Chapter 68
.::For Once, A Lucky Break::.
They had only just wrapped up the most recent episode of Present Mic's radio show when Izuku's phone dinged with a notification on FacePage. That was also when Izuku discovered he'd accidentally turned up the volume for notifications when turning up the audio before playing the show. He almost dropped his phone in shock when the ringtone loudly cut through the room, scrambling to keep it from falling.
Aizawa winced slightly too, more out of surprise than anything. "Pretty loud," he muttered.
"Sorry, I usually have it on vibrate!" Izuku apologized, quickly opening the FacePage messenger. If they'd sent him one it had to be something urgent, and sure enough he found a message waiting from Jirou:
'Space got hit by some Quirk and can't talk about the Alliance or whoever she stayed with. Know it's too risky to call, but reply ASAP.'
His blood chilled as he read it. "I have to go take care of something," he said, stuffing the phone into his pocket and getting to his feet. Aizawa sat up a bit straighter, looking more alert.
"What happened?" he demanded sharply, and for half a second Izuku tried to come up with an excuse. But then his eyes caught on the empty plate that had formerly held the painkiller pill, and he couldn't bring himself to lie. At long last, Aizawa was finally, finally starting to trust him. Lying outright to his face now, even if he was worried Seiko would be listening in, felt like it would be a betrayal.
"It's nothing bad, someone got hit by a Quirk," he replied, settling on a partial truth. "You wouldn't know them, and it doesn't seem bad, but I still need to help figure some stuff out about it." Aizawa's mouth thinned, eyes narrowing.
"Do you always get called about this stuff?" he asked. It was such a casual question on the surface, even his tone nonchalant. But Izuku recognized almost instantly that he was probing for information about his role in the Alliance.
Just a few days ago, that realization would have hurt, because it meant Aizawa still saw him as an enemy. This time, though, that realization actually came as a relief. It was a sign his teacher had gotten over some of that weird anxiety from Sunday, and was back to trying to gather information. Back to trying to plot a way out of this place.
Despite the situation Izuku felt himself smile, genuinely smile. "If you mean for the Alliance, not really? Everyone tries to keep me away from villain stuff when they can. This is actually a friend I talk to online." That seemed to surprise Aizawa, his eyes briefly widening as he leaned forward.
"Do you have many friends outside the Alliance?" he asked, seeming equal parts curious and probing, and Izuku shrugged.
"Not many, just some people I talk to online." This held true even for his counterpart. Izuku had discovered pretty early on that his counterpart tended to still go on a few hero forums, and talked to some of the other users occasionally. He never participated in group chats like he did now on FacePage, but he did seem to be on good terms with a few people through private messages.
It was thinking of those people that Izuku continued, "Obviously they don't know who I actually am, we don't even use our real names, but I still think of them as friends. Like I said, one of them got hit with a Quirk of some kind and it doesn't seem like it's harmful, but I want to help figure out what's going on. So, I'll be back later, okay?" He gave Aizawa an apologetic look as he grabbed the empty plates from breakfast and the painkiller (which he had to avoid thinking about or he'd just tear up again).
For his part, Aizawa still looked a bit surprised. Izuku wouldn't be surprised if the man was trying to figure out if he was lying, which... was still a pretty depressing thought. Not like he'd have any reason to lie about having online friends though. In any event, after a few moments Aizawa relaxed and nodded. "Right... Later."
"Later," Izuku replied with a feeble smile, and quickly headed off, his steps a bit faster than usual as he went to deposit the dishes in the kitchen. His thoughts kept straying back to that message from Jirou. Uraraka couldn't talk about the Alliance or Aiko? It had to be a Quirk, especially if they went out of their way to message him, but when would she have gotten hit by one?
He returned to his bedroom and closed the door before pulling out his phone to type a reply. 'What do you mean she can't talk about it? What happens when she tries? When did this start? Can she write stuff? Does she have any idea what caused it?'
Jirou's reply came about two minutes later. 'She can't say anything about it. She'll pretty much just skip over any words relating to it and say the rest of a sentence like normal. Writing doesn't work either, her hand just freezes up. Same with typing, her fingers don't even go to the letters for whatever she wants to type. She says it probably happened when she left this morning, but she can't say anything else about it so it must be someone with the Alliance.'
He frowned at the last sentence. No, it couldn't be an Alliance member. As far as Izuku knew none of the Alliance members had Quirks like that. His counterpart kept a list of active members and their Quirks in the journals and while he couldn't remember all of them, one like that would have stuck out to him. Besides, if the Alliance found out about Uraraka, they wouldn't just let her go with a silencing Quirk—
But Aiko might.
The thought had him freezing, eyes going wide. Even now, he still didn't know what kind of Quirk Aiko had. All he had to go on was that she'd somehow managed to stop his panic attack. Combined with Uraraka's sudden inability to talk about the Alliance, it might be some kind of compulsion Quirk rather than an empathy one like he originally thought.
To that end he typed out a reply. 'No one at the Alliance should know about her, so I think it was probably the person Uraraka was staying with. I don't know their Quirk, but it might be a compulsion thing?'
'I'm guessing you don't feel up to going into more detail over text.' Izuku grimaced guiltily at the reply.
'I don't, sorry.' They'd already been paranoid enough about eavesdroppers, and after finding out Yaoyorozu had indeed spied on them that paranoia reached new levels. Not even texts felt really secure at this point. 'Have you at least been able to figure out anything at all? Can she nod or shake her head or anything?'
Jirou's response took longer this time. 'She can do that much. We've been quizzing her on stuff we know from home. She can talk about Dabi and Spinner fine, so I guess they're really not members. Hawks is clear too.' That last bit struck Izuku as oddly specific. 'She can at least talk about you, Blasty and that gen ed guy. Can also talk about the attacks back home, just can't say all the names or talk about them.'
'What about nicknames?'
'Nope. Dancer suggested she try saying 'yandere girl' for that one chick you know, but she couldn't say even that. Seems like if she's talking about them at all, she skips over the words referring to them. We also brought up a map on our phones to see if she could point out the city, but no dice there either.'
Izuku frowned as he read over it, sinking onto his bed and thinking. That really wasn't much information. The Alliance had a lot of members who didn't exist in their world, mostly just grunt-level thugs, but also a few more dangerous elements like Slycer. And of course, there was Aiko, the biggest threat of all.
'Can she say anything about sensei?' he asked desperately, feeling tense as he waited for a reply. This was the only downside to talking over text, he had to wait for every response with no idea what might be happening on the other end.
'Yeah, she can still say his name, but it's hard for her to talk about it. We think she's skipping over some words like 'prisoner' when she talks about him? Like she said 'He's a at and had his leg broken by'. You can fill in the blanks there. From what we can put together he freaked out on Sunday about SOMEONE, but she can't say much about it. We've been trying to piece it together, but it's slow going.'
So far intent definitely seemed to have a role in it. 'It sounds like it might trigger based on intent, so do you think you can work around it based on that?'
There was a short pause before she began typing. 'I'm gonna be real here. Right now, Space can't talk. We have Dancer, Chargebolt and Red Riot playing 20 questions and charades with her. Peppermint is still in shock about the thing with his brother so he can't focus. Inventor is being Inventor. That leaves me, Tentacole, and a guy you don't know who are here for reasons, as the brains. Can't see us making any real progress soon.'
Izuku perked up at the mention of Shouji and someone else, wondering why they were present at the meeting, but he knew this wasn't the time to ask. This was probably the kind of thing Uraraka would have to relay in person for security reasons, just like everything else she'd been meant to relay but now couldn't. Right now, that took priority.
He bit his lip as he tried to think of a solution. If he could actually talk to them he might be able to help figure out some loopholes, but that would be hard to do over only text. Calling would be too risky with Seiko around, so that was out, and if he could just go to Odawara himself, this wouldn't be a problem in the first place.
His gaze flitted around the room as he racked his brain, hoping for some sort of inspiration. It only took a second for his eyes to settle on a poster with Best Jeanist, at which point he jolted upright. Izuku hadn't heard much about the Fiber Hero in this world, but seeing him reminded him of the location of his last major battle in theirs: Kamino.
'Nettmegg is in Kamino, right?' He remembered Ashido had mentioned waking up there, and he knew Anjou had to go back for school.
Sure enough, Jirou replied, 'Yeah. She's in class right now though. Why?' Izuku didn't reply, opening the browser to the search engine.
"Come on, let there be something," he whispered frantically as he typed in Kamino. Just any sort of event, hell maybe even a store with hero merchandise! Just any excuse to get over there and try to meet Anjou.
And for once since waking up in this messed-up world, the universe smiled upon Midoriya Izuku, and a news article appeared at the top of the feed:
'Present Mic announces surprise meet and greet in Kamino'
His jaw dropped, tears forming as he grinned. "Yes, yes!" he whispered, almost wanting to laugh at the sheer relief he felt. Of all the possible reasons to give Shigaraki, this was the most believable. Izuku had been pretty open about liking Present Mic's radio show, they'd even talked about it before. Given how many posters he had, surely wanting an autograph wouldn't be that out of character.
"Seiko?" he called quietly. As expected when he turned his head he found Seiko standing next to the bed, face unreadable as always, although this time she had a difference that made him sit up straighter. "Um, that's a nice scarf?" The pink and blue scarf was absolutely new, and really stood out against her black dress.
"Thank you," she replied monotonously. "Do you need something?" The question snapped him out of his initial shock, reminding him of his objective.
"How likely is it that Tomura would let me go to Kamino alone?" he asked, turning the screen to show her the article about Mic's surprise meet and greet. Seiko stepped closer to peer at it, leaning forward without moving to take it.
"Not alone," she informed him. "Getting close to a Pro Hero would make him paranoid. He would want someone with you as reinforcements."
"And I'm guessing you don't count?" he asked dully, already predicting the answer.
"No." That would make things trickier, but Izuku wouldn't give up yet. He might have done so even on Sunday, but right now, he had a new option to gamble on.
"What if I take Toga?" he asked anxiously. He still didn't know if he could trust her fully yet, but he felt desperate. It was a risky gamble that could go horribly wrong, but she'd given him the anklet and had promised not to tell anyone about his latest supposed episode. That was enough to make him willing to take that risk.
Seiko tilted her head. "That should be allowed." Izuku's heart soared with hope as he quickly switched back to the chat with Jirou.
'Present Mic has a meet and greet in Kamino in an hour and I should be able to go. If I can get Nettmegg's address I can drop off a letter with all the details for someone to pick up.'
He didn't wait for a response before opening his texts, quickly finding an older conversation with Toga. He sent her the link to the article about the meet and greet and added, 'It starts in an hour. Do you think you can convince Tomura-nii to let us go so I can get Present Mic's autograph?'
Toga replied within seconds. 'Of course Mido-chan! There's a super-cute boutique there that I wanna go to anyway!' The last part had Izuku feeling a small spike of dread for some reason, but he ignored it as he switched back to the chat with Jirou to find her reply waiting.
'Wait what? Seriously?'
'Yeah. I can't talk over the phone or text, but I can write it down. There's some major stuff I don't think Space can tell you guys without being able to talk about it directly.' Like Aiko. Specifically Aiko. 'There's one person that's unique to this world and really dangerous. Dangerous enough that sensei doesn't think heroes would win if they went in blind.'
There was about a full two minutes with no response, making him get more and more antsy. He could see Jirou was typing, but she never sent anything. Finally, 'Shit. You in danger?'
'No, I'm fine. They like me so I think I'm safe even if they find out everything. Just, the letter will explain more. I'm gonna message Nettmegg and work out details.' True to his word he exited the chat and sent a direct message to Anjou's account, including the link and a brief summary of the situation. She should be in class so he didn't expect a reply right away, so for now he put the phone down and went to his shelf to grab a notebook.
Of course, when he did, he jumped to find Seiko still there. "Are you gonna just hang out here the whole time?" he muttered sullenly.
"Perhaps."
Nope. Izuku was not dealing with this today. "Could you let Kacchan and Hijack know I might be heading out to see Present Mic?" he asked. He didn't even offer a silent apology for subjecting his friends to Seiko this time. They'd surely understand that this played a role in their escape.
Seiko tilted her head before nodding. "Fine." With that the shadows swallowed her up, and he sat at his desk with the notebook open to a new page. He had a lot to cover in a little bit of time.
Despite her intent to listen in on the meeting, Ran had made a grave miscalculation. While school had nothing major happening this week, next week would be final exams. And while Ran was smart, she still needed to focus on some of the in-class reviews if she wanted to get a good grade. So after much internal debate, she decided not to tap into Nakamura's hearing so she could focus on studying.
As such, she had next to no idea what was going on in Odawara until she checked her phone in between classes. The teacher for the class before lunch always ran a little late on Tuesdays for some reason, so she decided to see if she'd gotten any messages about the meeting. However, Ran did not expect to see one waiting from Midoriya of all people.
'Space got hit by a Quirk and can't talk about some stuff. They're trying to find workarounds but it's slow-going. Present Mic is having a surprise meet and greet in Kamino today and I can get permission to go. If I get your address or somewhere safe, I can drop off a letter for them explaining everything.'
Ran's eyes narrowed as she read it, already running over logistics. Giving out her address left a bad taste in her mouth, especially to someone connected to villains, but if Uraraka was hit with a silencing Quirk they might not have a choice. With stakes like this, every bit of information mattered. Though on second thought, they might have a workaround to the address thing if they brought in Rintarou's help...
"Hey, Anjou, something up?" She glanced over at the kid sitting next to her. "You've been looking at your phone pretty intensely."
"Online friend just told me Present Mic's in town having a meet and greet thing today," she replied with a shrug. "He wanted to know if I could go, but it sounds like it'll probably be over before classes end."
"Present Mic's doing a meet and greet in Kamino?" someone else asked loudly, and she could hear more of her classmates begin to chatter. Ran ignored the talking, shooting a text to Nakamura.
'Just got a message about the situation with Space, Number 6 wants to drop off a letter here. Get Kabuto to send Sparky or Soundbite to my place to meet him. You guys can handle details.'
No sooner had she sent it than she heard the door open and close, followed by a sudden silence. She looked up to find everyone staring at the door. "Uh, what happened?" she asked.
"Nijisaki-kun just left the room," her neighbor said, making her frown.
"What's up with him?" someone else wondered. Not far away she saw Kirameki suddenly stand up, slamming her hands on her desk.
"Nijisaki's a member of the Present Mic fan club!" she blurted. There was a brief moment of silence, and then everyone was scrambling to their feet and shoving their books back in their bags. The first students had just started the stampede for the door when the teacher entered.
"Hey, the hell's going on?" he demanded. "Why aren't you in your seats?"
"Nijisaki—"
That was all her classmate had time to say before the shrill ring of the fire alarm went off, followed by the sprinklers. A chorus of angry and exasperated screams and groans filled the air as everyone was thoroughly drenched, Ran included.
Within half an hour of Kyouka first messaging Midoriya, Rogue's phone buzzed and he checked it. Since then he seemed to be pretty busy texting some people along with Shouji, though Kyouka didn't pay much attention. She and the others were focused on talking to Uraraka to try to work out some details about the Alliance situation.
Mostly by trying to get her to say random names.
"Okay, so far we can confirm no one from 1-A is in the Alliance," Ashido declared. "And probably no one from 1-B, but we can't remember all their names so it's still up in the air. Also, none of Todoroki's family are members of the Alliance, and neither are any of Endeavor's sidekicks. Well, except for that one guy who worked there for like, three weeks before getting fired?"
"Dynamode always was creepy," Todoroki murmured with a sage nod. "Still not sure how he got hired."
"Kinda freaky you can't say my middle school anatomy teacher though," Kaminari piped up with a grimace. "I knew that lady was bad news!"
"I can't believe you actually suggested her," Kyouka piped up, still amused.
"If you ever met Abe-sensei, you'd wonder too," he replied, unusually serious. Kyouka smirked and was about to reply when Rogue suddenly spoke up.
"Yo, uh, Jirou," he called, making her glance over. "You've been messaging Midoriya, right?"
"Uh, yeah. He said he'd be texting Anjou though, so."
"Well, got a message to pass onto him," he said. "She's not giving him her address, but she can probably meet him in person after she changes." That had everyone turning to look in surprise.
"Wait, seriously?" Kirishima asked. "But what about classes? We have finals next week, so she can't just skip!"
"We have finals next week?" Ashido blurted, and grimaced. "Oops, sorry other Mina... And you too, Kiri..."
"Yeah, we're definitely gonna miss those," he groaned, sinking into his chair.
"So why is she out of class?" Kyouka asked, already bringing up the conversation with Midoriya on her phone to let him know.
"All she said is, 'Never let the kid with the smoke Quirk near the sprinklers.'" Kyouka paused, and then slowly nodded as she sent the update to Midoriya. Those were words to live by.
Throwback to an earlier chapter where Anjou used a classmate named Nijisaki to set off the sprinklers so they could get out early. She is not happy this time. It is the dead of winter, and it is cold. They say no one ever found Nijisaki's body.
Also, is it contrived that Present Mic happens to have a meet and greet in Kamino on this very day? Yes. But these kids also need a lucky break sometime so the universe is smiling upon them! (Did I plan for Izuku to have an impromptu meeting with someone to deliver a letter? No. But he's not just gonna sit around quietly waiting while everyone tries to decipher Uraraka's censored speech!)
Question for next time: Guys, give me the weirdest hero merchandise Izuku could have. (Inspired by the latest Aftershock chapter's question, which was about best reject All Might merchandise. If you're on AO3, read the comments on Chapter 7, it is glorious.)