he asked, and the sheer innocence in his tone, so simple and just ever so slightly confused and curious, left them all speechless for a moment.

"I don't know, social media?" Neito suggested with a frown. "Teenagers like to use that stuff, right?"

"Most social media's on lockdown," Ojiro interjected. "I don't think anyone's used their actual name online in, like, five years."

"Really?" Neito looked at him in surprise. He hadn't known that. In his defense, he'd run away in elementary school well before he would use social media. With a Quirk like Copy, he'd realized he couldn't stay safe at home even before the UA Massacre, which had been the wakeup call for so many others. Kids had already been disappearing well before then, and he'd picked up on the pattern quickly and made his exit early.

"It would be hard to find anyone if you didn't know their address, especially from our age group," Asui said thoughtfully. "I guess it makes sense that you might only be able to find someone if they were on TV, kero. It's still an odd coincidence that he works with Gentle Criminal though."

"Is it?" Todoroki considered it for a moment before nodding and answering himself. "It is weird he works with him. He wanted to be a hero." He paused then, looking at them curiously. "Since you're asking about that, does that mean you believe me?"

"...Can you give us a minute?" Ojiro asked, and Todoroki nodded. The four runaways ducked behind the curtain, Neito shooting him a final glance before letting it close behind him. In contrast to the front part of the room, the back had rather ample lighting and furniture. It wasn't much, just some rundown couches and chairs, two tables and a few random chests and wardrobes, but it was something.

On one couch sat two more members of their network, an older teen boy with overly large pointed ears and another with considerably plainer features. The plain one stood up as they entered, and as they got closer he formed a cube shape with his hands and blew on it. The cube expanded to enclose the small group of six, just barely encompassing the space around the couch and blocking all sound from exiting.

"You guys heard that, right?" Ojiro asked flatly.

"Yep," the boy with pointed ears replied just as flat. Nakamura Shizuo had a rather fascinating Quirk in Neito's opinion, the ability to mute all sounds made by a person, whether himself or another person. Hence the obvious name, Mute. It also made the affected person's hearing hyper-sensitive for the duration of Mute's effects, making it a perfect Quirk for espionage.

"He said he's from another dimension, right?" the plain boy, Tsuburaba Kosei, asked. "Because I think I heard him say that, but I just want to be sure."

"He did," Asui confirmed, and he nodded.

"Oh good. So I'm not going crazy."

"He's the one who's crazy!" Mongoose quite literally hissed. "Who the hell's ever heard of a Quirk that could go into other dimensions!?"

"Not me," Neito said bluntly. He'd seen some theories that such a thing might be possible, but it had been just that—theories. Honestly, the odds were so low he'd peg any other Quirk before that one. Like a memory manipulation Quirk. Or a really bad duplication Quirk. Or, you know, lying.

Literally anything but actual other dimensions.

Asui had her finger on her chin again, her head tipped to the side thoughtfully. "He doesn't seem like he's lying. At the very least, he seems to believe it."

"That does not make it true," Mongoose hissed.

"No, but I don't think he has malicious intent. I don't think he's working with villains, kero."

"That doesn't mean we can trust him!" Ojiro snapped, and Asui flinched at his harsh tone. His voice carried an unusual anger, his face twisted into an uncharacteristically furious scowl. Unsurprising, considering his best friend had been recently kidnapped by villains.

And that was the crux of the issue: Todoroki was here looking for a villain.

Nearly everyone in Odawara had run away because of villains, whether because they'd been targeted as recruits for their Quirks or they'd seen too much. Gentle Criminal and his partner might be seen as chivalrous by some, but they did not look at him that way. They were still reeling from the loss of one of their own, and letting Todoroki search for him for such a flimsy reason was too much of a risk.

Ojiro was clearly taking the situation rather personally, so Neito decided to step in to do damage control now. "I think Asui is right about him believing that," he said. "I mean, if he was going to lie, why would he go with that?" The others just nodded in agreement, some of the tension fading. Trans-dimensional travel was a pretty ridiculous story to come up with on the spot. "That said, I do think he might be under the influence of another Quirk."

"That isn't much better though," Tsuburaba muttered as he scratched his neck. "I mean, what if someone's using him to get information on us?"

"I kinda doubt that," Nakamura interjected before Mongoose could go off on another rant. "If it were literally anyone else, I might believe it. But Endeavor's kid is way too valuable for villains to just use as a pawn. Too much chance of him getting found out and rescued."

"The whole plan seems like it would be rather contrived, too," Neito agreed with a sigh. "He's looking for two villains, believing one is a classmate from his own world, and they happen to be operating around Odawara. If a villain was going to implant false memories, there are many, many, many better ones."

"Not to mention the part about Endeavor," Asui added, and the group exchanged grimaces. That alone raised many concerns, but none of them felt too keen on pressing him on that detail. That scar Todoroki sported in the photo they'd found of him probably didn't come from an accident after all, and they knew better than to press something so potentially personal and sensitive.

"Anyways," Neito said after a beat, "I think he's probably not a pawn, but there's still definitely something going on. He's more likely a victim, so we should keep an eye on him."

"We were going to do that anyway," Ojiro snorted with an eye roll. "Not like we can call the police in this case." Turning in Todoroki, even if they believed it to be for his own good, wasn't an option. As the boy himself had pointed out, he'd probably had reasons for running away before all this mess started. Reporting him may put him in more danger in the end.

"Should we tell everyone else about this, kero?" Asui asked.

"Yes," Mongoose and Ojiro said at the same time Nakamura said, "No." When they turned to look at him he shrugged. "I'm not saying we should hide the situation, but we shouldn't tell them everything. It'd just cause unnecessary panic. It's not like many people actually know about this anyway."

That part was true. When Shiozaki had called Asui to report "Yuki" wanted to find Gentle Criminal and his sidekick for some reason, they'd kept it confined to a small, core group until they could properly investigate. The fact was, it would cause heavy panic if everyone knew, especially after the recent kidnapping.

At present, aside from Shiozaki and Kouda, the only other person who knew was the network's coordinator Nettmegg, who didn't even live in Odawara. And that was only because they needed someone to send an SOS if Todoroki suddenly attacked. Even Tsuburaba hadn't been given the full details until that morning after they'd planned the confrontation, and only because his Quirk might be useful in confining Todoroki.

So telling everyone of Todoroki's delusions might not be strictly necessary. "I say we should at least warn them to be careful around him," Tsuburaba spoke up. "I just—it feels risky to let them go up to him randomly and accidentally tell him critical information, in case he is being used as a mole."

"We can say he's on a probationary period," Asui suggested. "That we've vetted him for the most part, but he has connections to heroes that might come looking for him. That's at least true."

"Yeah, it is," Mongoose relented. Some of her earlier tension had finally started to fade, going back to a more analytical and thoughtful mindset. "But I think we should at least tell Glitch to keep an eye on him. He's our best fighter."

"That's fine by me," Nakamura agreed. "I'd also suggest reading in Maria, Rockfish and Parasyte. Rockfish can keep a better eye on him, and Parasyte's pretty strong too and might stand a chance if Todoroki goes berserk. Though he's been acting a little weird lately, so maybe not everything," he added thoughtfully.

"Yes, he has," Neito murmured, and nodded to himself. "At the very least, we can let him know Todoroki's probably under the influence of a Quirk and keep an eye on him." The others nodded in agreement, the plan taking shape smoothly.

"This is good and all, but how do we handle him searching for Gentle Criminal?" Ojiro asked before they could be too satisfied. "Because I don't think he's gonna stop that easily." That would definitely be a problem. Regardless of the reason Todoroki was actually searching for the man and his partner, the search would cause trouble.

"Maybe if we just... play along?" Tsuburaba muttered to himself, and stiffened when all eyes turned to him.

"Continue," Neito said after a moment, and Tsuburaba bobbed his head.

"Uh, well, he's looking for them because he thinks this Tokoyami guy might be able to help figure out the dimension thing, right? So if we play along and help him look into this or, whatever, he won't have to look for them anymore. We can even help look for this Tokoyami guy, cause I mean, it's probably not like he's real, right?" A brief silence fell as they considered it.

"...Mime, that might be the best plan," Nakamura finally said. "You get extra curry tonight." Tsuburaba lit up with a wide grin.

"Heck yeah!" As he cheered Neito glanced at the curtain, thinking about Todoroki on the other side. This whole thing would be a dangerous gamble, but then, everything was when you lived on the streets like this. He just hoped this one would pay off. After all, adding Todoroki as an ally would be a boon for them.

Around that same time, Kageyama Kas found himself sitting in a cafe across the street from Ashido and Kirishima's apartment building. The place and people might be different but the routine felt familiar, already slipping into old habits as he idly sipped at his coffee. This wasn't his first time playing bodyguard for a couple of kids who became high-profile targets overnight, and it likely wouldn't be the last.

At the moment he wasn't too concerned about any threats to the kids. It had barely been twenty-four hours since everything went down, too soon for word to really spread enough to generate interest. Later he might have to herd them into one apartment and stay there depending on how things played out, but for now he could keep a bit of distance and relax, and call up Saki.

She'd called him back at the station, but he'd had to cut it short since he had to escort the kids. Now that they'd settled in for the day he could call her back though. Guard duty could get pretty boring anyway, so he welcomed any break to the usual tedium. And the Uraraka case she wanted to fill him in on fit the bill perfectly.

"Yeah, that sounds pretty weird," he agreed once she finished summing up the details. He'd plugged in his earbuds and put the phone on speaker, idly playing a puzzle game while he listened. "I know it's too soon to make any real assumptions yet, but I'd say your gut's probably right on this one. Have you talked to your boss about it yet?"

"Not yet," she sighed on the other end. "I wanted to be absolutely sure before I tell anyone. I talked to Mail obviously, and he's pretty split on it too."

"It is a pretty tricky thing to talk about," Kas agreed lightly. "Maybe focus on finding that Alien Queen girl from her memories first, and decide after that?"

"That's what Mail suggested. Nighteye's already called up UA about it and someone's heading over now to take a look at the sketch. It'll probably go into circulation by tomorrow, apparently the people at Idaten have someone with a Quirk that's great for matching faces so they'll probably be the first stop."

"Text a picture to me. I got temporary access to one of the local school's student rosters, I can take a look and see if I can find them."

"You're just looking for something to do, aren't you?" she asked, but halfway through the quality of her voice became slightly distant signifying she'd switched to speaker.

"Absolutely," he confirmed with a grin. About a minute passed in silence as she presumably switched out of the phone app to take a picture of the sketch. Soon a text notification appeared at the top of his screen, and he switched over to the messenger as she resumed talking.

"Alright, sent. For the record, everything about her is pink. Should make it easier to look through the thumbnails at least, right?"

Kas didn't respond, just stared at the picture with disbelief. "Holy shit," he whispered in English.

"Kas?" Saki pressed, and he had to suppress the urge to laugh as a wide grin stretched across his face.

"Cancel the search. Your girl is Ashido Mina, one of the latest stars out of Kamino."

And so Todoroki convinces everyone he's insane or under the effects of a Quirk, but they go along with it anyway because it's easier to keep an eye on him. Also, it only took one chapter for the folks at Nighteye to make the connection to Ashido. That's gotta be a record!

Also, something 100% unrelated to MHA: are there any Animal Crossing fans here? Because New Horizons is coming out Friday and I am STOKED. But more than that, I am ecstatic because my all-time favorite AC site, AXA, has gotten a sudden revival. I literally grew up with that forum (joined when I was 11!), and I credit it with shaping me into who I am today, from all the friends I made to the stories I posted there. I learned about its revival last Thursday, the day after my birthday, and that news is honestly the best birthday gift I've ever gotten, no exaggeration. All the old content has been lost, but the people are back and it's amazing.

If you want to join an amazing Animal Crossing community, please go to axaforums .ca! (Note: do not go to .com, it's been bought out by some shady company and brings up a string of Chinese characters so might not be safe.) I would normally never do such a shameless plug, but I love this community so much. Forums have this sense of community that social media and sites like reddit or Discord just can't match.

And finally: right now, the world is on lockdown from Coronavirus. This is a pretty scary time, even though a lot of us aren't at risk the disease is so contagious that it makes us carriers for the ones who ARE. I don't know if everyone's overreacting with how much the world is shutting down, but I hope everyone reading this is safe and sound. At the very least, we are living through a historic event and this will make for some crazy stories someday.

Question for next time: who do you think actually WOULD believe the multiverse story?