Chapter 70
.::A Grave Mistake?::.
The discovery had been an accident.
It happened during a villain fight. Watching Kas fight had always been a treat, his motions always perfectly smooth and precise like a well-choreographed dance thanks to his precognitive Quirk. Since taking on the name "Oracle" his skill had only improved, the still occasionally clumsy movements of a small boy vanishing as he matured into a steady-footed young man. Even surrounded by multiple enemies, Kas showed no hesitation, moving with a grace that filled Mail with pride.
(It was all he could do now, just watch his little brother and sister as they threw themselves into fight after fight, risking their lives every single time for causes Mail didn't even know were worth another one of them dying.)
One minute Mail was watching his brother beat up a random thug, smoothly dodging the man's blows before they could even be choreographed and responding with fierce strikes of his own. Then suddenly his eyes flickered towards Mail's general position above the battle and for the first time in years, he stumbled. Kas froze, movements stilling as his head snapped upwards and his eyes went wide.
"Mail?" he gasped, jarring Mail out of his usual silence. For a moment he thought it was his imagination, but no. Del—Kas—his brother, his last living baby brother, one of the precious few he had died for, was looking at him.
For the first time in two thousand, nine hundred eighty seven days, Mail opened his mouth and spoke to his brother.
"You can see me?" he asked. Kas didn't respond, side-tracked by a punch to the side of the head that he for once failed to anticipate, failed to dodge. The blow had him staggering back a few steps but he didn't lose his footing, his mouth pulling into a vicious snarl as he lunged at the villains with a renewed fury, unleashing a feral roar ringing only of rage.
Mail started calling out to him with every attack, unable to do much else but unwilling to stand by doing nothing after seeing his brother get harmed. As expected Kas managed to avoid every blow this time, already back in groove. His attacks were more vicious now though, abandoning the more merciful style which had become standard as a "Hero" in favor of the brutal strikes learned in their childhoods. The wires he'd spent years training to use tightened around throats to near-strangling levels, limbs bound so tight their fingertips began to turn purple.
When the battle ended Del didn't look at him though. His eyes passed over the space Mail occupied as he searched the room frantically, before releasing an agonizing scream.
"Just let me touch you so I can see your Quirk already!"
Normally, the sound of an irritated Monoma would be music to Kyouka's ears. Right now though, it just added to her own irritation as she watched the blond try to swipe at Mail, who floated near the ceiling of the kitchen. The "ghost" looked annoyed too, his initial amusement long since faded to a scowl as he hovered just out of reach.
"For the last time, no," he snapped. "I don't have a physical body for you to touch, and it's a bad idea anyway."
"How is it a bad idea if I supposedly can't touch you!" Monoma snapped back.
"It just is!" The foreigner threw up his arms in frustration, his hands notably phasing through the ceiling in the process. "Just stop!"
"Not until you stop claiming to be a ghost!"
"You know, this was funny at first, but now it's getting kinda sad," Uraraka muttered, and Kyouka could only nod. It hadn't taken long for the runaways to call for backup after discovering the intruder, which came in the form of Monoma and Ojiro. They figured Monoma's Quirk would help figure out just what was up with this "Mail" guy, but first he'd have to touch him, and that didn't seem to be an option.
"I could try to freeze him in place again," Todoroki offered, and was responded by a loud chorus of "no" from everyone else. He'd already tried that once, and it hadn't done anything except make the room even colder.
"Just stop trying to catch me," Mail sighed. "Seriously. If I wanted to leave, I absolutely would have by now."
"Then why are you still here?" Kyouka challenged.
"For starters, if I leave, you guys will just run off and I'll probably never find you again." He wasn't wrong. "Also, even if you don't run off, I don't really know my way around Odawara so I'd just spend hours lost in the city. I didn't really pay much attention to all the turns when I followed those two from Kamino."
The remark got Ashido and Kirishima some harsh looks from the runaways, the pair currently clinging to each other in the face of the supposed ghost. "Gee, thanks," Ojiro said sarcastically.
"We didn't know!" Kirishima protested. "I never saw him! We never saw anyone!"
"How long have you been haunting us?" Ashido wailed. "If I did anything to hurt you in your past life, I am so sorry, please forgive me!"
"Oi, calm down, I'm not haunting you," Mail said, shaking his head. "Also, don't be so hard on them. Normally people can't see me. I mean, I can't even control it. The only reason we're able to talk now is because that guy has an area of effect illusory Quirk that happens to be compatible with me." He gestured to Glitch as he spoke, the older teen eying him warily. He'd stopped the flickering with his appearance, which also stopped the flickering on Mail, though he still kept himself covered up.
"So you just followed a couple of teens because they couldn't notice?" Shouji piped up. "You realize how that sounds, right?"
"In my defense, I was actually visiting my brother and just got bored. Like I said, I can't control who can see me. Since he was just sitting around basically doing nothing I figured I'd pop over to see if those two were doing anything interesting, and that's when I found them both waiting in their apartments with their bags packed."
"Why would you check on them?" Uraraka asked at the same Todoroki said, "Brother?" Mail nodded at Todoroki, a soft, fond smile on his face.
"Yeah, my little brother, Kas. Though you guys would know him better as Oracle." Ashido and Kirishima both stilled at that, everyone recognizing the name of the hero that had been watching them when they ran off.
"Hold on, but he's older than you, isn't he?" Ojiro pointed out. "Don't know his age, but he looks like he's at least twenty."
"You know him?" Uraraka asked curiously, and he shrugged.
"We've uh, seen him before."
"Vigilante stuff?" Kyouka guessed, thinking to her own run-in with Iida, and he nodded.
"I'd say he's in his mid-twenties," Monoma commented. "Either way, he definitely seems older than you. You look like you're our age."
"That's because I was your age when I died," Mail replied with a shrug. "You do realize that people typically stop aging when they die, right?"
"You're really committed to this ghost bit, aren't you," Kyouka huffed, but she had an inkling of doubt. Even though she could hear him talk and could see him, she couldn't hear him breathing. Couldn't hear his heartbeat at all, hadn't since he appeared even though that was always one of the first things she'd lock onto with her Quirk-enhanced hearing. When your Quirk channeled your own heartbeat into sound, it made you sensitive to other people's heartbeats.
"That's because I am a ghost," he responded dryly.
"Then show us your obituary or something," Rogue challenged. He'd been glaring at Mail the whole time, and now pulled out his phone. "Give us your full name so we can look you up."
"Can't," Mail said, shaking his head with a frown. "For starters, don't actually know my full name. Hell, not even sure if Mail is my birth name, or what country I'm from. And there's no public records of my death anyway."
"How the hell is that possible?" Glitch questioned, and Mail's frown deepened, his gaze seeming to grow darker.
"The underworld is a dark place," he muttered, and shook his head. "Forget it, it's not important right now. Anyways, back to the story, so last week I decided to visit my brother while he was stationed watching two kids who pulled off a vigilante stunt. And you know something about surveillance duty? It's boring." He snorted. "Seriously. Anyone here ever been on a stakeout?"
Kyouka, Uraraka and Todoroki raised their hands, as did Monoma, Ojiro, Glitch, Rogue, and Shouji, getting some surprised looks from the others. "Field experience with father's sidekicks," Todoroki explained.
"Ryukyu had me and Tsu do one during our internship," Uraraka offered. "We spent most of the shift that day on a roof watching this other building that some villains were holed up in, we mostly just talked about school stuff until some other sidekicks came to take over."
"Lucky you," Kyouka snorted. "Had to do one during the internship with Death Arms where there was a rumored hostage situation. Only lasted two hours, but it was the most boring two hours of my life. The other sidekick just kept shushing me."
"We're vigilantes, it comes with the job," Monoma said, speaking for both him and Ojiro.
"I don't do formal stakeouts, but I use my Quirk to spy on people I think might be dangerous," Rogue said.
"Same," Glitch said with a nod.
"I'm not sure it fully counts, but I followed Todoroki a few times last week," Shouji said, shooting Rogue a pointed glance as he added, "You know. Before I was told everything."
The remark made Mime perk up. "Oh yeah, I guess I've technically done some too because I was with Parasyte that whole time. Jumping around the roofs was fun, but got kinda annoying after a while. And cold." Mail seemed largely amused by their comments, judging by his smirk.
"Splendid, so you all know how fascinating it is watching an apartment building from a café for hours on end," he said, and got a chorus of understanding and sympathetic groans. Yep, that would be boring. "And add onto that the fact that, again, I am a ghost. Do you realize how boring it can get being unable to interact with the physical plane? I basically spent the majority of my afterlife, alone, with absolutely nothing to do but watch people."
...Suddenly, Kyouka felt a lot more sympathetic for the guy. Assuming he was telling the truth about being a ghost, of course.
"And since I couldn't really talk to my brother, I decided to check on his charges," he continued. "And imagine my surprise when I found they had their bags packed and seemed to be waiting for something, which turned out to be an explosion outside. So of course I followed them, and now, here I am. Stranded in Odawara, wishing I could eat popcorn because let's face it, this is the most entertainment I've had in years."
"...I can't even argue that, because I totally ate popcorn yesterday during the group chat," Uraraka muttered sullenly.
"The part where Kaminari and Ashido came up with weird identities for us?" Kyouka guessed, and she nodded.
"Okay, this is fascinating and all, but that means you also heard about us, right?" Rogue asked flatly.
"You mean the fact Odawara is now home to a bunch of runaways from all over Japan?" Mail asked. "Yeah, no, I definitely know that."
"Great," Rogue grumbled, pressing his face into his hands while the other runaways all snapped to attention. "We're on fucking heroes' radars now. Wonderful. Knew we shouldn't have gotten caught up in this, but did anyone listen..."
"Calm down, I haven't told anyone about this," Mail huffed. "Can't exactly use a phone when I'm, you know, dead." He waved a hand through the ceiling for emphasis. "And also: I have no idea how to get back."
There was a brief pause after that. "...What," Kirishima said after a few seconds.
"In case it's not obvious, I'm not Japanese," Mail said flatly. "I have an elementary school level reading proficiency, and that's mainly because I literally spied on a couple of elementary school classes just to learn kanji. And beyond that, I know absolutely nothing about Japanese geography or how the trains work."
"Would a ghost need trains?" Mime muttered doubtfully, and Mail snorted.
"Technically no, but ghosts also can't freaking teleport. So easiest way to get around Japan without a map? Follow the train tracks. Except I never bothered learning about the train lines beyond what I'd need to visit Kas. Usually I just follow people I know so I don't lose track of them, or ask someone to show me a map before I head off. The second I decided to follow those two after they hopped in a car, it was a one-way trip for me."
He gave a lazy shrug, reclining in the air once more. "So yeah, for now I'm kinda stuck. Right now my options are to try to find my way back home, which I'd pull off eventually, especially since I don't need to sleep and all, but who knows how long that'd take... Or, stay here, and make sure I don't lose track of these kids before one of you actually gets kidnapped."
He shot a pointed look at Uraraka, who groaned in dismay. "Seriously, even you?"
"You admitted over the phone you ran away to join the Villain Alliance," Todoroki reminded her.
"Yeah, you definitely went 'plus ultra' with the recklessness," Kyouka snickered, making the other girl glare at her.
"I don't know you, but you're giving me minor flashbacks to all my idiot siblings," Mail said. "But yeah. In conclusion, I currently can't tell them unless I can convince one of you to call them."
"Nope." "Not happening." "Nuh-uh." "You're kidding, right?"
Several people responded immediately, their voices overlapping in a general chorus of no. Mail just smirked, waving at them all. "See?"
"You'll still have to go back eventually," Rogue pointed out coolly.
"Still not gonna rat out your network and make you guys move. Seriously," he sighed, crossing his arms with a frown. "This world's screwed up enough, and I know better than anyone that heroes can't magically fix everything. If Odawara is actually safe like you all believe, then stay here until they figure out the rest of the country. No reason for me to mention your network."
He turned his head to look at the area where Kyouka, Todoroki, Uraraka, and Ashido had clustered along with Kirishima. They all stiffened under his gaze, feeling an eerie chill at his focus. "The ones I'm mainly interested in right now are those guys."
"You can't tell them about Deku," Uraraka said. "Not now. Not—" She stopped short, frustration clear in her face as that Quirk no doubt silenced her again.
"I won't yet. You guys are right, most of them would just storm that place and ultimately cause more trouble. Especially to rescue someone like Eraserhead." A good chunk of the runaways perked up, unaware of that part of the mess. "But even aside from that, I have a more... personal interest here."
His gaze flickered to Shouji at that, making the other teen tense. Mail didn't elaborate though, turning back to look at the rest of them seriously. "But just so you know, Present Mic's looking for Eraserhead pretty hard. And on that note, Midoriya's on everyone's radars." That had them all freezing.
"What do you mean?" Ashido demanded sharply.
"Last year, someone at the agency where my sister works managed to see Midoriya while infiltrating one of the Alliance's bases," Mail informed them bluntly. "They managed to put together a forensic image of him, and I know for a fact it was shared with UA's former staff within the past month. Chances are Present Mic will recognize him if he's not disguised."
The atmosphere instantly became tense and heavy. "Jirou," Todoroki said, but Kyouka had already pulled out her phone to pull up the FacePage messenger.
Izuku didn't notice his phone buzz in his pocket, too caught up in chatting with the others. "So you have a poster from when he first started the show?" one of Anjou's classmates asked as they walked to the meet and greet, eyes wide with awe, and Izuku nodded bashfully. Since they were so close to the location he'd taken it out of his backpack and the tube, holding it loosely rolled up in his hands to avoid wrinkling or creasing it.
"Yeah. I've always been into Pro Heroes, so my mom got me a poster for his show right away because she knew I'd be an instant fan. I didn't even have to ask!" It was a fond memory that made him smile, still able to clearly recall his glee when his mom showed up with it.
"Wow, you beat Kuwata's record by a whole year then," someone else mused. "He found it after the show's first anniversary. Guess you've earned his spot as the biggest Mic fan, then."
The redhead in question looked horribly offended by this, crossing his arms with a huff. "Length of time means nothing," he grumbled.
"If we're going by length of time, none of us can be the biggest fan," Izuku commented. "There's a guy I know online who's been a fan since he was just doing podcasts."
"Wait, he had a podcast?" Kaminari piped up in surprise, and Izuku nodded.
"Yeah, when he was in high school. You can still find the episodes if you know where to look. So we would've all been babies when it came out." Anjou paused then, her eyebrows furrowing before her jaw went slack.
"...Holy shit, I think I beat you guys then," she said in shock, making everyone turn to her curiously. "My bio-bro says our dad used to listen to some hero student with me when I was a baby, and that the guy got a radio show. It had to be him." Everyone's jaws dropped at that, and Toga burst out laughing.
"That doesn't count!" Kuwata hollered. "You don't even remember that!"
"Yeah, your brother could be remembering wrong!" someone else added heatedly.
"Uh, how many other Pro Heroes have their own radio show?" Kaminari asked.
"It still doesn't count!" Kuwata whined, several of the others joining in while Toga just kept laughing. Izuku shot her a curious look but she just grinned, eyes glinting with amusement.
"Sorry, this is just super funny," she giggled, and then perked up as she looked away, her grin growing wider. "Hold on, isn't that his hair?" She pointed ahead and everyone turned to see a small crowd had gathered up ahead. Sure enough a golden cone of hair visibly protruded above the throngs of people there.
"Yeah, that's him," Izuku confirmed, finding his throat oddly tight. As if on cue the crowd parted just enough to reveal Present Mic. The Pro stood behind a table, animatedly talking to some fans as he bent over to sign autographs.
"Oh my gosh, it's actually him!" one of Anjou's classmates squealed, and the group ran ahead. Izuku lingered back, eyes locked on the man's face. This marked the first time he'd seen another teacher from UA besides Aizawa, and it seemed to have a heavier effect on him than he'd expected. Seeing Mic in person filled him with a rush of déjà vu and homesickness, and he swallowed thickly. A quick glance at Kaminari showed he looked similarly stricken, eyes wide as he stared at their teacher.
His eyes flitted over to Izuku, and they both gave little nods, a feeling of reassurance welling inside him. They weren't alone, and that made this a little more bearable. "Come on, let's go," Kaminari said.
"Right," Izuku agreed. They started to walk forward to join the crowd, but Izuku paused when he noticed Toga didn't follow. He glanced back at her and asked, "Yumi? You coming?"
"Nah, I'm gonna hang back here," Toga replied with a shrug. "I don't really wanna meet him that bad, I just came to keep an eye on you. You go have fun, Zuzu!" As she spoke Anjou stepped back as well to stand beside her.
"I'll stay with you then," she said. "I'm not a big Present Mic fan either, I only came out to meet Nine and Chargebolt. Not big on tight crowds like that, either, so... Yeah." She shrugged, but despite her explanation Izuku quickly figured out she was using the opening to try to tag Toga with her Quirk.
Toga didn't seem to have any objections, just grinning. "Ooh, then maybe we can have girl talk! I don't get to talk to many girls."
"I know that feeling," Anjou snorted. "Didn't have any female friends until high school, when Kirameki and Ashido basically mobbed me." As they talked Kaminari jabbed Izuku's arm to get his attention.
"Come on dude, let's go," he said, and Izuku swallowed as he nodded.
"Right." They steeled themselves as they turned back, marching forward to join the line. Present Mic paid them little attention, cheerfully greeting all his "listeners" in a familiar tone that made Izuku's heart lurch with wistfulness. He wanted to go home, to see his Present Mic. It took a good deal of self-control not to scrunch up the poster in his hands as he tried to focus on talking to some of the other fans while waiting.
Part of him felt guilty he couldn't even try to sneak Mic any sort of assurance that Aizawa-sensei was okay. He'd known the two had to be relatively close for Aizawa to use his suggestion for his hero name, but coming to this world had made it even clearer. Izuku could see it in how eager his teacher's counterpart had been to listen to the show even as he tried to hide it. He could hear it when Mic signed off with a farewell for his "favorite listener" every time.
While he couldn't risk bringing in any heroes right now, Izuku wished he could at least tell Mic Aizawa-sensei was okay somehow. He'd only decided to attend Mic's meet and greet an hour ago though, and getting down everything about the Alliance and Aiko to deliver to everyone else took precedence. He simply didn't have time to figure out a way to deliver a message in a way that guaranteed Mic wouldn't try to detain him right away, especially not with a crowd like this.
All he could do was get the autograph, and go back.
The inability to do anything even now grated on his nerves, but he pushed it aside and focused as he got ever-closer to his teacher. Mic turned to look at him with a grin as he finished another autograph, gesturing for him to come over. "Yo, little listener in the hat! Looks like you brought something for me to sign, huh?"
"Y-yeah." Izuku bobbed his head to step forward, shyly unfolding the poster. Mic gave a low whistle as he saw it, standing a bit straighter.
"Yo, is that a first-run edition of the original 'PYHU' poster?" he asked eagerly. "Wow, you would've been real small when you got it!"
"Y-yeah, my mom got it for me. I've been a fan for years." Izuku smiled a bit more widely as he placed it on the table, Mic leaning over to inspect it. The two women standing him stepped closer to look at it curiously. Izuku didn't recognize them, but he figured they worked for the radio station.
"Huh, so that's what those look like," one of them mused, and Mic turned to her with an offended gasp.
"Really, Nishiki? You've worked at the station for what, three years now, and you've never seen one of these?"
"Nope," she confirmed blithely while the other woman leaned over, gingerly poking and running a finger down the poster.
"You take good care of it, huh?" she asked. "Feels super smooth. Last poster Mic signed didn't look nearly this good, it had a dozen different folds in it."
"Yeah, it looked like a newspaper," Mic joked, signing it with a flourish. While watching him, it occurred to Izuku he hadn't gotten his copy back home signed despite seeing the man nearly every day at UA. Maybe he'd fix that when he got back. "What's your name? I wanna make this one personal!"
"Oh, it's Izuku," Izuku replied automatically, and then froze and internally screamed. Did he SERIOUSLY just use his real name!? He'd been so careful up until now, even came up with a pseudonym on the spot, but the second someone asked his name he just gave it? What was wrong with him?
Only because he was watching Mic so closely did he notice the man's hand briefly still, pausing not even for a fraction of a second before resuming its motions to sign his name. "Alright, got it!" he said, glancing up at Izuku with a grin. Izuku couldn't see his eyes behind the glasses, but he felt like the man was eying him more critically now. It felt crazy, because why would Mic recognize him? As far as Izuku knew his counterpart shouldn't be on any Pro Heroes' radars—
Except he was, he realized abruptly. The letter his counterpart wrote mentioned his name got leaked, and that he'd also met another hero at some point during an episode. It was the second part that made him really realize how badly he probably just messed up. Even with his scarf covering most of his mouth, he knew some of his hair still poked out beneath his hat, and he also knew there couldn't be too many green-eyed teens named Izuku running around.
"Thank you," he said, trying not to let his panic show as he retrieved the poster and loosely rolled it back up. Get away. He had to get away, now, before Mic did—did something. He was careful not to squeeze the poster or anything as he quickly bowed. "It was an honor to meet you, sir!"
"Hey now, I'm the one who should be honored!" Mic replied genially. "Not every day I get to meet a long-time fan like you!" He leaned forward to stage-whisper conspiratorially, "Hey, maybe you can stick around a bit and we can talk more after the signing?"
If Izuku had any doubts Mic had recognized him, they were gone now. He had to try not to react too visibly beyond a surprised flinch, eyes going wide. "R-really? Oh my gosh, I'd love to, b-but..."
At that moment like an angel from above Kaminari cut in. "Hey dude, I think your friend's waving at you," he said, and Izuku turned to see Toga jumping and waving her arms eagerly. Relief crashed into Izuku almost instantly at the easy excuse presented to him, saving him from coming up with one.
"Oh, yeah, guess she is," he said, and turned back to Mic with an apologetic look. "Sorry sir, I'd really love to hang out more, but I promised to go shopping with her."
"It's cool, it's cool," Mic dismissed with a wave. "I get it, got other stuff to do. Hope I'll see ya around later, little listener! And maybe call in sometime, ya dig?"
"Yeah, maybe," Izuku replied with a nod. "Thank you again!" He hurried off to join Toga, speed-walking past her while she turned to bounce along after him. Anjou had put some obvious distance between them, pretending not to know the excited jumping girl, and Izuku didn't dare look her way.
"Took you long enough!" Toga said. "Aren't you gonna put that poster in the tube? And why are you just walking away, anyway? What about your friends?"
"We need to go," Izuku replied lowly. "I think he recognized me." The remark had Toga pausing, her mouth pulling into a frown.
"Well that's no good. You sure?"
"Pretty sure." Mic wouldn't have invited him to hang around afterwards if he was a random fan. He pointedly turned a corner so they'd be out of the hero's sight, and handed the poster to her so he could open his backpack to retrieve the tube while he kept walking. "Can you text Giri to pick us up?"
"Already on it," Toga replied, using her free hand to pull out her phone. "Also, we are not telling Giri or anyone else about him knowing you yet." The remark had Izuku nearly stumbling and almost dropping the now-open tube.
"Wait, what?" he blurted, and Toga shrugged as she helpfully held out the still rolled up poster to slide it inside.
"If Giri knows, he'll tell Tomu. And then Tomu will go into overprotective big brother mode and put you on lockdown!" She shot him a pointed look as she asked, "Do you want to be on lockdown?"
Izuku flinched at the thought and quickly shook his head. "No, not at all!" If he was put on lockdown like his counterpart described in journals, he wouldn't be able to save anyone!
"Good, because that'd just be boring." She turned back to focus her attention on her phone. "Come on, let's go to that one alley Giri dropped us off at before those heroes try to follow you." Izuku nodded, shoving the cap onto the tube, and the two hurried off.
He really hoped this wouldn't come back to bite them later, but knowing his luck, it would.
I really loved seeing how freaked out everyone was at the end of last chapter, almost makes this feel anticlimatic. I considered having a villain attack or something happen, but at this point that's so common in this story it felt cheap, and having Izuku confronted or detained by Mic would derail all my other plans. But you know this isn't over just because Izuku got away...
Question for next time: what do you think Toga imagines "girl talk" is like?