Chapter 41

.::Weird Week::.

Tsuyu was having a... weird week.

She did not use that term often, but that seemed to be the best word she could come up with. Today she and Habuko had been given what had come to be called "Todoroki duty" yet again, meaning they would be in charge of watching Endeavor's wayward son while searching for this supposed Tokoyami. They still had yet to figure out just what was going on with his story, but there was plenty of room for concern.

One of Rockfish's birds had led them to a movie theater, which marked the third time they'd seen this particular person. Repeat visits to the same person had become increasingly common, and unfortunately Rockfish couldn't get the birds to stop it since the sightings were always reported by different birds. Today they had yet to find a single new person, much to Habuko's growing annoyance.

"Seriously, this is getting ridiculous," the snake-girl complained. "And it's so freaking cold! Can we just call it off for the day?"

"We should go find a café for lunch," Tsuyu proposed, tugging up her scarf a bit over her mouth. "It's already noon. Maybe we can call Rockfish and ask him to try talking to the birds one last time, kero." It was a thinly veiled way of agreeing with her friend's request. Though the clock had only just struck noon, Tsuyu would rather stop searching for the day.

Truthfully, the cold was starting to get to her. Winter had always bothered her since her Quirk made her sensitive to the cold, as did Habuko's, so she'd rather not search all day long. She'd agreed to take on the duty since the weather forecast had seemed okay, but the temperatures had plummeted well below predictions. If Rockfish's birds would only send them after the same people, she would prefer to just stop and go somewhere warm.

She turned to Todoroki. "Yuki-kun, would you be alright if we stopped searching for now?" she asked, but paused when she noticed he'd fallen behind. He stood several meters back, his gaze directed at the posters lining the walls. She tilted her head in thought as she glanced at the posters. She didn't know much about any of the movies currently in theaters, their lifestyle made it hard to keep up with new releases.

Habuko had the same dilemma, but she still joined Todoroki to look at the poster which held his attention. "Do you want to go see that one?" she asked curiously. "It looks kinda artsy, but if it means getting out of the cold I'm down for it. Midori, we have some money, right?" she added, glancing at Tsuyu.

Tsuyu tapped her chin with a thoughtful, quiet croak. "Yes, we should have enough I think, kero. We can get snacks, too." A movie would work just as well as going to a café.

"I... don't want to see it," Todoroki piped up, voice quiet. He had a faint furrow to his eyebrows as he stared at the poster, and Tsuyu decided to join them as well for a better look. As Habuko said, this movie looked rather artsy compared to most of the posters here, showing a blond boy watching a balloon fly away with a faint smile on his face. The title was foreign with the Japanese translation below, the syllables incomprehensible to her.

"That guy looks familiar," Habuko muttered, squinting at the poster. "Ugh, why doesn't this one say anyone's names?"

"Aoyama?" Tsuyu heard Todoroki say faintly, and she glanced at him curiously.

"Aoyama, Aoyama..." Habuko repeated the name, and then snapped her fingers. "Oh right, Aoyama Yuga! That part-French model. I see him in fashion magazines sometimes. I guess he's finally moved on to acting, then."

"I didn't think you were interested in that sort of thing, Yuki-kun," Tsuyu remarked, and Todoroki gazed at the poster with a faint frown.

"I'm not," he said shortly. "He's in my class." A brief silence followed the statement, neither of them knowing how to respond. Eventually though he turned and walked away, the two girls following with silent looks at each other.

As far as she could tell, Todoroki fully believed he came from another dimension where he attended UA. They hadn't gotten many details about it, as he seemed oddly hesitant to share anything, but he'd shared enough to make it clear he had a rather elaborate set of memories. After all, it was harder to get more elaborate than multiple villain attacks throughout the year.

Having a famous model as a classmate though? In the hero course, no less?

Tsuyu didn't know enough about Aoyama Yuga to know the likelihood of him doing such a thing. Habuko recognized him though, so she stepped a little closer. "Would you ever have guessed that?" she asked quietly, and the snake girl snorted.

"Not sure. He's just a pretty face. He might like the fame though, I guess." Tsuyu nodded and turned forward once more, studying Todoroki's back thoughtfully. Yet another piece of the enigma that was Todoroki Shouto's memories.

Most concerning so far was his connection to the man named Dabi, though. They'd told the others what he'd said about the man's actions in his own world, but so far none of them recognized the name so they couldn't tell how true it might be. At the very least he wasn't a famous supervillain, but they all knew that the worst villains never made the news.

Either way, someone was calling Todoroki's original phone, which created its own set of concerns.

At this point they'd probably need to ask Kuroe if he'd heard of Dabi. They hadn't kept him in the loop so far, because despite everything he did for them, Kuroe ultimately wasn't part of the runaway network. Don't get her wrong, Tsuyu and the others would be forever grateful for his aid and kindness in helping them survive on the streets. However, they also knew enough to recognize when someone had ties to the underworld.

Tsuyu didn't know just how deep Kuroe's connections ran, but he had access to resources and information most people simply shouldn't. While they knew he would never betray them, that still put him at greater risk of being interrogated by people with less than savory intentions. If he met a person with a mind-reading Quirk, or some other ability that could glean information against his well, their secrets could be discovered in an instant.

Still, at this rate they'd need to take the plunge and at least ask if he knew about this Dabi character. They wouldn't even need to mention Todoroki specifically; they'd asked him about plenty of other villains before. Asking about another person wouldn't be any different from their other requests.

As they walked along Habuko suddenly jabbed her side with her elbow, making Tsuyu glance at her curiously. The snake girl was staring at something across the street, and Tsuyu followed her gaze to see a TV in the front window of a store, at which point she froze. The screen showed footage of a person in silver armor racing down a street while a man dressed up in a fancy suit skipped through the air above him.

Gentle Criminal.

Though they were too far away to make out much detail, Tsuyu could see the red ticker bar on the left side of the screen that signaled breaking news. Her stomach curled, knowing instantly that this wasn't just old footage but live. She and Habuko exchanged pointed glances, their faces equally grim before turning back to Todoroki. He hadn't noticed the TV yet, his head tipped back to watch one of Rockfish's birds.

If he knew that Gentle Criminal and Phantom Shadow had moved on, what would he do? Would he leave Odawara to follow them? Tsuyu didn't know, and she decided she couldn't risk finding out right now. "Yuki-kun, you never answered my question," she said abruptly, making him pause and glance back at her with a faintly puzzled look.

"What?"

"I asked if you would mind stopping the search for now," she told him. "You got distracted by the poster though, so you might not have heard, kero." Todoroki frowned slightly.

"It still seems early, though."

"Yeah, but it's also cold!" Habuko piped up bitterly, her lips curling back as she spoke. "Yuki, you might not mind it because of your fire or ice or whatever, but me and Midori have snake and frog mutations." To his credit Todoroki realized what she was getting at immediately, his visible eye widening with mild alarm.

"Oh, right," he said, frowning heavily. "I'm sorry, I forgot about that. I could try to help you warm up with my fire if you want, but..." He trailed off and shook his head. "No, you already went out of your way enough to help me. We can stop and find somewhere warm. I can keep looking later with someone else."

"Thank you, Yuki-kun," Tsuyu said and meant it, genuinely grateful to get out of the cold. Still, as they began steering him towards a small coffee shop they knew to be relatively safe she couldn't help but worry. From the corner of her eye she could see Habuko discreetly texting the others, no doubt informing them about Gentle Criminal. They needed to figure out how to handle this, and fast.

Around the same time a silver car pulled up to a small, two-story house, Haimawari turning around to face his passengers. "Well, this ride has been fun, but we're finally here so this is where we part," he told them cheerfully. Mina nodded, beaming at him.

"Thank you so much for the ride!"

"Yeah," Kiri agreed with a smaller smile. "And uh, good luck on becoming a hero. I'm glad you got that second chance!"

"You and me both, kid," Haimawari chuckled, and the pair gave him some more farewells as they climbed out of the car. Despite Mina's initial wariness, Haimawari turned out to be a pretty good (and cool!) guy. Turns out he'd been a vigilante for a few years after missing his high school entrance exam, cutting off his dreams of getting a license. After the UA Massacre he'd had to cut down on his activity a bit for his own safety, but some of his hero contacts had recently been reaching out to help him become more legitimate.

They waved as his car drove off, and only after it vanished from sight did they turn to face the house. It looked so... normal, but Mina guessed she shouldn't be so surprised about that. "Ready, Kiri?" she asked, and her friend looked a bit uneasy but nodded.

"Yeah, as ready as I'll ever be," he muttered, and Mina marched up to the front door and knocked. Not even a second later it opened, making them jump in surprise. A guy with black hair and bright orange eyes stood there, sighing as he looked over them.

"So you must be Ashido and Kirishima, right?" he asked, sounding tired. The pair frowned at that, exchanging brief, wary glances, and he sighed again. "Yeah, no, of course you are. Enough standing here, we can talk inside. It's freezing and it's starting to leak inside." The guy stepped back so they could enter, the pair scurrying into the relative warmth of his house.

"Uh, not to be rude, but who are you?" Kiri asked as they bent down to remove their shoes.

"...She didn't tell you anything, did she?" the guy asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You mean Anjou-san? Uh, no, not really."

"Figures. She's always had a flair for the dramatic." The man snorted and rolled his eyes. "Don't worry about it too much. The name's Kuroe."

"Kuroe?" Mina repeated, her eyebrows furrowing. For some reason something about that name felt weirdly familiar, but she didn't know why. She also didn't know why she now felt just the slightest bit more relaxed and comfortable around him.

"If you want my full name, you're not getting it," he said. "Anyways, come on, guest room's down here." He gestured for them to follow him as he headed deeper into the house, the pair grabbing their backpacks as they jogged after him. "Just so you know it's only got one bed though, so unless you two feel up to sharing, one of you will have to use the couch or floor. You guys can crash here until she comes by on Friday, or until you figure out... whatever." He waved vaguely as he spoke, and next to her Kiri frowned.

"Uh, what exactly did Anjou tell you?" he asked. "I mean, obviously she told you we were coming, but she didn't tell us anything about what she had planned, so..."

"Not much, honestly," Kuroe replied with a shrug. "She said you guys had some stuff you needed to take care of that you couldn't do while under hero watch, and needed help arranging a distraction and a ride here." He shook his head as he muttered under his breath, "I still can't believe she agreed to it so easily and sent me freaking selfies. I feel like I unleashed a monster..."

Okay, that last bit was kinda confusing and alarming. "Who, Anjou?" Mina asked.

"No, someone else," Kuroe groaned, sounding very tired. "Forget it. Anyways, here's the guest room." He pushed open a door to reveal a pretty average-looking room with a single queen-sized bed. "The dresser's mostly empty, but there is some stuff, so if it fits feel free to take it. Again though, you guys are gonna have to either share or decide on who's getting the floor or couch." Mina and Kiri exchanged faint grimaces. As much as she liked Kiri, she didn't really want to sleep in the same bed as him.

"I'll take the couch," she volunteered, making Kiri startle.

"Wait, what? I was going to say that!"

"You already volunteered to come along even though I'm the one who needed to run away," Mina pointed out, hands on her hips. "You didn't have to come, but you basically gave up your whole life anyway. So you should at least have the comfier place to sleep." It only seemed to natural to her, but Kiri still looked uncomfortable and doubtful.

"But... But... You're a girl," he said lamely, and then froze as he realized what he'd just said.

Mina went very, very still at his words, her eyes narrowing. "And?" she challenged lowly, and Kiri's face twisted in panic.

"N-never mind!" he said quickly "I'll take the bed!"

"That's what I thought." She nodded in satisfaction, and behind her she heard Kuroe snort, his mouth twisting into an amused smirk.

"Word of advice kid, never look down on girls," he told Kiri lightly. "Doesn't matter if you're trying to be a 'gentleman' or whatever. Take it from me, girls can be fucking terrifying."

"Yeah, I know," Kiri muttered, while Mina just marched into the room with an air of smug satisfaction.

"I'm still going to get changed in here though," she added as she dropped her backpack on the dresser. "No way am I keeping my clothes out in the living room or wherever!"

"...Um, I kinda feel like this is a trap," Kiri said, and this time Kuroe chuckled low and quiet.

"I think that should settle everything for now. I've got to get back to work so try not to make too much noise. If you're really bored, I've got some old console in the living room you could play. Just don't go out. Especially you, Pinkie," he added with a pointed look at Mina. "If you two were under hero watch, I guarantee there will be people looking for you, and we don't have the stuff for a disguise for you."

Mina pouted, because even if she knew he was right she still felt a bit bummed at being essentially stuck on house arrest even now. Kiri looked more thoughtful though as he lingered in the door. "Could we disguise Ashido?" he wondered. "I mean, she kinda stands out, right?"

"Throw on a wig, sunglasses and some face paint," Kuroe deadpanned. "Pink skin is unusual, but not that unusual. The eyes and horns are the biggest giveaways, but you can cover those up. With the right makeup, you can even make it look like she's got scales or even fur under her eyes."

"Oh, or maybe a raccoon mask!" Mina said with a bright grin, thinking of Bakugou's nickname for her.

"Sure kid, whatever floats your boat," Kuroe said, rolling his eyes.

"Would that really be enough, though?" Kiri asked skeptically.

"Yeah. I have a friend whose Quirk was basically just changing her hair and eye colors. Literally everything else about her stayed the same, but I can say for a fact most of our classmates wouldn't recognize her if she didn't wear this one hairclip and eye patch all the time." He smirked at the memory, adding, "And even then, she managed to convince people she was a transfer student three different times."

"Ooh, that sounds fun!" Mina grinned and Kuroe snorted.

"Yeah. That woman is something," he muttered under his breath, before continuing more loudly, "But either way, I don't really have the supplies for any of that on hand. The heat's too much to bother trying anyway. Anyways, I really need to get back to work now. Watch TV or play games or whatever, but like I said, don't make too much noise. I'll be in the kitchen working on my laptop if you need anything."

They nodded and watched him leave, at which point Kiri entered the bedroom to drop his own bag on the bed. Neither of them seemed to feel like talking anymore, just taking a few moments to sort of decompress. Kiri opened his bag to search for something, while Mina pulled out the phone Anjou had lent her and frowned at it.

She really wanted to text Anjou or Kumiko and let them know they'd gotten there safely, but Anjou had made her promise not to do that. She'd said that the police would be sure to question them as soon as they realized Mina and Kiri had run away, and would probably want to look at their phones to see if they'd texted or called them. Earlier Anjou had been texting her from a different disposable phone, which still weirded her out.

"Why do you think Anjou has so many spare phones?" she wondered aloud.

"I don't know, maybe it's something to do with her Quirk?" Kiri shrugged, pulling out a book from his bag. Mina wrinkled her nose as she recognized it as one of their textbooks, which, ew. He didn't look any happier as he looked down at it. "I don't know about you, but I'm gonna try to work on some homework for a while."

"But you hate homework," she pointed out. "And we ran away, so we don't have to do school anyway!"

"I know," he said with a grimace at the textbook. "But I promised myself that I'd try to at least get this week's stuff done so I won't be too far behind when we go back. My folks would probably kill me otherwise..." That last remark had Mina's mood sobering. Right, their families had no idea what was going on...

Mina felt a new rush of guilt at the thought. She'd thought of her parents now and then, but she hadn't spoken to them since waking up in this world. It just felt weird when she wasn't their Mina, you know? And they lived separately anyway, so it was just easier to, well... not think about them. But they didn't know that. As far as they knew, Mina just suddenly threw herself into a hero fight, and then she suddenly ran away for no reason.

Sorry, other Mina... She mentally apologized to this world's Ashido Mina for the distress she'd put her (their?) parents in. Maybe she should have written them a note or something, but what would she have even said? She didn't really think they'd be totally understanding about the whole "I'm actually from another dimension" thing; if anything it'd probably scare them more since they'd think she was insane or something.

Then again, why didn't they reach out to her? That had Mina pausing, a frown unconsciously stretching across her face. She managed to fight a big villain on local TV, and had to go to the police station and have a Pro Hero watching her and everything! They didn't even call her though, which in retrospect was actually really weird. They weren't overprotective or anything, but she'd still expect something. And on that note... come to think of it...

Her phone didn't have either of her parents in the contacts.

"Nope!" she said out loud, making Kiri jump in surprise. He shot her a curious look, but she ignored him as she turned around. She'd already resolved to not think about it, so she instead began rooting around her backpack before pulling out her objective with a triumphant noise. From the corner of her eye she saw Kiri staring at it wide-eyed.

"Ashido, did you seriously pack a JoyStation Anima?" he asked.

"Yep!" she confirmed cheerfully as she switched it on. She grinned as a rhythm game loaded, plopping onto the bed to start playing. Video games might not really be essential like clothes or food, but if Mina had learned anything this past weekend, it was that boredom was the worst thing ever. Even if they came here with a goal, that didn't mean they'd be busy all the time.

She needed something to occupy herself until An-chan could arrive—and something to take her mind off everything else wrong with this world. Some games sounded absolutely perfect.

Me while writing this: "Wait, did I ever mention Ashido's parents in this world?"

Also me: "...I don't have any idea what her parents are like and don't really want to write their reactions to Ashido running away, and this world IS really screwed, so..."

(Seriously though, did I ever mention them? If I did, say the word and I'll change this.)

Question for next time: Outside of villains, what two characters would be the WORST choice to send back in time? (I mean this in a purely comedic sense. Like imagine Inasa with all the memories of everything that happens in canon, so he goes to UA after all and tries to befriend Bakugou and Todoroki.)