Chapter 57

.::Things to Think About::.

By principle, Anjou Ran could not function in the morning without at least one cup of coffee with three squirts of honey.

That was not an exaggeration or hyperbole to emphasize she was not a morning person. For years now, she legitimately could not function until she had either been awake for two hours, or she had a mix of caffeine and honey in her system. Kuroe had been the one to figure that out. Apparently it was a passive thing inherited from their mother, whose Quirk used that weird mix of caffeine and honey as an energy source. Something about a family member with a bee Quirk or something. Ran didn't know the full details, they rarely talked about their biological family.

Today she didn't need it though, because she hadn't actually slept last night. A fact Kirishima probably picked up when he came into the kitchen to find her sitting at the table with a long-empty cereal bowl. He stopped in the doorway and just stared at her, Ran meeting his gaze silently.

"Rough night?" he finally asked.

"Yep," she said flatly. "You too?" She glanced at the bags under his eyes, a rare sight on the teen. Kirishima could be gloomy and quiet at times, especially back when his hair was still black, but he still had a certain energy and never exactly looked tired.

"Yeah," he muttered, and made his way to the pantry to grab a box of cereal and a bowl before joining her at the table. For a while neither of them spoke, Ran just staring blankly at her own empty bowl while Kirishima ate in silence.

The fact Kirishima was the first one into the kitchen was mildly surprising, but then, Ashido wasn't exactly a morning person either. She'd probably be dead to the world for at least another hour. Todoroki meanwhile had woken up about half an hour ago, but hadn't left the guest room. Ran's mental map had tracked him pacing around the room for a while now. When she focused on the link she felt a twinge in her muscles that meant he was probably doing some stretches, or whatever hero students did first thing in the morning.

The last thought had her snorting softly, getting a curious look from Kirishima. "Anjou?"

"Sorry, just thinking how crazy this all is," she said, shaking her head. She got up to take her bowl to the sink and get herself that cup of coffee after all, if only to give herself something to do.

"I hear that," Kirishima said faintly, and she hummed in soft agreement, staring at the coffee pot as it filled up.

This was beyond her paygrade. Ran had accepted that when Ashido first told them about the multiverse. The only reason she'd gotten involved was because Shouji had met that guy who gave him that weird dream, and Todoroki also claimed to be from another world. She had to confirm the veracity of their stories, to at least make sure this wouldn't endanger the runaway network somehow. Even the runaways had agreed—even Nakamura, who usually advocated for staying out of stuff like this.

But she hadn't expected that it would get them a direct line to the Villain Alliance, and obviously Kirishima didn't either.

He probably still didn't get how big this was, since he was a perfectly normal civilian. Ran herself knew very little about them overall; she mainly knew about them because she kept a closer eye on the villain scene than most. As the coordinator for a bunch of runaways (and a few vigilantes), it was important to keep track of the biggest potential threats, even if Odawara was somehow safe.

Those guys weren't household names yet, but they were well on their way to that level since their public debut. As far as debuts went, it honestly wasn't too different from the average villainous act. They didn't attack Endeavor or anything else major like that, and the main reason they got so much attention had been the fact that one of them made an entire building turn to dust. Destructive Quirks were a dime a dozen, but even then that one stood out.

What caught Ran's attention though was how organized the attack had been. It hadn't been haphazard or spur of the moment, it had involved multiple people with radically different skills. They even destroyed all the cameras in the area of the attack in advance, a pattern that would largely remain in subsequent attacks to make it hard to get actual footage of them. There was something up with that group that gave her a sense of foreboding, and that call with Midoriya had just made it worse.

"Hey, Anjou?" Kirishima said, cutting into her thoughts. "What... What are you going to do?"

"About the mess?" Ran asked, glancing back at him, and he nodded.

"Yeah. It's just... A lot, you know?" She hummed and turned back to the coffee.

"You can back out. It's a bit too late for you to go back at this point, but you don't have to get involved with this. You can just join the runways."

"But you won't, will you?" Kirishima asked, and she gave a half-hearted shrug.

"Not really. I've got to go back to Kamino for school so I can't do much right now, but my Quirk lets me help out even from a distance." Ideally, Ran would like to meet every single one of these idiots and tag them with her Quirk, but that wasn't an option. She had to go back to Kamino today or the police investigating Ashido and Kirishima's disappearance might get suspicious. The mess already had at least two Pro Heroes involved—Oracle and that Midnight lady Ashido mentioned—and she wouldn't put it past one of them to check out Kuroe and Odawara as a whole if she ran late.

They were silent for a while after that, both out of things to say. Eventually the coffeemaker beeped loudly to announce it finished, and she swept up the pot and poured it into a mug before grabbing some honey from the fridge. She half-expected a comment from Kirishima when she drizzled in a few drops—Ashido and Kirameki both did that—but surprisingly he remained silent. When she turned around, she realized it was probably because he hadn't seen it, staring at his bowl with an odd intensity.

"Yen for your thoughts?" she asked lightly as she took a sip.

"You have an easy out, but you're still staying involved," Kirishima muttered. "I... This is all way over my head and I have trouble understanding everything sometimes, but... I also don't want to do nothing after coming this far. Is that weird?" Ran couldn't help her snort, earning a hurt look from the redhead. "H-hey, don't laugh! I'm being serious here!"

"Sorry, it's not that," she said, shaking her head. "It's just, when Ashido first said you were at UA in her world, I kinda thought it was crazy. No offense, but you don't exactly seem like the 'heroic' type, y'know?"

Even before they really started interacting these past couple of weeks, she'd pegged Kirishima as the nervous type with barely any confidence in himself. He was almost always alone at school, that shy kid no one really spoke to. Whenever voices started raising, he'd often freeze up or look over at the arguing people before quickly fleeing with a guilty look on his face. He had to be one of the least confrontational people she'd ever met.

Even now he winced and ducked his head. "Gee, thanks," he muttered grumpily, and she smirked.

"Yeah, well, that was before. But I can see it now." The remark had his head snapping up in surprise, and Ran sat at the table across from him. "Running out after Ashido when she went after that villain, and then running away with her because you don't really trust me—that takes guts. And even now, we're talking about maybe going up against actual villains, and you're still talking about wanting to do something."

"Honestly, I'm kinda trying not to think too hard on the villain part," Kirishima said with a wince, and she nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, that's a lot to take in. Kinda trying to avoid it too," she admitted with an uncomfortable shrug. "But still, you said it yourself: you don't want to do 'nothing.' Can't say the same for most people. You're a pretty cool guy, Kirishima."

Kirishima seemed surprised by the last part and at a loss for words. He didn't really have a chance to respond though. While she waited Kuroe's signature moved on her mental map, signaling he finally decided to get out of bed after waking up and spending the last ten minutes on his phone or whatever. Ran huffed and rolled her eyes. "Kuroe's incoming. Conversation ends now."

Kirishima frowned and quickly nodded, and the two lapsed into silence once more. Ran sipped at her coffee and let her thoughts wander to the rest of the day. She had a long day ahead of her even without that follow-up phone call. The runaways were going to expect some kind of report after the second call, and she grimaced as she thought of their reactions.

Screw it. She'd text Nakamura to meet up and leave it up to him. She might be the coordinator, but she did not want to deal with this shit. In the meantime, maybe she could find a way to stay tomorrow...

Izuku had hoped a full night's sleep would make everything better, and it did help a little bit because his head no longer felt so jumbled. But despite that, everything still felt off. Waking up and looking at the bedroom filled him with the strongest sense of déjà vu rather than actual familiarity, and the hallways were little better.

What's going on? he wondered in frustration as he headed back to his room with a bowl and a box of cereal. He hadn't run into anyone on his way to the kitchen, which was good because he kept second-guessing himself on the way. It wasn't as bad as last night now that his head was clearer, but it still left him anxious enough that he'd had to return and consult the map in that one journal to quickly refresh his memory of this place's layout.

It wasn't that he suddenly couldn't remember the place. Everything still felt familiar, but... not as familiar, if that made sense. He hadn't realized just how used he'd gotten to the building's maze-like layout. Without the immediate disorientation from last night, the strangeness of the situation really hit home.

That, and what he'd said to Aizawa-sensei.

Last night he hadn't really been thinking about his responses when he'd said them, it had all been almost automatic in the heat of the moment. So he hadn't really noticed just what he'd said until he started thinking about it this morning, and once he did, he realized it was weird. Everything he'd said made no sense to him now, but he was obviously responding to Aizawa-sensei's statements and accusations.

Including about an opportunity to leave.

Izuku closed the door to his bedroom and went straight to the dresser, setting down the bowl and cereal box to pick up the letter about his episodes. He slid the papers out of the envelope and skimmed over them. If he remembered right, there was something near the end right around... There.

'Actually, during the last episode I had, a new hero infiltrated one of our other bases and tried to get us to leave with him. Kurogiri stopped him before we left and the hero got away, but it was a close call. That's the other reason I decided to write this, I guess, to prevent a repeat of that.'

A frown grew as he read over the paragraph. He couldn't be sure of course, but that sounded close enough to what Aizawa-sensei had been referencing about "the opportunity he'd wasted." A hero had infiltrated the base, and Izuku had nearly left with them mid-episode. His own responses to Aizawa last night were a bit hazy now, and the reasoning behind them didn't come to mind at all, but he felt certain he'd been referencing that particular event.

If I was, it sounds like maybe the 'episode' wore off right before we left? Kurogiri was there too apparently, but I feel like the way I phrased it was like I realized running away wouldn't work. And Aizawa-sensei said nothing about Kurogiri, but he might not have been told the full details, or the new hero might not have seen Kurogiri...? But if I really was talking about that event, how did I know that? I haven't seen any mentions of it anywhere, or heard about it...

As he mulled over it, it took him far too long to notice Seiko had appeared at some point. Once he did notice he jumped with a small shriek and dropped the letter. "H-how long have you been there!?" he sputtered.

"A while." That was not helpful at all. Izuku just heaved an anxious sigh as he bent down to pick up the papers, trying not to look at her. Just like last night, she felt way more viscerally wrong than she usually did, which was saying something. "Did sleeping help?"

Izuku grimaced. "Kinda, but... Stuff still feels off." He sighed and shook his head while he folded the letter to put it back into the envelope. "My head's clearer and I don't feel as disoriented, but now everything just feels kind of... wrong, I guess? I don't know. I think I need some time alone to just think things over." He swallowed, and risked a glance her way. "Can you tell the others something so they don't worry?"

Seiko gave a short hum, tipping her head to the side. "Very well. What about Eraserhead?" The last question had Izuku freezing, a short chill running down his spine as he quickly averted his gaze.

He knew he couldn't just ignore or avoid Aizawa, it had been in the back of his mind all morning. The man needed breakfast after all. But right now, Izuku couldn't face him, not after last night. Aizawa would surely have questions about what happened at the end, questions Izuku couldn't answer right now because he was just as confused. But even before that, things had already been so tense, and the thought of facing him filled him with an odd mix of shame and dread.

But worse were those words.

"Fighting them would be suicidal for a Pro Hero, let alone a teenage kid with no training or even a Quirk."

Even now Izuku flinched as he remembered them, teeth digging into his lip as he ducked his head further. He knew he wasn't Quirkless anymore, and that Aizawa hadn't been outright saying a person's Quirk was tied to their value as a person. He'd just been pointing out that he couldn't go reasonably against trained supervillains. It shouldn't bother him so much, he knew that, but even so. To hear his teacher speak like that...

It left him with a miserable sense of shame and despair, and made him want to avoid the man if only for a little longer.

I'm sorry, Aizawa-sensei, he silently apologized as he took a deep breath. "Could... could you maybe, g-get him breakfast?" he asked quietly, voice carrying the slightest tremor. "I'll bring him dinner for sure, a-and maybe lunch, too, but... I don't think I can talk to him right now..."

He hung his head shamefully, and almost flinched when Seiko responded with a simple, "Fine." And just like that she was gone, leaving Izuku with only his shame at subjecting Aizawa to the horror that was Seiko. But he had no choice. He couldn't ask any of the villains to do it without raising questions about it, and more than that, he couldn't trust any of them.

Seiko might be the creepiest person he'd ever met, but he at least felt sure she wouldn't hurt Aizawa. He couldn't say the same of anyone else.

For now, he pushed it out of his mind and focused on the other things he'd said last night. Specifically, the things right before... whatever that was. Aizawa had been pushing him about his reasons for not trying to call for help, and Izuku's responses had been weird. The stuff about police not believing him were a decent enough reason, but the rest of it? The stuff with the Hero Commission and Hawks? Also, Lady of the Night? Who was that again? The name felt familiar, maybe she was an underground hero?

Izuku had no idea where any of it came from, but back when he'd said all that, it felt right. It reminded him of when he'd talked about his Quirk to Bakugou and Shinsou that day when Shigaraki kidnapped Aizawa-sensei, and how he felt like he'd used it before and broken bones in this body. He had no basis for it, no conscious memories, but his words had felt right back then. His words last night had felt just as undeniably accurate at the time, even if his recollection felt a bit fuzzier now.

And that made the last thing he said before everything went white all the more worrisome. He couldn't remember it exactly, but it went something like, "Here I'm safe! And the world is safe too! Because who would believe—" And that was when everything went white and he cut off.

Two things stood out: Izuku was safe, and the world was safe. And both felt true.

"What would that mean?" he mumbled to himself. "Is me being safe somehow tied to the world being safe...? And what was that last part about believing something..." He didn't know, and thinking on it too hard made his head start to feel... fuzzy.

When Izuku realized that he immediately banished the thoughts with a harsh shake of his head. He didn't know if that was a symptom or warning sign or just something else, but if there was even the slightest chance it might somehow trigger another white-out, it'd be better not to think about it. He was still reeling from the last one, he didn't need another one stacked on top of it.

For now he walked over to his laptop and opened it up, navigating to FacePage. Before ending the call yesterday everyone had agreed to set up a group chat on there, with the others even making new accounts just for that purpose. He didn't know if the others might still be asleep—their conversation yesterday might have kept them up pretty late—but he could send them a message outlining everything from last night.

Izuku wished he could just tell them over the phone and get their thoughts in real time, but that wasn't an option. Yesterday they'd all concluded he'd have to sit out today's call since leaving the Alliance's base two days in a row after just securing increased freedoms for Bakugou and Shinsou, as well as tutoring with Aizawa, might be suspicious. Uraraka had been tagged as the official go-between, and had promised to keep him updated on the developing plans.

It had been frustrating at the time, but now Izuku felt slightly grateful since he didn't want to talk to anyone. His mind was mostly clear now, but it was still just the slightest bit fuzzy, the slightest bit wrong. Asking Kurogiri to warp him anywhere felt terrifying, and he had no idea how he'd react to Aiko. Based on their interactions so far, he had a feeling she'd be less willing to leave him alone with Uraraka if she noticed something clearly wrong with him.

While he still wished he could talk to them directly, he felt relieved knowing that they'd all see this message and could talk it out later. Just knowing there were others here who could relate was an immense weight off his shoulders. After triple-checking that he'd covered everything, he finally hit send and closed the laptop, turning his attention to his notebook.

Might as well get back to work on that letter to Kacchan and Shinsou about the help. Hopefully he'd come up with something...

Meanwhile, Himiko was bouncing down the hall to the kitchen when Seiko appeared. "Morning, Seiko-chan!" she chirped cheerily. "What's going on?"

"Izuku is feeling unwell and cannot deliver breakfast to Eraserhead," she intoned dully, and Himiko perked up with an excited gasp.

"Oh! Oh! I'll take it to him! Pick me, pick me!" Seiko just nodded and returned to the shadows while Himiko all but raced to the kitchen, excitement reaching fever pitches. She hadn't gotten to meet Eraserhead yet, Giri had sent her back through a different portal with a bunch of others before they kidnapped the hero. And now that Aiko was coming to meet him, she was really curious about him. This would be so much fun!

Kyouka had been browsing the morning news on her phone when it dinged with new messages in the group chat. She switched over to the messenger and frowned as she read Midoriya's messages, growing more and more alert. "The hell?" she muttered, sitting up straighter. Lips thinning, she typed in a short reply.

'Well that's definitely weird.' She heard a light chime from Kaminari's phone in the back of the apartment, followed by a soft groan.

"Stooooop," the sleepy teen groaned, and she rolled her eyes. Last night Kaminari had still been up when she went to sleep, which had been around one in the morning. It was now nine, so he obviously hadn't gotten much sleep. She couldn't really blame him though. The phone call yesterday had given them a lot to think about.

Midoriya was here, and stuck with the League of Villains—or as they were called in this world, the Villain Alliance. Somehow every time he told them more about it, it got worse. Bakugou was there as a prisoner, and so was a kid from Gen Ed. If that wasn't bad enough, just this week Aizawa was captured and given to him as a pet or something equally sick and screwed up.

And that was just the stuff he and Uraraka had told them. There seemed to be more stuff they didn't want to share over the phone, which was understandable since phones could be easily hacked. It didn't make it less aggravating though.

Perhaps the most frustrating thing was that all of the others had some story they couldn't share. Midoriya and Uraraka had some obvious secrets, but so did Todoroki, Ashido, and that Anjou chick. Whatever was going on in Odawara seemed to be pretty big, and she couldn't figure out what it could be. Judging by the fact Asui, Kouda, Shouji and Ojiro weren't on Anjou's list of people whose statuses they didn't know, she figured they might be there, but that's all Kyouka had at this point.

Which brought her to one of the other people whose statuses they couldn't confirm: Tokoyami.

She'd been reading articles about Gentle Criminal and Phantom Shadow when Midoriya's message came in. The possibility Tokoyami might be from their world hadn't been something Kyouka would have thought, but Anjou's reasoning felt pretty solid. And Kyouka and Kaminari were the only members of 1-A who had any sort of public presence. Since he worked with Gentle Criminal, it'd make sense to come to Hosu and pull a few heists in hopes they'd run into each other in case he couldn't find them.

It would also make sense to just, you know, send them a message over social media. That was the main thing giving her pause. That'd be the simplest way to find them, but maybe it just never occurred to him. While he didn't avoid social media like Todoroki, from what she knew he didn't use it that regularly either. Waking up as the sidekick to a famous criminal might have disoriented him enough to skew his judgment.

The only way to know for sure would be to meet him. Kyouka had spent a good chunk of the night studying Gentle Criminal's patterns to see if she could figure out the next night. Investigation and analysis weren't her usual areas of expertise, but after yesterday's call she felt like she needed to do something productive. She couldn't really do anything about Midoriya's situation, so this was all she had.

Her conclusions so far: he always targeted some major company or corporation, and pulled off a "silly" heist before exposing some secrets in a video a few days later. Usually, the companies or one of its top executives had made the news within the past two years for some rumored scandal. Even if they hadn't made news, almost all of them at least had some sort of rumor mentioned in articles about the heist and reveal.

This morning the reveal video for their latest heist got posted, which had been part of what spurred her news crawl. Odd choice to publish it on a Sunday morning, but maybe he was counting on it being a slow news period to maximize coverage. Not much happened on Sundays, so short of some other dramatic and sudden event, there probably wouldn't be any competing news stories.

Based on previous patterns, Kyouka figured they'd probably do another heist the week after next. That was entirely too long for her liking. If someone else was here, she wanted to know now so they could make their plans accordingly. They'd probably want to scope out the next target in advance, and that seemed like their best chance to make a move. Tokoyami probably wouldn't bother to disguise himself since no one knew him. Just figure out their likely targets, and keep an eye on those.

That, and increase their patrols and vigilante activity. If Tokoyami was from their world, he'd be looking for them too. So in the end, they might not even have to do anything different from usual.

The last thought had her snorting and rolling her eyes. "This is so insane," she muttered under her breath. A chime from her phone (and Kaminari's) had her pausing and Kaminari groaning loudly. She quickly checked FacePage again to find a new message from Anjou.

'Should probably push up phone call to talk this out. Any objections?' Even as Kyouka read it another message appeared from Uraraka.

'None here! I'm good for anytime!' There was a chime with it and another groan from Kaminari, and Kyouka smirked as she typed her own reply.

'Give us an hour. Jammingwhey needs time to wake up'

Another chime, only from Kaminari's phone this time, and the loudest groan yet. "Make it stooooop," he moaned, and she quietly snickered. She'd give him five more minutes before she dumped a cup of water on his head. She had a lot of stuff she wanted to talk about on this call. Midoriya's message had made something click, and she wanted their input.

So a BIG warning for anime-only fans: the latest chapter ended with a severe cliffhanger. Final page had a pretty major character hurt. We don't know how bad the injury is, but I've already seen at least one fic about it that had a sentence in the description along the lines of "if (character) died in the latest chapter". There's going to be a LOT of vent fics and fan art over the next week, and maybe beyond depending on how the next chapter goes.

So if you want to avoid spoilers, I recommend avoiding any brand new fan fics for at least the next week. Hopefully the next chapter will prove our worst fears wrong and the initial clamor will die down. Until then though... That cliffhanger was designed to create a LOT of tension/anticipation in readers, and it's definitely working.

Question for next time: If any character besides Izuku were to have a Quirkless counterpart in this world, who would have the most drastic ramifications?