Chapter 48

.::Anjou's Deduction Show::..

Todoroki. Todoroki was here.

Mina felt like screaming and laughing as she hugged him, just soaking up his presence because she wasn't alone. Mina already knew that of course—knew it from Infinity Girl who HAD to be Uraraka, and from those photos of Jirou and Kaminari sporting the 1-A on their backs—but that was different from actually meeting someone who remembered all the things she did.

"Um, Ashido?" Todoroki said, and she snapped her full attention back to him. He was still staring at her wide-eyed, looking a little lost. "Can you let go?"

"I don't wanna," she mumbled, but (reluctantly) pried herself away from him. She didn't want to make him uncomfortable after all, and Todoroki had never seemed to be very tactile. She didn't go far though, staying right next to him as she eagerly bounced in place. "I just can't believe you're here too! This is so great!"

Of all the people that could end up here with her Todoroki hadn't been on the list, but now that she knew that he was she couldn't suppress her delight. They might not really know each other that well, but Todoroki was from her world. After spending nearly three whole weeks surrounded by classmates and friends who only looked at her as a stranger, having just one person who knew her—her, the Ashido Mina from Class 1-A—was worth more than words could describe.

"A second person?" she heard Ojiro say in disbelief, and Mina turned her head just enough to look at him while keeping Todoroki in her line of sight. Her not-classmate wasn't looking at them, just boggling An-chan in shock. "Wait, are you saying someone else actually believes that other dimension stuff?"

"Yep," An-chan confirmed with a nod.

"One person was crazy enough, but two?" the snake-girl muttered. She was the only one who Mina didn't recognize, but she seemed to be sticking close to Tsu-chan as she muttered to herself. "Holy shit, two? Seriously!?" Next to her Todoroki frowned.

"Wait," he said. "Didn't you believe me?" The other four seemed to pause at that, Ojiro and the snake-girl wincing while Tsu-chan and Monoma just exchanged quiet looks.

"To be fair, it's a rather unbelievable story," Tsu-chan said after a few seconds. "When you told us, you skipped over a lot of details of how you figured out this was another world, kero. You also didn't have much evidence. It seemed more likely someone messed with your memories."

"So you guys thought that too, huh?" Kiri muttered, while Mina shot him a glare and stuck out her tongue.

"You also kept insisting on looking for Gentle Criminal," Ojiro added a little acidly. Mina paused, partially out of surprise to hear him sound so worked up (had she ever heard him like that in their world?), but also to turn to Todoroki questioningly.

"Gentle Criminal?"

"His partner Phantom Shadow is Tokoyami," he explained, and Mina's jaw dropped.

"How did I not see that!?" she cried. "That video Kumiko showed me totally had him using Dark Shadow! I can't believe I didn't notice! Gah, I'm such an idiot!"

"Well, I guess they have the same memories," she heard someone mutter, though she didn't care to check who it was.

Todoroki meanwhile just frowned as he looked at the others. "So... you didn't believe me?" he asked, sounding just a bit hurt, and Mina's heart broke for him. To their credit most of them couldn't meet his gaze and looked away guiltily. Only Monoma didn't, sighing softly before speaking up.

"We thought it would be safer to play along until we could figure out the truth," he said loftily, making Mina automatically turn to glare at him. She didn't like him, the guy was always such a smug jerk, and even now he gave off that stupid snotty air as he spoke. "Look at it from our perspective. The son of Endeavor shows up a year after he ran away, talks about waking up next to a villain, somehow realizing he's in another dimension, and then insists on searching for another villain because you think he'll help somehow. If you don't have any evidence, that all seems rather suspicious."

...Okay, when he laid it out like that, Monoma had a point. But also: "What does he mean by waking up next to a villain?" she asked Todoroki, and his eyebrows furrowed as his frown deepened.

"When I first woke up here, I was next to Dabi," he said, and Mina's jaw dropped even more.

"What!? No way! Why were you next to him!? Wait—did he kidnap you like Bakugou!?"

Todoroki perked up at that, his eyes lighting up. "Maybe? That could explain it... Wait, I wasn't tied up though," he realized with a frown. "And I think he has my number, or at least I keep getting calls from someone labeled 'D,' so..."

"Hold on, why does he have your number!?" Mina blurted, and he shrugged.

"I don't know. Do you think I'm a villain in this world?"

"No way!" Mina didn't even have to hesitate or think on it. "You're way too nice to ever be a villain!" The idea was absolutely ludicrous to her, she couldn't believe he even had to ask.

Apparently he'd been worried about it though because her response seemed to reassure him, losing just a little bit of tension in his shoulders she hadn't noticed. "Thank you, Ashido."

"Okay, is anyone ELSE getting confused?" the snake girl piped up.

"I kinda gave up understanding a while back," Kiri said. Before anyone else could say something An-chan clapped her hands, getting everyone's attention.

"Okay, that's enough of that," she said. "We're getting off-topic. Here's what matters most: right now these two, Ashido and Todoroki, both have the exact same memories, and the exact same story about their life in this other dimension. I'm assuming that, anyway," she added with a shrug. "They both seem to connect this Tokoyami to Phantom Shadow, they both call their teacher Aizawa..."

"You realize this still sounds absolutely insane, right?" Ojiro asked flatly, and Mina scowled at him. "It sounds like they both had their memories screwed with by villains. Is it even safe to let them meet?" Yep, Ojiro was quickly descending her list of favorite classmates. Her scowl only deepened when Monoma spoke up next.

"Lee, I fully understand your concern, but I don't think this is the time to express doubts," he said. "Nettmegg wouldn't bring Ashido here to meet Todoroki like this if she thought it posed any danger. She must have some reason to believe them, or at least give them a chance." As he spoke Mina felt her scowl fade, her irritation replaced by surprise. Despite her expectations, Monoma was actually being surprisingly... nice? And not trying to pick a fight and mock them as somehow inferior?

"I guess Monoma's not really such a dick in this universe, huh?" she mused to Todoroki, who shrugged while Monoma startled behind her.

"I think it's because there's no Class 1-A or 1-B in this world, so there's no rivalry," he replied, and Mina gave a soft "ah" in understanding. "He's actually pretty nice here. You get used to it after a while."

"Hold on, how do you know my name?" Monoma asked sharply, and oh right, he didn't know her in this world so knowing his name would probably seem suspicious. Mina winced and turned back, feeling sheepish at how alarmed he looked.

"You're in Class 1-B in our world," she explained. "You're always competing with Class 1-A for some reason, so we're kinda used to you being a jerk?" Monoma just stared at her, and then looked at Todoroki.

"It's true," he said without prompting. "Everyone here seems really wary, so I thought you would freak out if I called you by your names."

"Do you know anyone else here?" Monoma asked slowly, the others standing more tensely now, and Todoroki paused.

"...I don't know Akai or Naota," he finally said, and those names meant nothing to Mina. "But Asui, Ojiro and Kouda are all in our class at 1-A. Then, Maria is... Shiozaki, I think?" He shot Mina a questioning look, and she shrugged.

"I don't know either of those names? Is it someone from 1-B?"

"The girl with vines for hair?" he said, and she lit up in recognition.

"Oh yeah! The one who beat Kaminari at the Sports Festival, right?"

"Yeah, her." Todoroki turned back, and then squinted at Kiri. "You're also in Class 1-A. But... wasn't your hair black earlier today?"

That got Mina's attention, turning to Kiri with renewed interest. Did they meet earlier at the store? Kiri did mention a "Kaitou," but An-chan called Todoroki "Yuki," not that. "Uh, y-yeah, it was," Kiri said after a few seconds. "I was looking at hair dye, remember? We both were, dude." Todoroki nodded, but he still looked a little confused.

"So then, your hair isn't naturally red?"

"Nope!" Mina answered for him. "But the red is way manlier, don't you agree?"

"...I think so?" Bless his heart, Todoroki still looked a little lost but he was trying. She knew he had a lot to learn about basic social interactions from Bakugou's rants about their remedial license classes, poor boy was so behind on a lot of things. For now she just beamed in encouragement to let him know he was doing good.

"This brings us back to the situation at hand," Anjou interjected smoothly. "As it stands, Ashido and Todoroki know stuff they absolutely shouldn't, and crazy as it sounds, I think this other dimension story might actually be real."

He wasn't alone.

Shouto wasn't alone in this world.

He'd been here for nearly three weeks now, and in that time it had never occurred to him that he might not be the only one from Class 1-A stuck in this world. Why would it? He'd woken up alone after all, and next to Dabi of all people. That alone made it easy to assume he'd been specifically targeted by the League of Villains. After then meeting several of his classmates' counterparts who didn't recognize him, it seemed only natural to assume no one else had been caught up in whatever this was and he was on his own.

But... he wasn't. Ashido was here too. Even after a full five minutes with her all but ignoring his personal space, it felt like some sort of dream.

As far as people to be stuck with went, Ashido... wasn't on the list. At all. He barely knew Ashido, their social circles never really overlapped; he mostly knew her as the loudest of his female classmates and the one who liked dancing. From their training, he also wouldn't exactly consider her reliable in a situation like this. She was perfectly capable when it came to fighting, and she was much better at dealing with people than him, but in terms of strategy, her skills left a lot to be desired.

But even so, even if she wasn't his fifth choice let alone first, just having someone there from his world filled Shouto with a sense of... security. Comfort and familiarity. Ashido might be a lot more tactile than he was used to, but having someone else stuck in his exact same situation really helped. Even if she probably wouldn't be much help directly.

"Them knowing our names is not proof." It was Ojiro who spoke up, snapping him back to reality. He'd been pretty hostile for most of the meeting, but this time he'd toned it down, his voice more cool and level now. "That could have been planted by someone spying on us."

"The names could have been planted," Nettmegg agreed, "but when Ashido first told us about it, she mentioned some details that stood out." Her gaze slid to Kirishima as she spoke, and their classmate visibly swallowed.

"Red Riot," he said tightly, clenching his fists at his sides as all the other runaways looked his way. "She... she said I used the name Red Riot. That's the hero name I picked out when I was a kid, but I never told anyone."

"That's not much in the way of proof though, kero," Asui replied, blunt as ever. She tilted her head at him, a finger touching her chin. "Someone could have heard you mention it—"

"No, I never told anyone," Kirishima cut in, shaking his head firmly. "Not my friends, not my parents, my grandparents, classmates... No one. I already told these guys, but back when I came up with it as a kid, all the kids at school were making fun of kids who chose names based off Pro Heroes. I chose my name after Crimson Riot, so I was too nervous to tell anyone." Asui fell silent at that, and only thanks to their familiarity in his own world did Shouto recognize she'd become contemplative.

"That's still pretty flimsy though." This time Akai spoke, not too accusatory but still obviously wary. "They could have, I don't know, used telepathy to get it."

"You think someone used telepathy on a random kid to get their childhood hero name?" Nettmegg asked dryly, crossing her arms. "And then used that name in memories they planted in someone else who doesn't even know him?"

"...Okay, yeah, no, that's a stretch," the other girl conceded with a sigh, while Asui patted her arm.

"It's okay, Akai. We do need to consider all possibilities, kero."

"Including the one that they're actually telling the truth," Ojiro added under his breath, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Dammit, I can't believe we're actually considering this..." Next to him Monoma just hummed, looking at them speculatively.

"That's not the only reason though, is it?" he asked Nettmegg. "Because on its own, that's still pretty flimsy." Shouto could hear Ashido growl quietly next to him, shooting dagger eyes at the blond. Given how hostile their Monoma was, he didn't blame her for being so wary. Shouto had only adjusted to the change because he'd been exposed to this world's Monoma for so long during their searches for Tokoyami.

"It is," Nettmegg allowed with a nod. "But along with these two, there's at least three other people who potentially have memories of this other dimension."

That got everyone's attention, Shouto particularly straightening at this bit of information. "There's more?" he demanded sharply, and Ashido bobbed her head eagerly.

"Yeah! I mean we haven't talked to them and confirmed it or anything, but there's these two vigilantes in Hosu who showed up like last week that have costumes just like Jirou and Kaminari's, and they totally have their Quirks! And they have 1-A on their backs! It's totally them! That's why I finally decided to stop sitting around waiting for something to happen and ran away!"

Shouto stared wide-eyed as she spoke, turning over the information in his head eagerly. "So they're here too?" he asked, and Ashido bobbed her head even more energetically. Jirou and Kaminari. Again, not his first choices, but Jirou was more rational than Kaminari and Ashido and could keep a cool head when it counted, so she'd be a big help. But more importantly: "She said there were five people. Who's the other one?"

"Uraraka!" Ashido cheered, throwing up her arms with a laugh. "Before I found Kami and Jirou, I was talking to someone called Infinity Girl on FacePage, and we never actually confirmed it but it's totally her! And then she ran away," she added, losing some of her enthusiasm. "So I don't know where she is right now. I wonder if she's reached out since we ran away..."

"...She probably has," Nettmegg said after a few seconds, making everyone look at her. "I checked your phone Tuesday night before wiping it, and you got a friend request from someone named '1-A SpaceRescueHero.'"

"It's Uraraka," Shouto decided without hesitation, feeling a wave of relief wash over him. He'd become relatively decent friends with Uraraka in their own world, so knowing she was here too filled him with much more comfort than the rest so far. He was happy in general to not be alone like he'd thought, but there was nothing quite like having someone you really knew around.

"Why didn't you tell me, An-chan!" Ashido whined beside him. "I could've been messaging her this whole time!"

"No you couldn't," Nettmegg replied flatly. "Until we know how those heroes found you through her account, logging into your FacePage is too risky. I sent her a friend request from my account during the train ride here though. Can't believe I forgot about that for a second," she grumbled under her breath, before sighing and continuing more clearly, "So yeah. There's potentially six people with memories of this other dimension."

That made everyone pause. "Uh, you mean five, right, Anjou?" Kirishima asked after a few seconds. "Ashido, Todoroki, Infinity Girl, and those vigilante dudes in Hosu, right?" Nettmeg—no, Anjou, thank you Kirishima—paused then, a sly glint in her eyes.

"...Actually, I forgot about Infinity Girl for a second. So it's six people, not five. Ashido's the third person I've heard mention being in Class 1-A in another dimension."

A dead silence fell over the room at that, shock settling in as they all processed the meaning of the words. Ashido was the third person?

Shouto could feel his eyes widen as he processed the implications of those words, his jaw going slack with disbelief. Six people. Six people with potential memories of Class 1-A. Three of them they didn't know remembered it for a fact yet, but now a sixth had appeared who Anjou claimed did have those memories. A glance around the room revealed everyone else was similarly stunned by this revelation; Ashido's eyes looked particularly ready to bulge out of her skull. Despite that she recovered first, the corners of her open mouth quirking upwards as her eyes lit up.

"There's more!?" she nearly shrieked, the volume making Shouto flinch as she began bouncing. "You've met another person from our world!?"

"Nope," Anjou said, and all at once Ashido deflated, her smile vanishing as she almost sagged with disappointment and confusion clear on her face.

"Wait," Akai said, "But you just said...?" She trailed off, looking just as confused as Shouto felt even with her mutation making it hard to read her expression. Anjou just huffed, her face serious as she spoke.

"A couple of weeks ago, I got a call from a certain person asking about multiverse theory. They claimed they met someone with a Quirk that let people see what their lives were like in alternate realities in their dreams, and that same night dreamed they were in 1-A."

That had everyone tensing, Shouto not sure what to make of it. A Quirk that let people see dreams of another dimension? Ashido looked particularly eager and opened her mouth, but Anjou quickly cut her off. "Before you ask for details, I don't have any. They just said they had a dream they were in 1-A, but they weren't sure if the dream was actually from that guy's Quirk, was implanted by him or was just a regular dream, so they asked me to look into it."

"What do you mean?" Shouto asked, his interest now understandably piqued. "Do you have access to Quirk registries?"

"No, they wanted me to look into the classmates and teacher," Anjou replied. "The quickest way to confirm it would be to check if the people existed. The dream only had memories of a single class period and around an hour after it, so they didn't have all their names. But they had descriptions of the people, so I've been using that to look them up."

Suddenly something seemed to click for Kirishima, his head snapping upwards with visibly realization. "Wait, you mentioned you did a background check on that Jirou girl for someone," he said, surprising Shouto, and Anjou smirked at him.

"Wow, you actually can be clever sometimes," she said in a teasing tone, and her smirk grew when he scowled at her. "Yep, that's exactly why I looked her up. It was kinda a fluke I found her actually. I just remembered my dad had an album with a woman's picture on the cover, and she had those earphone jacks like what they described so I called him up to ask for the name. It hasn't been easy tracking everyone, since most of them obviously aren't really public figures. I'm not even sure the homeroom teacher exists in this world, it's some guy who dresses like a hobo."

"Wait, didn't UA hire heroes though?" Ojiro asked in confusion. "That seems like they'd be a pretty public figure, even if they retired after... you know." He shrugged vaguely, and paused before adding skeptically, "Also, a hobo? Really?"

"That's definitely Aizawa-sensei!" Ashido piped up with a grin, Shouto nodding in silent agreement. "He's an underground hero called Eraserhead! None of us recognized him at all, except Deku, and that was only because Aizawa-sensei used his Quirk on... him..." She suddenly seemed to lose steam, her smile fading to a look of horror as the color drained from her face. "Wait... i-if you can't find him, th-then..." She trailed off, hands rising to cover her mouth while Shouto regarded her with increasing alarm and confusion. She looked like she might be about to cry, but why—

Oh. Oh no. Shouto felt a cold chill down his spine as he realized what she was thinking, eyes widening as a similar horror washed over him. And the others seemed to realize it too.

"Hold on, do you think he's dead?" Akai whispered. Ashido winced as if she'd been hit and even Shouto gave a small flinch, having it said out loud cementing the possibility in place. Now Ashido really looked like she was going to cry. To her credit Akai realized her mistake, and quickly rushed to reassure her. "H-hey, he might be okay! Maybe he just retired or, or works behind the scenes now! You know, like, uh—"

"Like Midnight!" Kirishima piped up. "You said she does behind-the-scenes stuff here, right? He could be doing that!"

"Aizawa-sensei would never retire!" Ashido denied, shaking her head. "The only way he'd stop being a hero would be if he—if he—" She couldn't even get out the word, her lip wobbling and tears pricking the corners of her eyes as her face scrunched up in a mixture of a glare and a miserable frown.

"I'm sure it's not that unlikely," Monoma piped up hesitantly. "You don't need to jump to the worst case scenario—"

"He jumped into a fight with like a hundred villains to protect our class, got his head slammed into the pavement by a giant monster, had both arms broken, had to get surgery and almost lost his Quirk, and still came to class right after that dressed up like a mummy! He didn't even have the bandages off by the Sports Festival!" Ashido practically spat the words, looking even more miserable. "If he still kept going as a hero after that, then what do you think would get him to quit?!"

Monoma paused, looking a bit lost at her response, and glanced at Shouto questioningly. He just nodded. "We've had a rough year," he said simply, which even he recognized might be the understatement of the decade.

"Uh, actually, if it's Eraserhead, he's probably alive," Anjou interjected, and they all turned to look at her. She scratched the back of her neck, looking weirdly awkward as she shrugged. "Kuroe keeps track of underground heroes for some reason. Don't ask him about it, I'm not supposed to know he does. But, yeah, if your teacher's Eraserhead then he's probably okay. If he was confirmed dead... yeah, it'd be on the list."

For a moment none of them spoke, just staring at her. "Uh, Anjou?" Kirishima finally ventured, breaking the silence. "Why does Kuroe do that?"

"I have no idea, he just does," Anjou huffed, rolling her eyes. "Anyways, that doesn't matter. The guy I know also said he was called Aizawa in their dream, so that's just one more detail that matches up. Same goes for all the other classmates, the descriptions match up with the classmates I had Ashido describe too. I've been able to look up some of the people she mentioned that I couldn't find before and confirm it with them, so it checks out."

"That's still not proof there's another dimension though," Akai protested, but she sounded a lot less confident than before. "Even if all these other people are real, maybe this dream Quirk this guy talks about was some kind of, of—like, some kind of test run, or something! To see how believable bigger memories are!"

"I agree kero, this is all very strange, but still not enough to prove this other dimension exists," Asui said with a nod. "Nettmegg, who is this person who had the dream? We might be able to believe it more easily if we can speak to them directly, kero." Shouto's head whipped back to Anjou, waiting for her response with narrowed eyes. He wanted to meet this person too, because right now this was their best lead.

Anjou didn't respond right away though, her frown telling him she wouldn't give away the answer so easily. "I'd tell you, but it's not my place. It's their decision to come forward. I shouldn't even be telling you this much, but I wanted you to understand why I'm giving these guys so much credence."

"You can stop being so evasive about it. At this point, I don't mind if they know."

Everyone startled at the new voice, and they all whirled to see the black curtain in the back of the room swish to the side to reveal a hulking figure. With the dim lighting Shouto initially tensed in anticipation of a fight, but then he caught sight of silver hair and a mask over the newcomer's face. A couple of other teens followed—one Shouto vaguely recognized from Class 1-B, and another he didn't recognize whatsoever—but Shouto paid them little mind, his attention focused on the now-familiar newcomer.

"Parasyte?" several of the runaways chorused in shock, but Ashido gave a delighted gasp.

"Shouji!?" she exclaimed. Shouji Mezou nodded once, crossing two of his six arms over his chest.

"Anjou's talking about me," he said bluntly. "I think we've got a lot to talk about."

I said these chapters would have a lot of major revelations. Absolutely no one predicted that we'd get a lead to this whole multiverse mess.

No question for next time. I think there's enough theory fodder for now.