Chapter 55

.::Business as Usual::.

Katsuki had been just about to kick Eyebags's ass for the third race in a row when the creepy Shadow Brat suddenly appeared. And because this was the creepy shadow brat, she didn't just knock on the door or anything like that. No, she literally appeared out of fucking no where in the corner of the room. One second the corner was empty, and the next suddenly the freaking demon brat was there watching them.

Katsuki actually flung his controller when he noticed her in his peripheral vision, making him curse loudly. Hijack hadn't noticed her until Katsuki reacted, but once he turned his head and saw her he jumped and dropped his controller too. If not for the stupid damn muzzle, he might have actually yelped or something going by that muffled grunt he made. Even the cat jumped up and darted behind them, back arching and all the hair on its back sticking up as it hissed.

The creepy brat didn't react to them, just looked at them with that creepy blank look on her face. "The fuck do you want?" Katsuki hissed, and her head tilted to the side.

"Izuku has to go to Aiko's apartment. He asked me to tell you he would return later."

"Right, thanks," he seethed, grinding his teeth as he tried not to look at her. He got up to retrieve the controller and returned to the couch, gaze pointedly focused on the screen. Hijack was busy trying to soothe Sushi, not that Katsuki could blame the cat. The fact even a fucking cat was hissing at Seiko just cemented what he already knew: there was something seriously fucking wrong with her.

In the handful of times they'd met, Katsuki had noticed some things that had absolutely nothing to do with her mysterious shadow Quirk. Like the fact she never blinked, how whenever she walked she made no sound, or that she never showed any emotion. And those eyes—forget the inverted-white-iris thing, plenty of people had eyes like that. No, her eyes just had nothing in them at all.

Katsuki had always kinda scoffed at all that flowery stuff in books describing the "spark of life" in people's eyes, but after meeting Seiko he now believed in it because she sure as hell didn't have it. He couldn't even call them dead inside because that would imply there'd been something there to begin with, and somehow it felt like they'd always been that way.

But even that wasn't what finally did in his nerves.

No, that was the fact she didn't even seem to fucking breathe.

Even now in the corner of his eye, he couldn't see any signs she was breathing. Usually if you looked at a person closely enough, you could see the rise and fall of their chests or stomach. But this brat had none of that. No rise and fall of her chest, no minute twitches, absolutely fucking nothing moved unless she tilted her head or walked.

She seemed closer to a mannequin than an actual, living being, only separated by those creepy-ass eyes that were already wrong enough on their own.

And worst of all: she wasn't leaving.

No, instead she turned to look at the television. "The race is still ongoing."

"I noticed," Katsuki hissed. The race hadn't paused when he threw the controller, and he and Hijack's racers just sat perfectly still. The computer racers had definitely finished by now, meaning they'd be competing to see who wasn't last place. He scowled as he opened the menu to restart the race. "Oi, Eyebags. Stop petting the cat, we're starting over." Hijack grunted but picked up his controller, side-eying the creepy brat for only a few seconds before focusing on the screen.

To Katsuki's annoyance though, she didn't leave. She was just there, in the corner of his eye like a dark shadow watching them play. It made the air ten times tenser than it had any right to be. The cat was obviously agitated too, curled up behind Hijack and glaring at her. All in all, it made it ridiculously hard to focus on the stupid game.

They got through three races before the vigilante wonder finally put down his controller to grab his phone. "Do you want to play?" he asked, and Katsuki ground his teeth.

He didn't know if he was relieved by the simple, "No." He'd rather not play with her. But even then, instead of dropping it like any sane person the idiot kept typing on his fucking phone.

"Do you go to school?" the electronic voice asked, and what the hell? Where'd that come from?

"I do not," Seiko responded flatly (and damn if it wasn't ironic that the fucking phone sounded more expressive than she did).

"Seriously?" Katsuki growled to Hijack. "Why the hell are you asking her that?" The vigilante just shrugged as he typed something again.

"Toga doesn't have homework. Midoriya said there's another teen our age who doesn't either. Makes me curious." Katsuki started to respond but then paused because that was actually a good point. That misty fucker seemed weirdly caught up about making sure they kept up with homework even though Deku was, you know, legally dead.

He turned to squint at Seiko. "Why the hell doesn't that mist bastard make you do any homework? Aren't you an actual kid?"

"School is boring," Seiko responded simply, and that had to be the closest she'd ever come to sounding like a normal kid.

"Have you even been to school?" Katsuki griped, because as far as he could tell Seiko sure as hell wasn't a prisoner like them. She was probably born into this shit or something, and villains didn't seem to care about education (besides Kurogiri for some stupid reason, which made it even weirder he didn't seem to care about Seiko).

"Briefly. It was boring. Most of the children were also mean."

"You were bullied?" Hijack asked, probably looking for some common thread to grasp.

"No." Well, that cleared up absolutely nothing, and Katsuki doubted they'd get anything else out of her.

"That's too bad. School feels normal." Now Katsuki found himself pausing again, shooting the vigilante a quizzical look. Seiko was unexpressive as always, a slight head tilt the only visual indicator of any sort of interest.

"What do you mean?"

"I had to stop going to school and run away. School was bad and I hated it, but now I miss how normal it was." As the electronic voice parroted his typing Katsuki suddenly realized what Eyebags was trying to do, and if Seiko wasn't there he might have actually laughed out loud.

He was trying to take a page from Deku's book and get her on their side with fucking schoolwork. For some reason, working on homework seemed to be Deku's go-to strategy for getting people to trust him. It had even somehow ended up extending to Eraserhead after Mistface decided all of them needed to do schoolwork for some stupid reason.

Katsuki didn't know if that was brilliant or stupid. Did they want Seiko on their side?

...After thinking about it for a second, he decided he at least didn't want her as an enemy. They had no idea when the hell she was watching them, creepy brat seemed to be able to just totally merge with the shadows. Trying to plan around her was annoying. Better to convert her to their side if they could.

"Tch, if you've been here as long as I think you probably don't even know what normal is," he huffed. "But Eyebags is right. Homework is probably the most normal thing we can do in this dump." Which in turn made it the weirdest activity of all, but whatever. "We're working on stuff that's probably too advanced for you, but that Eraserhead guy should be able to at least go over basics or something—"

"No." The word was so abrupt and sharp it had Katsuki actually startling. "I have delivered Izuku's message. Watching you play games is boring, so I'll leave."

With that she turned and stepped into the shadows, the darkness seeming to reach out to swallow her. When she vanished Katsuki just sat in silence for a few seconds, staring at the empty space. What the actual hell? For the briefest of seconds after she'd said "no" he'd seen a steely glint in her eyes, her mouth pulled into a frown. Just as soon as it appeared her face was back to its perpetually empty state though.

Did that actually happen? When he glanced at Eyebags he was staring at the space she'd been with wide eyes, and when he glanced at Katsuki he could practically see the question in his eyes.

"You saw that too, right?" Katsuki asked. He didn't even elaborate on what he meant, but he got a slow nod. So it wasn't his imagination.

Why the hell did talking about school work her up so much?

Kuroe heaved a quiet sigh as he leaned against the wall, watching his breath create a small puff of warm air amid the bitter chill. Today was not the kind of day he wanted to spend outside for too long. Though it wasn't snowing, every gust of wind made his teeth chatter and regret not bringing a scarf. At least it wasn't cold enough to make his eyeballs ache, those were the worst.

Quiet footsteps made him glance towards the deeper part of the alley. "You're late," he grumbled irritably.

"Sorry, you know I'm a busy man," came the insincere reply. A man in a dark coat stepped out, long black hair pulled into a tight ponytail and face hidden behind a scarf and goggles. The man would almost look normal if Kuroe couldn't see the hilt of a sword over his shoulder.

"Guessing the knives are under your coat," he remarked idly as they began walking. "If it wasn't for the sword, I might've not recognized you. So weird to see the great Stendhal without his famous mask."

"Very funny," Stendhal grunted, no doubt rolling his eyes. He didn't sound irritated or angry, which Kuroe counted as a victory. Talking to the vigilante always felt risky; he was fully aware he had absolutely no defense against the guy if he decided to attack him, other than his own twisted sense of honor. "Karasu, how are the kids doing?"

"They're mostly fine, probably," Kuroe responded with a shrug. "I'm not too involved so can't give you any big details, but they're all alive and in one piece. Helped get a new recruit recently I think, and Ran invited some friends over for something. No idea what that's about, but my house was invaded by teenagers last night. Starting to think they're planning some giant mission."

Stendhal grunted but didn't press for details. "Tch. As long as the brats remember what I taught them, they'll be fine. But if you think they're doing something stupid or dangerous, call me," he added, shooting him a pointed look.

"Don't need to tell me twice," Kuroe replied, openly rolling his eyes. Stendhal was a strange and intimidating man, the kind of unhinged guy who Kuroe couldn't really predict even after knowing him for years. Every time he thought he'd gotten a read on the man, he'd find himself proven brutally wrong.

The one thing he knew for sure though was that Stendhal would kill anyone who threatened the runaways. Not because he cared about kids or anything like that. Truth be told, the guy probably lacked a single paternal bone in his body. He was just making sure those kids wouldn't waste their talents or turn to villainy, whether willingly or unwillingly.

Honestly, out of the handful of adults associated with the runaway network, Stendhal had nearly the least involvement. The guy didn't exactly hang around Odawara or anything after all. He only knew about the network because he followed some of the kids to Kuroe's house thinking they were caught up in some bigger villainous organization. His involvement would have probably ended after that frankly terrifying interrogation if he hadn't been loosely teaching a couple of homeless kids to be vigilantes.

(Even now, Kuroe kind of wanted to laugh hysterically at the memory of Stendhal just dumping the stunned-looking kids on his doorstep. The heart attack had not been fun, but at least they got some kids with actual combat experience to teach the others.)

Still, having Stendhal willing to help out had its perks. Namely, Kuroe didn't need to worry about his safety so much while dealing with the other adult party involved with the runaway network.

"Remember, no stabbing," he reminded the man shortly as they turned into another alleyway. "And please, just let me do the talking."

"I know the drill," Stendhal growled irritably, but didn't say anything else as Kuroe knocked on a door. Footsteps could be heard on the other side, and then in a scene straight out of a detective noir film a slat on the door slid open to reveal a pair of eyes.

"Password?" a gruff voice asked, even further copying movies and fraying at Kuroe's patience.

"Since when was there a password?" he snapped back, resisting the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose. "Did Setsuno or Miura put you up to this? Actually, never mind, just open the door already Hojo. We've got an appointment with your boss." The slat closed and soon the door opened, revealing an imposing-looking bald man who seemed to tower over him.

This. This was why Kuroe was happy to have Stendhal around. If the vigilante wasn't behind him ready to defend him at the first sign of hostility, Kuroe doubted he could keep up his composed façade. It didn't matter how often he saw Hojo, the guy's muscles looked like he could snap Kuroe's neck with a flick of the wrist, Quirk or no Quirk.

Thankfully Stendhal was here though, so Kuroe had minimal difficulty keeping up his façade as they followed him inside. "Boss is busy today, so the meeting will have to be short," Hojo informed them, and Kuroe nodded, pulling a face mask from his pocket to cover his mouth.

"That's fine, this won't take long for our end." Honestly it was a relief, he hated spending too much time around these people. Hojo led them to a long-familiar door and knocked twice, waiting for someone to call, "You may enter," before pushing it open. He stepped aside so Kuroe could enter, Stendhal trailing behind him silently.

The room was a fairly nice one. Nothing too fancy, a nice sitting room of sorts with two leather couches facing each other on either side of a coffee table with a thick folder sitting on top of it. The couch facing the door was occupied by a lone figure, an aged man with slicked back silver hair in a dark hakama, while two more men in suits stood behind him.

Kuroe immediately dipped his torso into a respectful bow. "Hello, sir. Thank you for coming to Odawara to meet with us."

"You can raise your head," the man responded smoothly. "I am glad to see you seem to be in good health, Karasu. Take a seat so we can begin." Kuroe straightened and walked over to the empty couch, sitting down while Stendhal hovered behind him. He glanced briefly at the two other people behind the other man, one large and muscular and clearly meant to be the muscle. The other had a slimmer, smaller figure, with closely cropped hair and a black mask over his mouth.

He was the one who stepped forward at his boss's nod, speaking almost monotonously. "Since the last meeting, the Shie Hassaikai has intercepted three villainous groups who attempted to enter Odawara. Two were turned over to the proper authorities. One group's members proved more difficult to apprehend, and were dealt with accordingly." In other words, probably killed. Lovely. The man's golden eyes narrowed as he added, "We were unable to detect Gentle Criminal's presence in advance, however."

"That is fine," Kuroe replied. "We already judged Gentle Criminal and his accomplices to not be a threat to the safety of Odawara. My employer does not find this to be a worrisome failure, and it will have no impact on our opinion of your performance." The man's expression smoothed and he nodded before continuing.

"As usual, we have compiled reports on each group for your employer's perusal. I suspect the group we could not deliver to authorities is tied to a larger organization, and detailed my theories in the report." He nodded at the folder sitting on the table.

"If your employer desires, we are prepared to form a team under Chisaki's command to further investigate this matter," the boss added coolly. "He has already selected several potential members from our own ranks for this investigation. We shall leave the final decision in your hands."

"We'll tell you our decision once we finish reading the report," Kuroe responded, taking the folder. "Thank you for your hard work as always. The Shie Hassaikai continues to live up to its reputation. As for our end, we have secured a majority of the supplies you requested to be delivered by the end of the week, as well as an updated list of criminal organizations that may wish to oppose or challenge your power. As we speak, my employer is personally handling one such group."

He pulled out a memory card as he spoke and placed it on the table where the folder had been, which the third man took and slid into his pocket. "There will be no issues with the payments, I trust," the boss commented, and Kuroe nodded.

"As usual, we will need to review your work before wiring it. However, given the usual quality of your work, I expect you will get the full payment as usual."

The boss nodded once. "Then if that is all, we can end the meeting." Kuroe nodded as he got up, dipping into another bow.

"Thank you once more for your efforts. I look forward to our continued relationship in the future."

"As do I, Karasu," the boss replied, and Kuroe took it for the dismissal it was and headed out, Stendhal trailing behind him silently. Only after they got back to the alley and the door closed did he heave a tired sigh, his nerves thoroughly frayed.

Meeting with Yakuza was always stressful, but if it meant keeping Odawara and those kids safe he'd do it. It was the least they could do.

Around the same time, Aiko sat on a rafter overlooking a room full of corpses. Only one of them was the result of her own hand, the rest the result of brutal infighting that quickly got derailed and turned into a slaughter.

"Hah, didn't expect this," she remarked to the silent room, propping her chin in her hands as she surveyed the carnage below her. Her intention had only been to incite a small fight to break up the gang. The group was full of strong and capable individuals, banding together because of some common goals, but overall they had no real unity. She figured after some rough-housing and one or two deaths, they'd split up and the group would never meet again.

In her defense, none of them had expected that their group would attract the the attention of a homicidal maniac who had a Quirk that built up his muscles and loved nothing more than the thrill of a good fight.

The guy had burst into the warehouse quite literally, breaking the wall with a vicious laugh. Aiko had only needed one look to recognize him. Muscular, epithet "The Carnal Murderer." Serial killer with powerful combat aptitude, most notable for killing a total of four heroes in three separate occasions. Fighting style is highly efficient and clearly experienced with picking out weaknesses, and Quirk grants him immense durability and strength.

Most of the observations came from watching him quite literally slaughter the others there. The group did have some pretty strong and skilled fighters, some of whom managed to hold their ground for a surprising amount of time. Alas, none could stand up to him though. He had actually nearly knocked off Aiko's head with a swipe of his fist at one point, the closest she'd come to death in years.

Unfortunately for him, Muscular's super-thick muscles weren't immune to poisons. Or flesh-melting acid.

"Oiwa's facewash is potent as ever," she murmured, eying the man's largely melted body with mild disdain. It hadn't completely dissolved or anything, but given she'd liberally doused him with her homemade acid, and his Quirk happened to make use of his muscles, well... it wasn't pretty.

Either way, by the end of the night everyone was dead, and Aiko's disguise was ruined.

Also, she'd lost her foot.

That had been a last-minute development. She'd jumped up to the safety of the rafters but the bastard had grabbed her foot to try to stop her. At that point she decided it was better to cut her losses and just let her foot tear off, using his moment of surprise to hurl the vial of her lovely homemade acid at his chest. He'd dropped her foot before clawing at the injury, causing it to spread to his fingers too, but she'd decided to play it safe and wait for him to stop twitching before going down.

Now that the body had stilled she slid off the rafter and gently floated the twenty or so feet to the floor, right next to her fallen foot. It looked a bit crushed when she picked it off, and she ripped off the boot to confirm the mangled appendage had indeed been largely crushed his grip. A quick ripple of energy had it filling out to its normal proportions, bones audibly snapping into the proper place, and she lifted her leg to quickly reattach it to the stump.

"Fuck, I hate this part," she hissed as she felt a surge of pain, squeezing her eyes shut. She rotated her ankle to make sure she hadn't messed up the positioning, and growled in irritation as she put it down to find her footing was now uneven. Great, now she had to get rid of the other boot.

Worse than the pain though: she could feel her muscles tingling.

She turned her back on the corpse as she pulled out her burner phone from her pocket, dialing one of the few contacts she'd bothered to program into it. "Hello?" a curious voice greeted.

"Himiko, I just had to reattach my foot and it is tingling," she said through gritted teeth. "Distract me, now."

"Ooh, then how about the latest gossip!" Himiko replied gleefully. "Let's see, you were just here yesterday so you know about the stuff then... Did you hear about Mr. Comnpress's magic show?"

"Yes, he bragged about it while you were helping put out the fire Slycer started," Aiko replied dryly. She still couldn't believe he managed to get booked for a birthday party somehow, and he had plans to do it normally.

"Okay, so I guess you don't need to know about it. All his blabbering about it is kinda annoying anyway so I don't want to talk about it. What else, what else..."

"Maybe something about Izuku?" Aiko suggested, trying to ignore the steady tingling around her ankle. "You know, like maybe how Katsuki got kidnapped."

"Sorry, Mido-chan made me promise not to tell you!" Himiko replied, sounding absolutely unapologetic. "He knew you'd be mad."

"Himiko. Just tell me what they're doing. Distraction, please."

"Well, I don't know much. They mostly play games, but they won't really let me play with them. Not even Jackie." She could hear the pout in Himiko's voice, before she quickly switched gears and exclaimed, "Oh, oh, I know! Giri says Jackie and Blasty have to start learning too, so they're doing schoolwork!"

"Leave it to him to try to instill some normalcy," Aiko muttered, rolling her eyes. It had been his idea to homeschool Izuku, since he obviously wouldn't be following in any of their footsteps as a villain. They had all agreed to keep him as far from their more insidious activities as possible, and school would be his best bet at normalcy, even if it wasn't formal schooling. "So what, they're getting the homeschool routine as well?"

"You could say that," Himiko giggled lowly, and her tone had Aiko's eyes narrowing. The teenager had clearly just realized something she considered juicy, and given her personality that could mean anything. "Hey, Aiko-nee, did you know Tomu-chan got Mido-chan a pet?"

"Yes, Himiko. I've met Sushi the fifteenth." The number wasn't an exaggeration, she'd kept count of all the cats that Kurogiri inevitably named Sushi. That one litter of kittens had really inflated the count.

Himiko just giggled again, making Aiko's eyes narrow further. "Oh, I don't mean Sushi-chan," she sang. "He got him another pet."

"Another? What do you—" Aiko paused, suddenly recalling Izuku's panic on Monday, at which point her palm met her face. "...You're talking about that hero, aren't you."

"Yep!" Himiko confirmed with a delighted cackle, and Aiko groaned. She'd suspected that Tomura had captured that hero because he was one of Izuku's favorites, otherwise he would have probably just killed whoever it was on the spot. Still, giving him to Izuku as a pet? She had no doubt the idiot literally introduced the captured hero to Izuku as a pet.

"Fuck it, I'm buying a parenting book," she grumbled, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Should've done that back when he tried showing Izuku photos of his favorite heroes beaten up, but whatever. Who is it, anyway?"

"You'll never guess. Go on, try!"

Normally she'd humor the request, but right now? "Himiko, I am currently surrounded by corpses, one of which I melted, and also, my ankle is fucking tingling." She really couldn't emphasize how bad the tingling was. It didn't hurt, but it was fucking awful and bringing back so many bad memories. "I am this close to a meltdown. I am not in the mood to play guessing games."

"Aw, that's too bad, but I understand. But I think you'll really like the answer!" Himiko giggled again, a drawn-out demented sound that just frayed at her already short patience.

"Himiko," she growled, and the girl gave a final giggle before answering.

"It's Eraserhead-san!" she sing-songed, and Aiko blinked in surprise. Eraserhead? Memories from years ago quickly surged to her mind, and her free hand absently reached towards her neck where she'd sometimes wear the goggles when not working.

"Huh," she said faintly. "Last I heard he's been missing since late April. Where'd they find—" She stopped short again as she made the obvious connection with the raid that day, at which point she slapped her forehead. Again. "Are you kidding me. How the hell did I miss him? I knew those guys captured a hero! I heard them gossiping about it while scouting the place! Why the hell didn't I look into it?"

Himiko just laughed as she grumbled to herself. "So, you'll be coming by tomorrow, right?" Aiko heaved a sigh as she dragged a hand down her face, willing the last of her frustration to leave with the breath. With that breath she let her mouth quirk upwards, a smirk taking root on her face.

"Oh, most definitely," she agreed easily. It had been so long since she'd seen Eraserhead. If he'd been captured anyway, she might as well go say hello.

She didn't even notice the tingling anymore.

Enter: Stendhal and Overhaul. Also I'll confirm that yes, the Shie Hassaikai is still led by the original leader. Let's just say the yakuza got some more business opportunities in this world so they didn't go through the decline that led Chisaki to go semi-crazy. Similar story for Stendhal not becoming Stain...

Fun fact: originally the scene with Aiko included a brief fight with Muscular (still ending with a healthy lethal dose of Oiwa's facewash to the chest and face), but I decided that'd make her seem too Mary Sue-ish. On that note, I've planned for Aiko to have a flesh-melting acid called "Oiwa's facewash" for a long time now, but while writing this chapter I realized that would be GREAT for fighting Muscular.

Question for next time: Who would be the worst/most chaotic person to eavesdrop on the call from the last few chapters?