Chapter 53
.::Story Time::.
Denki felt like he was dreaming. He had to keep pinching himself to confirm this was real, that he was actually talking to his classmates. That Ashido, Todoroki, and Uraraka were all here, had experienced just as much chaos and confusion as they had.
They started with Ashido's story. How she woke up in Kamino of all places (and damn, if he didn't get chills thinking of how weird it would be to wake up there after All Might's epic final battle) and lived in the same apartment building as Kirishima. He wasn't one of them and had no memories of their world, which was still massively disappointing, but she had decided to help him "man up" and clung to him.
It was kinda funny hearing how Ashido just claimed she had "sudden partial amnesia" and went about her school life with the help of Kirishima and her friends Kumiko and Anjou. Her life was pretty unremarkable up until she made a FacePage profile and got a message from someone she suspected to be Uraraka. Which Uraraka had obviously confirmed.
Not long after that Uraraka had run away though, and then Ashido and Kirishima got caught up in a villain attack. That led to them getting put under the protective watch of some hero named Oracle, and then on Sunday he and Midnight had come to visit her with a detective to talk about Uraraka running away. Apparently they'd somehow tracked Ashido through her messages with Uraraka on FacePage, which had been why Anjou had been so paranoid about saying too much over FacePage.
"Dang it Infinity Girl, why didn't you tell me you knew Midnight-sensei!" Ashido whined at that part.
"Wait, what?" Uraraka sounded genuinely confused. "Hold on, I don't remember meeting Midnight-sensei! The only people I've met since coming here besides my parents are—" She stopped short there, and then very faintly, "...Oh my gosh. Suimin-sensei was Midnight. How did I miss that!?"
"Suimin-sensei?" Jirou repeated.
"...My homeschool tutor. I'll explain later. Uh, please keep going on, Ashido."
Ashido complied, summarizing the rest of her house arrest with a single word: "boring." Then she found a news story on them, Denki and Jirou, as the 1-A Vigilantes, and had proceeded to call her friends to freak out. And that somehow ended with them making a grand escape with Anjou's aid—and for some reason, Kirishima tagged along for the ride.
"For the record, I'm still having trouble believing all this," he commented sheepishly, speaking for the first time since Ashido started talking. "But there's a ton of stuff that's kinda hard to ignore, so... yeah." After that, nothing really happened until last night when Anjou helped them find Todoroki, at which point they decided to pause her story until after Todoroki's turn.
However, Todoroki had other plans. "Can I wait until later too?" he asked.
"...Wait, what?" Uraraka asked faintly, sounding confused.
"But—but they just set it up perfectly for you, dude!" Denki said.
"I guess, but I think my first day might make it harder to focus on whoever goes after me." That was a surprising and kinda weird claim, but after a few seconds Jirou snorted.
"Right, you disappeared after Endeavor died, didn't you," she muttered wryly, and Denki belatedly remembered the news articles they'd found on the first day while searching for their classmates. "Guess whatever you were up to after that must've been pretty crazy, huh?" Todoroki didn't respond right away, and then they heard some sort of... shuffling? Nearly thirty seconds passed before Anjou eventually spoke up.
"...Yeah, so remember how I said something came up last night when asking to delay the calls?" she asked lowly. Her voice sounded a bit clearer now even though she'd dropped to a whisper, and Denki realized she'd taken it off speaker. "That 'something' was specifically Todoroki finding out Endeavor was dead, because he didn't know that until we told him."
Denki and Jirou both startled at the revelation, Denki nearly falling out of his chair. "He what!?" Uraraka squeaked, voice actually breaking.
"Holy shit!" Denki hissed, eyes wide with horror. "How did he not know that?!"
"Because he didn't really have regular internet access, and he specifically avoided looking up his dad for some reason. So, yeah. You kinda hit a sore spot. Ashido and Kirishima are kinda trying to comfort him now, but any objections to pushing off his turn for a bit longer?"
"That's... fine by me," Uraraka said. "As long as I don't go next."
"Mind telling us more about how you're connected to this while we wait?" Jirou asked. "You and Ashido kinda skipped over where you came into play with the whole running away thing, and I kinda doubt it's just because you're friends." Anjou didn't respond right away.
"...Actually, I do mind," she declared firmly. "This isn't something we can talk about over the phone. We can't risk anyone overhearing by tapping into the line or something. There are lives at stake here."
"And our situation isn't that dangerous?" Jirou asked dryly.
"To be fair, most people will assume you guys are all insane," Anjou retorted, and her voice became a bit more distant as she added, "No offense."
Apparently the others had finished comforting Todoroki and she'd taken it off speaker. "Some taken," Ashido huffed.
"They apparently thought I was under a villain's control, and just played along to keep an eye on me," Todoroki added. Was it Denki's imagination, or did he sound a bit hurt about whoever "they" were?
"I think I believe you now," Kirishima said weakly. "Mostly. I mean, it's still kinda a lot to wrap my head around, you know?"
"Yeah, no, it definitely sounds insane," Jirou conceded with a sigh. "I probably wouldn't believe it if I wasn't living it myself."
"...Hey, do you really think someone might be listening in?" Uraraka asked, sounding vaguely worried.
"Chances are low, but paranoia saves lives in this world," Anjou replied, and Denki could almost hear her shrugging. "I'm admittedly more paranoid than most. In the end, it's your call though." Uraraka was silent for nearly a full minute, which only made the tension in the air seem to grow.
"Can we continue for now?" she finally asked.
"That's cool with me," Jirou agreed.
"Yeah, what about you guys?" Ashido piped up. "You're obviously vigilantes, which is AWESOME, but how did you decide to do that? Were your other selves already vigilantes and they just had the gear!? How'd you find each other so fast!?" Denki perked up at the last question, grinning at the memory.
"Actually, I just looked in my phone contacts and found Jirou. She was the first name I recognized so I called her up, I guess we got lucky."
"That's the only luck we've had though," Jirou sighed. "I got a text from Yaomomo after we met up asking if I was okay. We're apparently best friends in this world, but she's not from ours."
"Ooh, that's rough," Uraraka hissed sympathetically. "Yaomomo's really smart. She must've figured you out, like, instantly, right?"
"Is she the one making your vigilante gear?" Todoroki asked curiously. "Did you convince her to help?" Denki winced at the question, shuddering as he got flashbacks to Hatsume barging into his apartment that first time. And then more flashbacks to every other meeting with her. Some people were just naturally terrifying.
"Actually, you know that girl with the pink hair from the support course?" Jirou asked. "She goes to our school here, and Kaminari's apparently got a ton of debt to her. Our first week here she barged in to have him charge up some invention she made, and that's when we asked her to help make us gear. We figured being vigilantes would be a good way to get attention if anyone else was here."
"Well, it worked!" Ashido cheered. "I found you guys, and now we're all in touch!" That had Denki smiling, relief and pride cascading over him in equal measures. Their plan had worked, they'd managed to get the attention of some of their classmates from THEIR world. He felt so relieved knowing their work had actually paid off in the end.
"So you didn't tell Yaoyorozu?" Uraraka asked, and just like that Denki's good mood plummeted. "How have you been hiding it from her, then?" She sounded more curious than anything, and across from him Jirou grimaced.
"Uh, actually, I kinda... haven't met her," she admitted slowly, scratching her cheek and looking away from the phone. "I've been skipping school, and just not really responding to her messages...?"
She trailed off, and there was a brief silence as everyone absorbed that. Then Ashido asked, "Didn't you say you're best friends in this world?"
"Based on the texts, yeah," Jirou muttered, and sighed. "Look, Yaomomo's smart. I figured if anyone would see through me acting weird, it'd be her. And we all just established how freaking insane this all sounds. In our world, she'd tell Aizawa-sensei in a heartbeat if someone suddenly claimed they were from another dimension. That's obviously not an option here, but I don't know what this world's Yaomomo would do."
"That's not..." Ashido trailed off, seeming at a loss for words, and Denki bit his lip.
"Didn't people notice you missing school though?" Todoroki asked, sounding confused, and before they could answer Anjou spoke up.
"You switched to the online modules, right?" she asked. "I checked out Munakata High School a bit, and it seems like it has a pretty similar setup to what we've got at Sakakura. It was listed as one of the key selling points."
"Yeah, that's exactly what I did," Jirou confirmed, seeming relieved at the topic change, and Denki perked up as another thought occurred to him.
"Oh yeah, Iida's doing online classes too," he said eagerly. "He doesn't remember us, either, but—oh yeah! We actually saw him on Wednesday while fighting this really freaky villain!"
"Wait, you fought a VILLAIN?" Ashido gasped, and Denki wasted no time launching into recounting the battle, Jirou piping in with details and her perspective as she saw fit. The others seemed to suck it up, gasping at all the right moments, and Ashido even cried out a horrified "No!" when Jirou described seeing the toddler.
"Honestly, our patrols aren't usually that big," Denki said after they finished the story. "We've stopped a couple attacks and robberies, but that was the first really big fight we've had. We barely got away." Ashido and Uraraka began gushing appropriately for such an epic tale, with even Kirishima chiming in about how cool it was, but Denki found his attention drawn more to Jirou whose eyes had narrowed in thought.
Something about her expression worried him, she looked bothered by something. She noticed his worried stare and shook her head silently though and mouthed 'not important right now,' so he didn't press it. "Anyways, that's our side," he said. "I guess it's your turn now, right Uraraka?"
Uraraka was silent though, making his frown grow. "...Can Todoroki tell his story first?" she finally asked.
"Really?" Ashido asked, sounding faintly exasperated. "Come on, I've been waiting for so long! You owe me answers, Infinity Girl!"
"I know, but... The stuff on my end is really, really complicated, and I still need some time to kinda... think it over. And once I tell you, it's going to derail everything else. Just—please trust me." Her voice had a note of pleading, and Denki and Jirou exchanged frowns once more. What the hell happened to Uraraka after she ran away?
They heard some muffled chatter from the other end, but then Todoroki spoke up. "Alright, I guess..."
Shouto didn't really want to start sharing his story just yet. He wanted to get everyone's opinions on the Dabi situation, because it had been bothering him a lot this whole time, and having another person speak after him would cut into that. Uraraka's pleading tone made him give in though, and he offered a silent apology to her.
"I woke up next to Dabi," he started bluntly, and heard a definite choking sound from Uraraka's end and some sort of muffled exclamation. He'd tried to warn her.
"Dabi!? How—what did you do then?"
"I froze him in a glacier and ran away. At first I thought I was kidnapped by the League of Villains, but after getting away I realized my hair was dyed and I had all the components for a disguise on me. And I also had a phone, so..." As he spoke he pulled out the phone in question, currently powered off, and frowned at it. "I still don't know why I was with him, but I think he's been calling it a lot."
"Holy shit," Kaminari breathed, which matched Shouto's sentiments well.
"I can see why you wanted to go last," Jirou muttered faintly. Shouto didn't respond, waiting for Uraraka's response, but he didn't get one. Instead, they only got a lot of muffled noises, along with some sort of rustling sound.
"Uh, Uraraka?" Kaminari piped up. "You still there?"
It took a few seconds before she responded. "Uh, y-yeah. Sorry, just—talking to, uh, someone." That got their attentions, reminding Shouto and the others that Uraraka had indeed implied someone else was there before they conferenced in Kaminari and Jirou.
"Hold on, someone's with you?" Jirou demanded sharply. "Is it someone from our class? Can we trust them?"
Once more there was a lot of strange, muffled noises before she spoke up again. "...Um, before I answer, can Todoroki finish his story? Because... I really don't think we'll be able to focus on it after this."
That was quite possibly the most ominous answer Uraraka could have been given. "There's not much else left," Anjou said briskly before Shouto could respond. "He saw Gentle Criminal's latest heist on the news, figured out Phantom Shadow is Tokoyami and decided to come to Odawara to look for him. And then I got him in touch with Ashido through sources I can't disclose. That's it."
"...Wait, who's Phantom Shadow?" Uraraka asked, and everyone went silent. Even Anjou looked shocked at her confusion.
"He's... Gentle Criminal's sidekick," Kirishima said after a second. "You know, the most famous phantom thief duo in Japan? Just got on the news for escaping Ingenium on Wednesday?"
There were some more muffled noises. "Gentle Criminal's that guy who dresses in a fancy suit and makes videos about robbing stores and drinking tea, right?"
More stunned silence. "...Uh, maybe in our world," Jirou said. "But in this world, he's pretty much a super-popular phantom thief. There's been like, two or three heists since we all ended up here."
"The guy's plastered all over the news in Hosu right now!" Kaminari added. "They ran away from Ingenium! It's a bigger story than our fight with that villain lady!"
"Haven't you heard ANYTHING about him?!" Ashido exclaimed. "There's tons of fan art of what Phantom Shadow looks like—and he's totally Tokoyami, by the way. He uses Dark Shadow and everything! No idea why he's that Gentle Criminal guy's sidekick in this world, but it's totally him."
"Isn't his sidekick—" A pause, more muffled noises. "La Brava...?"
"...Who the heck is La Brava?" Anjou whispered, her face contorted in absolute confusion. The name only vaguely tickled at Shouto's own memory. He felt like Midoriya mentioned the name at some point, maybe...?
Kaminari spoke up next, drawing out his words slowly. "...How the heck did Todoroki—the only one without ANY regular access to the internet or news—know this, and not you? What have you been doing this whole time!?"
"...I've been kinda busy?" Uraraka sounded sheepish and embarrassed.
"With what!" Ashido slammed her hands on the table, almost glaring at the phone. "I've been waiting forever to hear why you ran away, Infinity Girl! I had to sit through questioning from Midnight and Oracle and that detective guy! And then you didn't even message me for, like, a week!"
"I didn't really have a phone though!" Uraraka protested. "And then when I finally DID get one, YOU ran away... instead..." She lost some of the heat to her words as she spoke, growing more contemplative. "...Huh. That's kinda ironic, now that I think about it."
"Yeah, it is," Anjou snorted to herself, before continuing more loudly, "How about you just tell us your side of the story? I feel like that'll do a better job at answering our questions."
There was a long silence after that, Uraraka seeming to think. "I know you said you're mostly just paranoid, but... How secure is this line?"
"Should be mostly secure," Anjou replied. "Can't say the same for everyone else, but our phone can't be traced, and I'm assuming you're using a burner, right?"
"Yeah. I am—oh!" She paused. "I have the box for it right here. It's a..." She rattled off a name and several numbers that meant absolutely nothing to Shouto, but Anjou had an intense gleam in her eyes as she leaned forward.
"That's... a really good model. One of the most secure ones on the market."
"And expensive, too," Jirou added casually. "That's the same model I bought today."
"It—it is?" Uraraka squeaked. "Oh my gosh, how much did she pay for this!?"
"Who're you talking about?" Ashido pressed, jumping on the opening. "WAIT! Did you find Hagakure!? She's, like, the only girl we don't know anything about!"
"Uh, no, not her. But wait! Then—does that mean you got in contact with Asui, too!?" Anjou openly winced at the name while Shouto frowned. He knew Anjou wanted to avoid any direct references to the runaway network, and after spending so much time with them this week he felt just as protective of their privacy. He'd heard just enough details to understand why they were all so wary of talking to anyone.
"We can't say all the names," he said bluntly. "Some of them are in dangerous positions and don't want to risk being found. At all." He emphasized the last part.
"We have been able to cross out everyone but five people," Anjou piped up with a sigh. "Based on everyone's stories so far, there's about five people we can't confirm for sure. We have no clue about Hagakure, but we already mentioned Tokoyami. We don't know if he's not from your world, but he's keeping up the heists so he should be trackable."
"But wait, if he's from that world, then why's he still doing heists?" Kirishima piped up in confusion. "Aren't you guys hero students?"
"Yeah, but that's not a guarantee he doesn't remember. Especially since they've moved to Hosu."
"What's Hosu got to do with anything?" Uraraka asked, echoing Shouto's confusion, but Jirou quickly spoke up.
"Wait, you think he might be looking for us?" she blurted, and Shouto and the others startled as Anjou nodded.
"It's not impossible," Anjou replied. "If he did get caught up in this, he might have gone along with Gentle Criminal's crimes because he didn't have a choice. Or he might have just been biding his time figuring out a plan. He can't exactly go to the police or Pros for help since he's technically a criminal, after all." Shouto, Ashido and Kirishima all turned to stare at each other, eyes wide at the revelation.
It had never occurred to Shouto while searching for them that Tokoyami might be from their world, but it made sense. Especially given he and Gentle Criminal had moved to Hosu after the 1-A Vigilantes began to rise in popularity. Jirou and Kaminari stated that the whole reason they became vigilantes was to get attention from other displaced members of Class 1-A, so he'd go for the first person he knew.
"Woah, if that's true then that's crazy," Kirishima breathed.
"That's all just speculation, so we can't be sure until we talk to him," Anjou said, getting a few nods. "Anyways, as for Aoyama Yuga, we won't be able to get any solid confirmation, but from what the tabloids say he seems the same as ever."
"Wait, tabloids?" Kaminari repeated, and Ashido perked up.
"He's a movie star here!" she exclaimed. "Crazy, right? I looked him up, and apparently he's gonna star in some movie coming out soon as a villain!"
That was news to Shouto. "Aoyama? A villain?" He thought of his classmate—blond hair always neatly brushed out, sparkly eyes and that constant odd smile, the random bits of French and that long hero name. He couldn't picture it.
...Kaminari was cackling. "That—that sounds crazy! If we're still here when it comes out, we've totally gotta see it!"
"...Okay." Shouto didn't really care for movies too much, but this time he felt strongly compelled to see it. Seriously, Aoyama? As a villain?
He frowned then as his mind moved back to the topic at hand. They'd derailed the topic a bit from Uraraka's story, but now they'd moved onto something he couldn't keep to himself anymore. "...The other two will be harder to confirm though," he said slowly. "It's... Midoriya and Bakugou."
Just saying it out loud made his hands clench at his sides, and from the corner of his eye he saw Ashido wince. The atmosphere seemed to fall all at once, and he swore he heard an intake of breath from the phone.
"...Deku?" Uraraka whispered, and Shouto opened his mouth to respond but found he couldn't speak. Uraraka and Midoriya had been close from the first day of school. How did you tell someone her best friend was missing?
Apparently by being very blunt. "Midoriya Izuku's been missing since he was eight," Anjou declared briskly, tone clipped and to the point. "More recently, Bakugou Katsuki disappeared last month, a little before you guys all got... whatever. He probably got kidnapped to be recruited for his Quirk. So if either of them are caught up in this, we have no way of knowing."
Ashido winced at the reminder and Kirishima sucked in a sharp breath, clearly looking awkward and out of place as he glanced between her and Shouto. For his part Shouto sat in silence, just staring forward with his hands clenched into tight fists. The reminder that two of their classmates—two of his friends—were missing in this world left him feeling cold and almost numb.
Honestly, that uncertainty felt just as bad as finding out Endeavor had died in this world, if not worse. At least they knew for a fact that Endeavor was dead, but with those two, they had no idea.
Uraraka, Kaminari and Jirou were just as quiet as he was, and nearly a full minute passed in dead silence. "Shit," Jirou finally muttered, breaking the silence. "Shit, this is... not good. Not good at all."
"Bakubro's been kidnapped?" Kaminari said, voice sounding faint and distant. "I... w-wha...?"
"It's... a lot to take in," Anjou commented, and this was the gentlest he'd heard her speak since meeting her. "You guys can take some time to process it."
Before he knew it Shouto found his mouth opening, words flying out almost automatically. "If you don't want to talk about it right now, we can call back later. You're all... close to Midoriya and Bakugou, right?" The words felt stilted and awkward to his own ears, but... After learning about Endeavor, he felt he could understand how they might feel. Just a little. "It's... not good, so it might take a while for it to really settle in. We'll be here if you want us to though."
"Yeah," Ashido agreed softly, offering the phone a sad smile. "We're all friends. If you guys all want alone time, we'll give it to you."
"And if you want to talk about it, we can do that too," Kirishima added. "I mean, I'm a stranger so I don't really feel this as strongly as you guys, but I can at least listen. Just, whatever helps you feel better, right?"
"...Yeah, maybe," Kaminari muttered, barely audible. Shouto however found himself focused on the one person who hadn't spoken.
"...Uraraka, how are you feeling?" he asked. "Are you... Do you need some time?"
"...No, that's not it," Uraraka said after several seconds. "It's just..." She trailed off, clearly hesitating.
"Uraraka?" Ashido said with a frown after nearly a full minute of silence.
"...So, you wanted to know why I ran away, right?" Uraraka asked slowly, and if that wasn't ominous then Shouto didn't know what was. "Well, see, you know how my parents own a construction company? Well, in this world, it's actually REALLY big now because we specialize in fixing damage from villain fights, so we're actually... kinda rich in this world?"
"I know that feeling," Jirou snorted. "I still can't believe how much is in my bank account. On that note, if we need to buy anything, I'll cover it. Pretty sure I could buy us ALL round-trip flights and all-access passes to Disneyworld. As in, the one in Florida. In America." Shouto had never been to Disneyworld or flown overseas, so he didn't know how significant that would be. Judging by the startled looks from the others though, that must be expensive.
"Holy shit," Kirishima wheezed. "How—?" He stopped himself. "...R-right, your dad's a famous rock star, huh?"
"Why didn't that happen in our world?" Ashido wondered.
"So far, only big difference I can find besides everything else? My mom's dead in this one." An awkward silence followed that bitter declaration, everyone momentarily stunned. "...Yeah, just ignore that part. I don't remember what happened in this world, so it's not as big a deal." Shouto would like to vehemently disagree based on his own personal experience, but now was not the time or place. "Go on, Uraraka."
"R-right," she said after a moment. "So anyways. I help out with my Quirk to move rubble and stuff, so between that and us being rich, I guess I'm kinda a target for villains? So my parents kinda kept me hidden away at home whenever I'm not down at the construction sites. But one day I went shopping with Suimin—or, Midnight-sensei, I guess—oh, I guess that's why she was allowed to take me out alone—anyways! So we went shopping, and then..."
She trailed off, hesitating again. "And then?" Ashido pressed.
"...Um, the thing is, you guys were actually right about Bakugou getting captured by villains. And in this world, the League of Villains is called the Villain Alliance." Shouto jolted at the response from the phone, because that wasn't Uraraka. No, this was someone else entirely, someone even more familiar and whose voice sent his heart straight into his throat.
"Midoriya?" he choked out, and there was a long pause.
"...Hey, everyone," Midoriya greeted lamely. "So... We've, uh, got a lot to talk about."
Izuku finally joins the conversation. Next time: everyone freaks out.
No question for next time. Your reactions are enough. :D