Chapter 47
.::Long Awaited Meetings::.
Friday evening found the Nighteye Agency unusually busy. Mirio could feel anticipation thick in the air as he and the other students went about their work quietly, all of them boggling the steady stream of heroes that passed through the halls by the lounges and offices. The chatter made it hard for most of them to focus on their schoolwork until some them just took their laptops to the public study room on the second floor, Mirio and Tamaki included.
Even that didn't keep them from hearing about the bigger developments though. Around an hour after retreating to the study room Hadou Nejire poked her head through the open door, eyes darting around the room. She zeroed in on them instantly and broke into a smile, ignoring the others there as she all but bounced over to their table.
"Hey, hey!" she greeted as she plopped into the empty chair next to Tamaki. The dark-haired teen visibly suppressed a groan, wilting away from the energetic girl. "Mirio-kun, Tamaki-kun, guess what?" Her gaze flitted between Mirio and Tamaki equally as she waited for one of them to answer, Tamaki shrinking back even further.
"What is it?" Mirio asked, if only to spare his friend from her energy, and Nejire's bright blue gaze settled on him fully as she leaned over the table.
"I just saw the Space Hero Thirteen arrive!" she confided. "They were with Hound Dog, too. I got to say hi and talk to them for a while!"
"That poor man," Tamaki muttered under her breath while Mirio stifled a laugh.
"What'd you ask?" he asked with a grin. Nejire had made her fascination with the more physical aspects of Quirks well known early on, peppering anyone and everyone with rapidfire questions and never giving them a chance to respond. Things like if Centipeder's feet were centipedes coiled up in his shoes, could Bubble Girl get a tan, did Lady of the Night feel it when her pupils glowed, could Tamaki's ears wiggle?
(She'd asked Mail something too. Mirio didn't know what it was because he wasn't there, but apparently he'd actually had a chance to answer. She'd stopped asking strangers questions for a while after that.)
This time she didn't disappoint, rattling off the questions she'd peppered him. "I asked if he ever needed to use flea shampoo, if he could scratch behind his ears with his legs, and if he could eat chocolate."
Thunk. Tamaki's head met the table, a familiar sound that everyone had long since learned to ignore. "That poor man," he repeated, voice muffled by the wood, while Mirio just beamed at Nejire.
"Did he answer?" he asked eagerly.
"Nope! Lady of the Night grabbed me and dragged me away and said to find you two!" That made sense. Lady of the Night tended to lump the three of them together more often than not for some reason, not that they complained. The trio had become inseparable since coming to Nighteye Agency, Nejire integrating into their preexisting friendship seamlessly. They'd often be trusted with reigning in her more blunt questions, and in exchange she would help pull Tamaki out of his shell or help Mirio keep up his spirits on bad days.
"Hold on," Tamaki muttered, lifting his head with a small frown. "Hound Dog? Thirteen? And earlier we saw Ectoplasm too..." His eyebrows furrowed, and he said more quietly, "Didn't... didn't they all work at UA?"
The question had the others stilling, a hushed atmosphere falling over the room. Even the people who hadn't been participating in the conversation seemed to stop whatever they were doing, a faint tension to their shoulders. Mirio found himself staring forward blankly, his mind flashing back. Right... He remembered now, at the end, he did see Thirteen pulling rubble off—
Well, it didn't matter right now.
He immediately squashed the memory before it could fully form. "Oh, I bet they're here about that case!" he said brightly, and the others looked at him curiously, the heavy atmosphere effectively lifted by the topic change.
"That case?" Nejire echoed, tilting her head, and he nodded almost eagerly.
"Yeah! You know, that one tied to what happened last year!" He had to keep it vague, as most of their peers didn't know. However, he could quickly see recognition lighting up on Tamaki's face.
"Oh yeah, that one with the kid, right?" he asked, and Nejire's face cleared up in understanding while Mirio beamed and nodded in confirmation.
"Exactly! That one!" The whole thing about Shigaraki's brother had been kept on the down-low for obvious reasons. He'd been allowed to tell Tamaki and Nejire some details, but he was the only one of their trio to have actually been given any information regarding Izuku. Even then he was largely kept at a distance from the case, only being told that UA's former faculty had begun cooperating with the investigation.
Mirio knew something was going on right now though. As Sir Nighteye's unofficial personal protégé, Mirio had a bit more involvement with active cases than his peers. Just this week he'd been called to help go through footage from all the security cameras in an area where the kid had been sighted—with Shigaraki no less. In the end neither of them had been caught on the cameras, but it was still a big development.
As he mulled over it one of the kids at a nearby table, Sakamaki, twisted in his chair to face them. "Hey, hold on," he said. "I don't know what you guys are talking about, but wasn't there some big bust in Nabu earlier this week?"
"Yeah, yeah!" Nejire said with a vigorous nod. "Everyone was, like, sooo worked up, remember? They spent all afternoon in the Super Happy Funtime... um, whatever department." She shrugged, not able to remember the full name off the top of her head. "They wouldn't tell anyone what was going on though."
A thought occurred to Mirio, and he glanced across the room to look at a girl with sandy-brown hair. "Hey Utsushimi-san, don't you work with the Super Happy Funtime Supernatural ESP Investigation Department a lot?" he asked. Utshushimi, one of the younger student/interns at the Nighteye Agency, quickly nodded.
"Yeah, I do!" she said. "I don't know what's up because they wouldn't tell me, but like, I think I heard something about a lead on a missing hero...?" She shrugged, adding, "Like, I dunno. I was working on schoolwork in the far corner and they were all holed up in one of the offices. I was just hanging out there in case Mail came back. He's still gone, by the way. Where did you guys say he went again?"
"To visit Oracle," Mirio replied, and he noticed Tamaki pause.
"...Hold on," he muttered. "Didn't the kids Oracle was watching...?" He trailed off, but Mirio and Nejire quickly picked up on his meaning.
"They ran away!" Nejire exclaimed, almost jumping out of her chair and slamming her hands on the table. "They totally just vanished on him from under his nose! Maybe it's about them?" A quiet murmur arose at this bit of information, all work forgotten as everyone began discussing just what, exactly, had brought all these Pro Heroes to their agency.
As it turned out, all of them were correct.
The Super Happy Funtime Supernatural ESP Investigation Department had never been packed by so many people at once. Heroes from both other parts of the Nighteye Agency and the former UA faculty steadily filtered through the doors, easily filling up the main communal workspace. Mirai would prefer to meet in a more traditional meeting room, but given the latest developments it couldn't be helped.
Nedzu sat on a table near the back of the room, watching the congregation grow. "It seems nearly everyone is here now," he observed, and Mirai nodded.
"Indeed. We're just waiting on—ah, there he is." Oracle strode through the doors with Sayonaka at his side, the two conversing in low tones. The combination had Mirai narrowing his eyes, even if he'd expected Sayonaka to greet the other hero personally. Knowing their connection and history though, he felt justified in his subconscious wariness towards the combination.
Still, with Oracle here all of the relevant parties had arrived. The only person absent was Mail, but he wasn't a formal member or even licensed so his presence wasn't required; the most he could do was offer input or help record the details of the meeting. Besides, Present Mic looked particularly tense and agitated, so Mirai decided it was time to call the meeting to order before the man's patience reached its limits.
To that end he clapped his hands to silence the quiet chatter. "Everyone has arrived, so let's begin," he announced. "We have a lot to cover."
"First of all, as everyone is now aware, we've received confirmation Eraserhead is, in fact, alive," Nedzu began, taking over for him. "Lady of the Night has already performed an extensive investigation into the room where he had been held."
"After analyzing that room, he was kept there for a majority of the time he's been missing," Sayonaka confirmed with a nod. "He underwent heavy torture towards the start of his captivity, but after a while they eventually seemed to stop for whatever reason. As best as I can tell, the most recent injury was a broken rib, likely about one month ago. The pain from that injury had mostly faded by the time Shigaraki arrived."
She spoke briskly and to the point as always, making no attempt to soften her words. Mirai kept a close watch on Present Mic the entire time, knowing he would be the most volatile one in the room. Even now the blond had a dark frown on his face, fists clenched tightly at his side and lips pressed together tightly enough to turn white. Midnight hovered close behind with a hand on his shoulder, and Mirai averted his gaze when she gave a gentle squeeze. She seemed capable enough of handling him, so he'd leave it to her and focus on everyone else.
The atmosphere was certainly heavy enough even beyond the blond. Mirai had rarely seen such a large collection of grim faces, not since All Might's memorial. Even Fukukado, who'd been famous among hero circles as the jolly Miss Joke before leaving the front lines to focus on training the interns, had a grave frown on her face. It felt wrong and out of place, but with the circumstances as they were, he'd be surprised if anyone could smile, even Toshinori himself.
Now was not the time to let himself fall into such morbid thoughts, however. He adjusted his glasses and took over explaining before the others could dwell too long. "Additionally, we now have a total of three missing teenagers, all first year students," he said. "The first is Uraraka Ochako, whom I assume everyone here has been briefed on. To reiterate though, she disappeared shortly after coming into contact with Shigaraki Tomura and his younger brother, who based on recent discoveries is most likely Midoriya Izuku. We do not know how or when they got into contact, but their interaction suggests she somehow knew Midoriya prior to that encounter."
He nodded at Midnight, who had a heavy frown on her face as she withdrew her hand from Mic's shoulder. "We still have no idea how they would have met. Her parents confirmed they never met the Midoriya family, and there aren't any records of either family traveling to the same areas. The most we can surmise it would have had to happen after Midoriya ran away but before her family's business really began to take off. That's only a two year window, though."
"Her phone had strong impressions of Midoriya still lingering, so she was thinking of him heavily before her disappearance," Sayonaka added. "It's rare for me to see such clear images of people other than the object's owner. There wasn't anything blurry about it. Even got his name."
"That brings us to the third point," Mirai interjected smoothly. "While investigating her phone, we found she had created a FacePage profile under the name 'Infinity Girl 8,' and in the days before her disappearance had been in communication with a user known as 'Alien Queen Pink.' Lady of the Night managed to attain an impression of this user's face, and upon sending the sketch to Oracle of Team Storm Chaser, he identified her as Ashido Mina. She and another teenager, Kirishima Eijirou, had been placed under protective watch since involving themselves in a partially-televised villain fight last Friday.
"Oracle and Midnight accompanied Detective Tsukauchi to question Ashido on Sunday. They claim Ashido was cooperative with questioning, but that it brought up largely inconclusive results. Ashido appeared to have never met Uraraka in person, and had no confirmation of who she was talking to online. She had the impression that Uraraka ran away of her own volition based on conversations with her friends. They ended questioning shortly afterwards with intentions to later interview her friends."
Listening to the transcript had been one of the more oddly baffling experiences for Mirai. On the surface everything seemed fine and normal, save for the brief point where Oracle asked a question of his own. However, something about the whole thing just felt off, like they were missing something, but he couldn't put his finger on what exactly. That niggling doubt irritated him, and he'd like to question her himself—unfortunately, that wouldn't happen though.
"Then on Wednesday, both Ashido and Kirishima ran away," he continued briskly, and glanced at Oracle, who promptly took over explaining his side of the event.
"While watching them, someone deployed some sort of smoke bomb on the street. I immediately went to investigate and try to aid civilians caught up in it. I'll spare the full details and let you read the report later, but I ended up pursuing who I thought to be the culprit, and found out another person had effectively used them as a decoy. By the time I returned and sorted everything out, they were gone with only a stupid note saying 'My people need me' left behind."
"It was a planned escape, then," Moashi mused, and Oracle nodded.
"Planned, and coordinated. Hah, it's really aggravating," he added under his breath with a scowl. "I had a feeling something was off with Ashido, but I never expected them to run. We questioned their friends and teachers of course, but none of them had useful information. The most we got was that Ashido had been acting weird lately and claimed to have developed 'sudden partial amnesia.'"
"Sudden partial amnesia?" Snipe repeated skeptically, and Oracle snorted.
"Yeah, it sounds crazy, but even her teachers were willing to corroborate it. Kid started acting weird a little under three weeks ago. Couldn't remember where all her classes were or even moving to Kamino, but still remembered stuff like her friendship with Kirameki Kumiko. Before that, Kirishima had no connection to them despite living in the same building, but suddenly she was clinging to him. He's the one that really confuses me," he added with a frown. "I talked to him a bit and read his profile, and running away feels out of character."
Just one of many odd inconsistencies, Mirai mused as he took over once more. "At the very least, we can assume Ashido was the instigator in the decision. Taking all of these oddities into account though, Nedzu and I feel it safe to conclude that their disappearance and that of Uraraka Ochako are connected—which means there's most likely a connection to the Villain Alliance. We do not know anything more than that though, and that is the end of our knowledge. With this, everyone should be caught up."
A brief silence fell after that, everyone taking a few moments to digest the information. "I have a question," Vlad King said. "How did Uraraka and Ashido know each other?"
"Technically?" Nedzu said. "They didn't." The response got some odd and confused looks, and he wasted no time explaining. "There were absolutely zero opportunities for Uraraka Ochako and Ashido Mina to have ever met that we can find. There is also no evidence of Ashido sending Uraraka a photo of herself over FacePage."
"But didn't Lady of the Night see Ashido's face when touching Uraraka's phone?" Thirteen questioned.
"I did," Sayonaka said with a nod. "It was clear enough to suggest a strong relationship, which shouldn't exist. If they'd only seen each other in passing, I wouldn't have gotten such a clear and detailed impression." It was yet another detail they couldn't explain.
"At present, we cannot fathom how she got that image," Nedzu said. "Our best theory is that they knew each other through some third party, but there is absolutely no overlap in their acquaintances and social circles that we can determine. They grew up in completely different prefectures, and even looking at their elementary and middle school years, none of their classmates visited the other prefecture."
"The closest connection we can find is that one of the employees of Uraraka's father briefly lived in Ashido's city twelve years ago," Midnight added. "We've already questioned him with Tsukauchi and he doesn't know the Ashido family at all though."
"Yes, it's a complete mystery," Nedzu agreed with a solemn nod. "There is a high chance if we can figure out how they knew each other, we'll be able to understand the case better." A brief silence fell as everyone contemplated it.
"Hey, I know the missing kids are important and all, but can we go back to Eraserhead for a second?" Manaka—Figment—called out with a frown. "We're sure he's alive, right?"
"If they wanted to kill him, the Alliance would have done so in Nabu," Mirai affirmed with a nod, noting the way Mic grit his teeth at the blunt statement. He knew the man must be going crazy with concern over his friend, but Mirai couldn't soften his words. "We do not know why they took him, or where he might be now. But we're choosing to be optimistic." And wasn't that strange, to be optimistic about a man who'd been missing for six months when the unspoken rules among underground heroes said anything longer than three would be cruel.
"Eraser's tough!" Fukukado added with a nod and wry grin. "He might be in bad shape, but knowing him he's fighting back right this second!"
"She's right," Mic said, speaking up for the first time since this meeting began. His eyes burned behind his trademark sunglasses as he spoke, his voice holding no hesitation. "Eraser's not one to give up that easy. He's probably been reinvigorated and got his fighting spirit back by the move." Those who knew Eraserhead well nodded in agreement even as others exchanged doubtful looks. Though they had not worked together often, Mirai found himself agreeing with Fukukado and Mic.
Eraserhead would undoubtedly have unspeakable amounts of trauma, but he was alive, and that meant he could heal. Even if he chose to retire afterwards, to hang up his goggles and capture weapon for good, they owed it to him to at least search for him and pull him out of whatever hell he was trapped in.
"So, this 'Nettmegg' will be here soon, right?" Shouto asked, and Monoma nodded.
"Yes, she said six o'clock. It's standard to introduce new inductees to her, even if you don't plan to stay in Odawara long. It's a standard safety precaution." Shouto just hummed, accepting the words at face value mostly because he had no other choice. He glanced at the time on his burner phone to see it was now 5:56, so this "Nettmegg" should be arriving any minute now.
Monoma and Ojiro had gotten texts while they'd been ending yet another day of fruitless searching that Nettmegg, the network's coordinator, wanted to meet him personally. According to them, Nettmegg lived in another city entirely and handled all the coordination remotely. Something to do with her Quirk, though they hadn't explained what it entailed since describing another person's Quirk was taboo. All they told him was that she needed to meet him in person to "fully integrate him into the network."
Now they stood in the room where he'd first revealed his background, joined by Asui, Akai, and a few others who had hidden behind the curtain. Shouto only knew they were there because he'd glimpsed someone when Ojiro had gone back there a while ago to retrieve a portable space heater for Asui and Akai. The two girls huddled around it in the corner now, while Monoma hovered near the door waiting for Ojiro who'd left to check for Nettmegg.
Part of Shouto felt wary about this meeting, in part because he'd never heard about this "Nettmegg" until today. It made some sense, since from what little he knew the network had a surprising amount of people in it, but he couldn't help but feel suspicious. Why did the coordinator suddenly need to meet him? Why did they need to "integrate him into the network" if he was only there temporarily? What, exactly, did her Quirk do?
Two sharp knocks on the door cut into his thoughts, and they all turned to see it open to reveal Ojiro followed by three more people. One he didn't recognize, a girl with teal hair and dark eyes, but the others had Shouto straightening to attention. He instantly recognized one as the boy who'd also been looking at hair dye at the store earlier since he wore the same coat, though this time he lacked the scarf. Only now that he could see the boy's whole face did Shouto recognize him. Kirishima?
His gaze instantly flicked to the third figure. They wore a thick scarf around their mouth and nose and a particularly large wool hat that covered their ears, but it left their black and gold eyes exposed. A sudden pang of suspicion filled him, and sure enough, they quickly unraveled the scarf and tore off the hat with an overdramatic gasp to reveal a familiar face.
"Ugh, that scarf is so stuffy!" Ashido whined. Next to her Kirishima removed his hat and Shouto blinked when he saw the bright red hair. Come to think of it, hadn't it been black earlier?
"At least you had a scarf," he said. "Man, it kinda hurt just breathing through my nose!" As they spoke Shouto noticed the other runaways eying the two newcomers warily, though they soon focused on the teal-haired girl as she stepped forward.
"Hey," the girl—most likely Nettmegg—said in a belated greeting. "Sorry for the short notice, didn't know for sure I'd be able to make it until today."
"You didn't mention anyone else was coming," Akai commented coolly, eyes slightly more narrow than usual, and she shrugged.
"Sorry about that," Nettmegg replied, not sounding sorry at all. "Figured it'd be easier to just get this out of the way all at once. These two are some friends from school, Ashido and Kirishima."
The two turned at their names, Ashido beaming while Kirishima looked a bit nervous and... shy? Shouto filed it away for later contemplation as Ashido spoke up. "Hi! I'm Ashido Mina, and this guy's Kirishima Eijirou, the manliest man ever!" Kirishima winced at the overly enthusiastic introduction, shrinking under everyone's attention and retreating closer to the door with a small grimace.
"It's nice to meet you, kero," Asui piped up politely, and then Ashido turned to look at her with her jaw dropping.
"Wait... You're—"
"Hold that thought," Nettmegg cut in. "Before we do anything else, can 'Yuki' step forward?" Four sets of eyes quickly settled on Shouto and he obediently stepped forward, feeling very lost about what was going on. Two more of his classmates had just showed up, and it seemed the other runaways were just as surprised and confused by the turn of events.
Nettmegg strode up to him and held out a hand, and he looked at it blankly before reaching out to accept it hesitantly. Suddenly her eyes lit up, her irises flickering with a spinning turquoise pattern that matched her pupils. A Quirk. He immediately jerked his hand away, but it seemed it hadn't been fast enough as she just smirked as she pulled out her phone. "And, added," she said with an air of satisfaction.
"What did you do?" he demanded sharply.
"My Quirk is called Neural Networking," she explained. "When I touch someone while using it, it adds them to a network in my head that lets me track their location at all times, among... other things." Shouto's eyes widened briefly before quickly narrowing once more, his wariness spiking. So he couldn't run away and ditch them, then.
"So that's what your Quirk is?" Kirishima asked in surprise. "I thought it had to do with your phone."
"It does," the girl replied casually, holding up the device. The screen had a map open showing several colored dots. "My brother made a custom app that can interface with my Quirk so I can keep track of all the information better."
"Woah, that's actually really cool," Kirishima said. Next to him Ashido was quiet though, squinting at Shouto with a look of intense concentration that left him frowning.
"Can I help you with something?" he asked, and Ashido's eyes suddenly went wide as she jolted in place.
"Wait, Todoroki?" she gasped, and Shouto froze. She darted across the room to stop in front of him, completely ignoring any concept of "personal space" in the process, and he reflexively leaned back a bit as she stared right at his face. "Oh my gosh, you're totally Todoroki! I can totally see the scar under the eyepatch! Why are you wearing that? No, wait, why's your hair black? Wait, wait, did you dye it, or is it naturally black like Kiri's and the red and white was dye—"
"Um." Shouto just stared blankly, trying to process what was going on. Ashido... recognized him? Did he know this world's Ashido somehow? She didn't talk like they were strangers, but given this was Ashido, it was hard to say for sure.
"Hold on, do you know him?" Ojiro asked, thankfully voicing the question on Shouto's mind. Ashido paused then, and then her face became sheepish as she quickly stepped back.
"Uh, kinda?" she said with a weak laugh. "It's uh, really complicated. Sorry Todoroki," she added, shooting him an apologetic smile. "I probably freaked you out by getting all up in your personal space when I'm a stranger to you, huh?" Shouto stared, his mind stuck on the wording. A stranger to you. Ashido recognized him and spoke so familiarly, but still saw herself as a stranger to him.
"Wait," Akai said. "Then how—"
"Ashido, what is our homeroom teacher's name?" Shouto interrupted.
"Aizawa-sensei!" she replied without missing a beat, and then froze. He could see the moment she made the same realization he had, and her face lit up all at once in the biggest grin he'd ever seen. "Wait! Are you—are you MY Todoroki!? From 1-A!?"
"I... think so," Shouto replied, and... he wasn't alone? Someone else was here? He wanted to believe it, but he couldn't bring himself to do it right away, not without some more proof. He reached for the eyepatch to pull it off, almost wanting to look at her with both eyes as if that would somehow make it clearer. It didn't, of course, but he could see the gleam of hope in her eyes. "You're... Pinkie, right?"
Ashido responded by tackling him in a hug, nearly knocking him off his feet. "You ARE my Todoroki!" she shrieked, laughing with absolute delight as she squeezed his torso. "See guys! I told you! I told you! I'm not the only one!"
"Uh, what's going on?" Monoma asked nearby, sounding faintly alarmed, and Nettmegg laughed. A quiet laugh full of sharp edges and a vicious sort of amusement, a knowledge only she had.
"Just confirming a theory," she said, a wild grin on her face. "Let's start over. Everyone, this is Ashido Mina, the second person to come from another dimension."
At long last, the Todoroki and Ashido reunion. Next time: Anjou takes a page from Detective Conan's deduction shows because she's going for maximum drama. Bombshells are about to start dropping BIG TIME.
Question for next time: Who could you see dropping out of the front lines to focus on teaching interns/students at Nighteye's agency like Ms. Joke?