Chapter 42

.::Kaminari Jinxed It::.

At approximately twelve thirty PM, Iida Tenya found himself not in his bedroom waiting for the next streamed lecture to start like he should be, but instead seated in a small café halfway across the city from the Team Idaten headquarters.

Why? Because he had been invited to go to lunch by some of the sidekicks at Team Idaten, and they got called to help deal with Gentle Criminal halfway through it.

"Nii-san, please do not feel the need to drop everything and rush over here," he said into his cell phone, feeling just slightly exasperated at his older brother's worry.

"But Tenya, you're all alone in public!" his brother argued. "You know how dangerous that is!"

Tenya did know, it was why he didn't protest attending online classes which he found much more stifling compared to a traditional classroom setting. Nonetheless, he had to insist. "I understand your concern, but I promise I am perfectly safe. This café is reasonably populated and highly public, so I doubt anyone would risk trying anything in broad daylight. Your work comes first."

"I don't know," Tensei muttered, sounding uncertain. "A lot can happen in an hour. I could run over, get you home, and then finish it."

"That would take approximately half an hour, and your shift ends in an hour," Tenya countered. "That would take too much of your time, so I insist you finish it. You've already wasted enough time today thanks to Gentle Criminal. I'll be fine here for an hour."

"A lot can happen in an hour," Tensei muttered, but Tenya could hear the defeat in his voice. "But alright, fine. I'll finish it, but only because I know you'll try to scold me for leaving early." His voice took on a slightly more playful note, even if worry still tinged it, and Tenya felt himself smile.

"Only because your job is important," he replied. "I'll see you in an hour, nii-san. Now please get back to work, you've already wasted enough time on this call."

"Yeah, yeah," Tensei agreed. "See you then, Tenya." The call ended with a click, and Tenya lowered his phone with a sigh. As if on cue waitress appeared giving him a sympathetic smile as she refilled his drink.

"I don't know what's going on, but it sounds like you might be stuck here a while longer," she said. "Do you want a slice of pie on the house while you wait? Today's special is lemon merengue."

He didn't know how much she'd overheard, but he smiled nonetheless. "That would be lovely, thank you," he replied. "But if you bring me dessert, I insist I pay for it. It's only right."

"Okay then honey, I'll be back in a few minutes," she told him, and bustled off to the kitchen while Tenya quietly sank in his chair. While he'd reassured Tensei he would be fine, he still felt a bit antsy in public like this. As the youngest child of the prestigious Iida family, known for producing multiple generations of Pro Heroes, he was a valuable target. After Todoroki Shouto disappeared last year, that protective streak had only increased.

Fortunately this café seemed fairly safe, and Tenya had taken steps to disguise himself before leaving the house. Namely, one of the sidekicks had used some makeup around his eyes to make it look like he had scales and a lot of freckles had been added. No photos of himself had been released to the public, so hopefully this would be enough to throw off anyone who might notice the Iida family resemblance.

Really, Tenya felt more frustrated he wouldn't be able to watch the class live. Cell phones couldn't access the school's portal for security reasons, and he hadn't brought any of his textbooks so he couldn't study either. For now, he had to content himself with eating pie and reading news articles on his phone.

He did just that for about fifteen minutes when he noticed people chattering with tones that sounded slightly more urgent around him. He looked up curiously to see their gazes directed out a nearby window, and when he followed their looks he felt himself freeze. There in the middle of the street was a woman with a fiery red mohawk and glowing red-violet discs of energy in her hands engaged in battle with two costumed individuals he'd never seen before.

That alone was alarming, but Tenya's eyes widened as she threw one of the discs at one of mystery individuals like a frisbee. The person dodged out of the way, but the disc hit the streetlamp behind them and his eyes widened as it cut halfway into it before dissipating.

Cold horror washed over him all at once. Tenya didn't recognize her face, but he recognized that Quirk. His brother Tensei had warned him about a villainess with some sort of energy discs that basically acted as giant saw blades, able to slice through plenty of materials. One of the sidekicks at the agency had been hospitalized just last week after her attack managed to hit his legs.

He sprang to his feet immediately, slamming his hands on the table as he did to grab everyone's attention. "Everyone, please step away from the windows!" he called. "We need to evacuate to a back room out of her line of sight!"

A nearby man huffed. "Kid, I get you're freaked out with a fight so close to us, but we don't need to go that far," he said. "The fight's out there, there's no reason for her to come in here. We just need to get away from the windows in case they break."

Some of the other people murmured in quiet agreement, backing away from the window but not trying to do anything more than that. Tenya didn't back down though, shaking his head. "No, you don't understand! That woman is a dangerous villain who Pro Heroes have been trying to catch for the past two months! Attacking civilians is absolutely within her known patterns!"

From what Tensei described, the woman seemed to be more of a thrill-seeker than anything, fighting and terrorizing people for the fun of it rather than seeking some sort of gain. She had a penchant for causing massive property damage, both to attract Pro Heroes for a better fight and to generally wreak havoc. To that end, she also liked to drag in nearby civilians.

As he spoke he glanced out the window to check her position, only to jolt as he saw her fling one of the discs at the window of another nearby building. Her opponents were no where near that building—they were actually behind her, but she had a vicious grin as the disc shattered the glass. His chest tightened with horror because he could see people on the other side of the window, no doubt now showered in glass shards.

Several of the other café customers gasped as they saw the attack, the quiet murmurs giving way to more panicked chatter. Tenya's heart pounded faster as he turned to face them. "Look, she just went out of her way to attack another store!" he called loudly. "She's likely going to attack here too! We need to evacuate to the back before she does!"

This time he got no protests, a small stampede starting towards the door leading to the kitchen. Tenya lingered as everyone else rushed to safety, watching the battle anxiously. The woman's opponents had moved to attack her again, one of them shooting an arc of electricity at her which she dodged while flinging a disc at them. The mystery figured jumped out of the way, and as they did Tenya finally got a glimpse of a "1-A" emblazoned across their back.

Once again he found himself freezing, realizing these must be the vigilante duo Tensei had mentioned. The duo were new to the scene on Hosu, gradually growing a small following after a handful of accomplishments. Tensei had yet to see them himself, but they'd already gotten his attention.

Okay, this was bad, this was very bad. Two vigilantes were battling a villainess known for causing reckless destruction. Vigilantes had far less training than Pro Heroes, and would thus be much less likely to prevent collateral damage. In short, this was a disaster waiting to happen.

Tenya's mouth thinned as he whipped out his phone, swiftly texting the big group chat for Team Idaten. 'URGENT! The villainess who attacked Enigma is currently fighting the 1-A Vigilantes by the restaurant! I am evacuating the customers to safety but we need someone on the scene now!'

He'd barely hit send when he heard a loud cry outside, and he looked up only for the world to freeze. There on the other side of the street was a young child no older than a toddler. The child seemed to have been inside one of the stores the woman had attacked, the storefront behind them damaged with some of the glass and part of the wall missing. They made no move to run to safety, just standing and crying at the top of their lungs.

Their loud crying had obviously drawn the woman's attention, and she shot the child a vicious look even as the two vigilantes furiously showered her with blow after blow. Tenya's blood chilled, and he knew he couldn't stand around doing nothing.

Things had taken a bad turn, a very bad turn.

Kyouka cursed as the woman dodged out of the way of Kaminari's latest attack, nearly all other sound around her drowned by the high-pitched wailing not far away. A kid, a freaking kid had stumbled onto the battlefield. This fight had been hard from the start, this woman nearly taking off their limbs and heads more than once, but the stakes had just gotten even higher.

Everything had been going wrong from the moment they found this crazy woman. They'd stumbled across her after hearing shouts of alarm to find her outright attacking civilians, just throwing those energy discs into the scattering crowd. That alone set her apart from all the other muggers and crooks they'd fought, but the ensuing fight just cemented that difference further.

She wasn't doing this to fulfill some overarching goal, she was causing chaos for fun. She had zero hesitation about destroying her surroundings—no, she enjoyed it. Three stop lights now lay shattered on this street after she'd sliced through the poles suspending them to try to let them land on Kyouka or Kaminari. One street over, a streetlamp had been completely bisected and had one end now lying inside a nearby store after crashing through the window.

And now, again: there was a kid here.

"I'm over here, bitch!" Kyouka yelled, throwing a small electro-bomb at the woman when her gaze strayed to the crying toddler. The woman dodged out of the way easily, the bomb exploding into a burst of sparks as it hit the pavement behind her, but at least she was further away from the toddler.

At the same time Kaminari rushed her from the left and threw one of his stun discs at her. She skipped out of the way while producing another disc and flinging it at him, Kaminari narrowly managing to evade the strike which instead embedded into a wall behind him.

All the while the kid never tried to run, just kept standing there crying. The fact no one else had come out to remove the kid yet made it pretty clear no one would, meaning they were probably on their own with that. Great. Kyouka ground her teeth, silently going over the gear she had on hand to try to come up with a strategy.

Most of it would be useless here; the woman's Quirk made it dangerous to engage her in close combat, and she moved too fast to hit her with their ranged stuff. The sticky bombs seemed like their best bet: it would immobilize her and then they could subdue her more easily... but that still depended on it hitting her. The best idea she had was to use her Quirk on the street to crack it and throw the woman off-balance long enough to hit her with one, but she couldn't do that.

As vigilantes, they couldn't risk causing too much damage or else the police might start to target them more seriously. While they wanted attention so others from Class 1-A might recognize them, this would bring the wrong kind and put them under intense scrutiny. Honestly, they shouldn't even be fighting a villain this serious, but they'd had no choice. Ignoring her would have been a literal death sentence for that crowd she'd attacked before.

This woman had the advantage over them, and she knew it.

For now, they needed to keep her away from the kid. To that end Kyouka charged forward again, earphone jacks slithering down the back of her dress to plug into her boots. She channeled her heartbeat into a sonic blast aimed at the woman. It wasn't strong enough to knock her off her feet or unbalance her; Kyouka had to keep it fairly weak to avoid potentially hurting the kid. It did make her stagger long enough for Kaminari to make a move though.

"Take THIS!" he shouted, throwing a smoke bomb at her. She yelled as it hit her right in the head, a large cloud exploding instantly and making her cough. Kyouka sorely wished they'd thought to give him some of the sticky bombs because this would have been a perfect opportunity to bean her with one, but no. They thought it'd be clever to restrict some of the gear to one and not the other, to help confuse people about what was a Quirk and what wasn't.

At least the smoke bomb distracted her for a few seconds. Kaminari followed it up with a lightning rod, throwing it at the woman's arm while Kyouka broke into a run towards the kid. She could hear the woman shout in pain as he shot her with electricity but Kyouka didn't look over, her attention focused on the still-crying child.

She had nearly reached the kid when she heard Kaminari shout. "SHIT! POPSTAR, LOOK OUT!" Kyouka twisted her head and startled as she saw the woman had managed to yank out the lightning rod and turned her attention to her. Her face contorted in rage as she glared at Kyouka, her arm reeled back with the largest disc yet spinning above her palm. Shit!

"I am so sick and TIRED of you brats!" she roared, and Kyouka felt her heart drop as she threw it, the disc gliding low to the ground as it spun towards her. If it hit her, she could see it slicing right through her ankles. Every instinct screamed to dodge, but Kyouka's current position placed her directly between the villainous and the kid; if she dodged now, it would hit the kid instead, probably right in the stomach.

No matter what she decided, someone would get hurt.

Before she could think anything else she suddenly heard the wailing cut off behind her, and then something smacked directly into her.

She gasped as she felt an arm dig into her stomach, painfully knocking the air out of her as it shoved her back at record speeds. Her legs lifted from under her as the momentum carried her away, the world blurring only for a second before going still. When it did her head snapped to the side to see a familiar face next to her, a stern look full of determination directed towards the woman.

Iida!? Even with those weird scales painted around his eyes she recognized the class rep on sight. He'd half-wrapped one arm around her middle to drag her away, and in his other arm he held the child—who turned out to be a boy now that she was close enough to see his face—who dangled quietly with a shocked look.

A loud boom had her twisting her head to see that the disc had crashed through the already damaged wall behind where the boy had been standing. Now even more of it crumbled away, horizontal slots visible at each side of the hole, and her stomach lurched at the thought of what it would've done if it hit them instead.

The woman looked even more enraged that her attack had missed, but Kaminari didn't give her an opening to attack again. "Eyes on me, lady!" he roared, flinging himself at her with his entire body. The woman spun but didn't have time to form another energy disc before he was on her, slamming a fist surging with electricity right at her face.

The woman staggered back with a howl of pain while grasping at her nose, and Kyouka didn't hesitate at the opening. She all but yanked a sticky bomb from her pocket and hurled it right at the woman's feet. Thanks to how her hands covered her face the villainess didn't notice until it was too late, and the bomb exploded in a mess of sticky pink goo that rooted her feet to the ground.

At the same moment Kaminari surged forward, grabbing her arms with both hands and flooding her with a surge of electricity . While she screamed in pain Kyouka took the chance to nod to Iida. "Thanks," she said breathlessly. "Now get the kid out of here and go!"

"You should not be engaging a villainess!" Iida scolded, and she had to resist the urge to groan. Was he seriously going to lecture her now of all times!?

"You are holding a two-year-old," she told him flatly. "Now is not the time for you to talk about this. If you want to be a hero, prioritize getting the kid to safety! Now hurry up and go!" He startled and looked a little chastised, but Kyouka didn't pay him any mind as she spun to face the woman. Kaminari had stopped shocking her and jumped back, thankfully seeming to still be in control of himself. The woman groaned in pain, but Kyouka could still see another disc forming in her palm as it dangled at her side.

Nope. Kyouka pulled out a second sticky bomb and charged with a furious shout, making the woman twist to look at her and raise the disc just as Kyouka threw it. The pink orb made contact with the disc's edge and exploded, pink goop flying everywhere.

Kaminari yelped as he scrambled to dodge some of it, while Kyouka cursed and jumped back as some hit her side with enough force to actually hurt. The woman took the brunt of it though, shrieking as some of smacked her right in the face and front. The disc had dissipated at the impact and her palm was now coated in a thick layer of the goop, her fingers stuck together. Her face contorted with disgust as she cursed loudly and waved her hand in an attempt to free it.

While she cursed Kaminari raced over to Kyouka "I think we can go now," he said breathlessly, and she nodded in agreement. The woman could still use her free hand to make more discs, but with her rooted to one spot that'd seriously limit the damage she could do. Either way they couldn't stick around any longer; after such a big commotion Pro Heroes would be showing up any second, they needed to be gone yesterday.

They turned and fled without another word, racing into the nearest alley. They only got a few steps inside when a blur suddenly zoomed past them and Iida came to a halt in front of them, making them skid to a stop.

"Halt!" he ordered. "I cannot allow you to escape! Good as your intentions may be, vigilantism is still breaking the law!"

"Seriously!?" Kaminari half-shouted in exasperation.

"You realize fighting us counts as vigilantism, right?" Kyouka deadpanned. Iida wavered for a moment at that, his penchant for sticking to the rules getting the better of him, but then he straightened with a renewed resolve in his eyes. Dammit.

"I am an intern of Team Idaten!" he declared, his voice booming with authority. "I am legally allowed to use my Quirk within reason in the interest of protecting myself and others!" Double dammit. "And besides that, you two are teenagers as well, which makes your delinquency all the more intolerable!"

"What makes you so sure about that?" Kaminari challenged, and at that very moment Kyouka wanted to face palm because only now did she realize: he wasn't using his voice modulator. The modulators had limited power so they couldn't constantly keep them on (that, and they also didn't fully trust they wouldn't explode yet), but while Kyouka had switched hers on at the start of the fight, Kaminari never had.

In the heat of the fight Kyouka hadn't noticed it, but now it was blaringly obvious that Iida had been able to hear him the whole time. Kaminari had a slightly high-pitched voice that made it hard to mistake him for a full-grown adult. The only saving grace was that this world's Iida probably didn't know Kaminari, so he probably wouldn't be able to identify his voice, but that provided little consolation.

"Not only are you breaking the law, but your are also skipping school!" Iida continued sternly. "Truancy is absolutely unforgiveable! Do you not value your education?"

Kyouka found herself wavering at that, because he was lecturing vigilantes on skipping school? Iida's priorities seemed to be weirdly skewed as usual. As she tried to think of a way out of this Kaminari spoke up. "Uh dude, you do realize high school isn't, like, required, right?" he asked, and Iida faltered for a second.

"H-huh?" he sputtered.

"After you graduate middle school, you don't have to go to high school," Kaminari continued casually. "Plenty of kids drop out to start working part-time jobs, or become shut-ins just because they don't feel safe going outside. You know, because of all the villain attacks?" He added the last bit somewhat pointedly, and Iida's resolve visibly faltered once more.

"I-I..."

"Don't just assume a teenager is in school," Kaminari said with a huff. "You have no idea what's going on with their lives, that's just rude and insensitive." Iida winced, looking aghast at the realization Kaminari's words spawned. He didn't have a chance to act on them more though, because at that moment Kaminari threw a smoke bomb at the ground and the alley filled with smoke.

Kyouka took off running instantly, charging through the smoke to race past him. As they did she heard a pop and Iida shouting in surprise, and Kyouka guessed Kaminari had thrown one of his expanding foam pellets at the speedster. It wouldn't stick to people like the sticky bombs, but the foam had a tendency to harden surprisingly fast once exposed to air. While it didn't become quite solid, moving through it was still a pain.

It would probably only give them a few seconds' head start, but hopefully that would be enough. They both darted deeper into the alleys, taking nearly every turn they saw. Sirens now sounded not too far away, only adding to the urgency. As they ran Kyouka eyed the walls around them. "Do you know if any of the heroes stick to rooftops?" she asked.

"Don't think so, but how'll we get up there?" Kaminari asked.

"Give me a boost," Kyouka replied, and he shot her a curious look but nodded. He sprinted a bit ahead of her and spun to face her with his hands held low for her to use as a step. She hopped onto his palms and he swung them upwards, giving her a brief boost that only lifted her halfway to the rooftop. Kyouka didn't let that stop her though, pressing her middle and ring finger against her thumb on both hands before slamming her right palm against the wall.

In the pursuit of making gear to mimic Quirks, one of Hatsume's innovations had been what they had nicknamed "Gecko Mode." When her palm slapped the wall it stuck, leaving her dangling by one hand. It put a lot of strain on her arm, her muscles protesting more than she'd expected, but she managed to yank herself upwards and slap her other hand against the wall above the first.

Below her Kaminari gave a whoop of appreciation, but Kyouka couldn't return the sentiment because of what they had to do next. "Grab my legs and hold on!" she ordered reluctantly, and he jolted in surprise before scrambling to do as told.

The gloves did a great job at keeping her on the wall as he jumped and wrapped his arms around her legs, his added weight dragging her down painfully. She grimaced as her arms protested the position even more, but ignored the pain as she peeled away her lower palm with no small amount of effort in order to keep climbing.

Scaling the wall took about thirty seconds total, an awkward ordeal since she could only use her hands. Even if Kaminari hadn't been holding her legs, her boots had no adhesive function. As it stood, his weight made it way more straining on her arms. She reached the top with no small amount of relief, practically collapsing as she pulled herself over the edge of the roof.

Fortunately for her the motion pulled Kaminari even closer to the edge, and he managed to grab it and pull himself up the rest of the way. Kyouka gasped as she collapsed onto the roof, her arms more sore than they had felt in years. She couldn't regret her decision though, because not even thirty seconds later they heard movement from below.

Neither of them dared speak or move to look as they listened to someone run through the alley. By this point the sirens had grown louder, and they had no doubt it was a Pro Hero or police officer. Kaminari turned to look at her, silently asking something, but Kyouka felt too tired to try to parse what that look meant. She curled up panting in exhaustion, glaring at her too-sore arms.

Too close. This had been way too close. Every aspect of this encounter had been infinitely more dangerous than all their other patrols, from the villain herself to the kid and Iida, and all the way to the response time of the Pro Heroes. Even in their own world with proper gear and support, that fight would have been tough.

But they'd done it, they'd won.

She'd love to stop and rest, but they had to move. Heroes would be searching the area for a while yet, and it wouldn't take long to go to the roof. To that end she forced herself to her feet, the pair trudging towards the stairwell in silence. When they got closer she tried the doorknob and scowled when it didn't budge. She'd rather not jump from rooftop to rooftop looking for an open stairwell.

As she glared at it Kaminari nudged her aside. "Let me try," he said, and she did just that. He grabbed the handle with one hand and pushed down on it harshly while slamming the door above it with his other palm, and with a click the handle turned. Kyouka stared dumbly as he opened the door and spun to her with an obviously proud smile. "Ta-dah!"

"...How did you know to do that?" she asked, and he froze.

"I... have no idea," he said slowly. For a second they just stood there, but then she sighed and trudged inside, Kaminari following in silence. They descended the stairs quietly, wary of witnesses as they silently tried to figure out what to do. As they reached the landing with a door to the third floor Kyouka plugged her earphone jack into the wall next to it. No one seemed to be in the hallway, so she opened it a crack and peeked out.

She froze, not believing her eyes. "...Kaminari," she said slowly. "Look." He shot her a curious look but peered out, and then he froze too, because that hall?

It was Kaminari's apartment building.

They both stared dumbly, trying to process the sight. Kaminari's apartment was on the second floor, but the layout of this hallway was identical down to the color of the walls. For a moment neither of them moved, just staring.

"...You know," she finally said, her voice sounding weirdly faint even to her own ears, "You're exactly the kind of guy who'd hang out on a roof."

"I am, aren't I," Kaminari said softly. Neither of them really knew what else to say, so they just descended to the second floor and went to his apartment.

Giant battle scene! It was fun to write. Less fun: coming up with the title. Why did I decide to title each chapter, why.

Also anyone who wanted Iida—here you go! In this world Iida is basically an intern so he does have limited permission to use his Quirk to protect others. The idea of some students dropping out of school is totally alien to him.

Question for next time: What are the worst alternative names you can think of for Quirks that still describe them? (E.g. "Alien Sweat" for Ashido/Acid, "Boom-Boom Hands" for Bakugou/Explosion, etc.)