Chapter 72
.::Letter 3: The Lettering::.
Looking at his newly autographed 'Put Your Hands Up! Radio' poster in the privacy of his bedroom, Izuku felt a hint of fanboyish pride. Pride, and also mild horror.
'Keep on rocking, Izuku!' The familiar kanji with his actual given name made him want to groan. He couldn't believe he'd actually told Present Mic his name after being so careful all this time! It had just been automatic. Something about talking to another one of his teachers, with the Kaminari from his world at his side, had just made Izuku feel safe and familiar for a brief second.
And that brief second may have cost him dearly, because Mic definitely recognized him. Had things gone differently, he could have been taken into custody at that moment, and who knew what could happen then? Or if Toga hadn't insisted against telling Kurogiri like he originally thought they should do. With how overprotective Shigaraki could be, Izuku would probably lose any right to go anywhere unsupervised ever again, which might honestly be even worse than the first alternative.
All in all, it had been a giant gamble that had nearly ended in disaster. Izuku was very lucky it hadn't gone sideways and ended with him back at base safe and sound.
After dropping off the poster Izuku had taken his time before checking his phone, mainly to delay thinking about his close call. He delivered lunch to Aizawa and updated him on the Quirk situation ("It's all good, can't give details but we found a workaround"), and checked on Bakugou and Shinsou (they were tied in Mario Kart, and Seiko was still there). He returned to his bedroom an hour later, which is when he finally read the FacePage conversation about a ghost warning them about Present Mic.
Izuku turned away from the poster to check the messages again, still kind of in disbelief at the whole thing. By the time he found it Kaminari had gotten back to the others and gotten caught up in conversation with them, so Anjou had taken over sending updates to Izuku. The guy's name seemed to be 'Mairu' (she said it was probably written "Mile" in English), and he seemed to be sticking to the ghost story.
'So they finally made him leave and Kaitou is now playing twenty questions with him in a park,' read her latest text. 'Kaitou is apparently in 1-B in your world. Don't want to say his actual name, but everyone seems surprised he's nice in this world and not a pompous stuck-up jerk if that helps?'
Monoma. Definitely Monoma. 'Blond guy?'
'Yep. Can't relay much more than that, security stuff. He did have some interesting info that Space should be able to relay even with that censoring thing. But you like Quirks, got any ideas on this?'
He'd been thinking it over ever since he first saw the word "ghost," so he just typed out his thoughts. 'It could be a lot of things. It sounds like he can float and turn invisible, so it could be mimicking ghost stuff. Or it could be something else. But I don't think I've heard of a Quirk that shows up after death? Or combats it?'
Izuku paused right after sending the last message, suddenly remembering something, and quickly amended that statement. 'Wait, there's a guy in my world with a healing Quirk that can still work after he dies, so he's revived from some fatal injuries. But it doesn't make him a ghost.'
Nearly a full minute passed with Anjou periodically typing only to stop, the bubble with three dots popping in and out of existence. 'Are you serious?' she finally sent.
'Yeah, though I don't know much about it. I only heard about it once from someone who knew the guy and I was in my last year of elementary school, so it could have been a joke to mess with me? But no ghost Quirks.'
'I have questions.' Izuku started to type a reply when he heard a knock on his door, making him jolt in his seat.
'I guess I someone here bye'
He tacked on the last bit and quickly exited the messenger before the door opened, turning to see Shigaraki peek inside. "Yo, Izuku."
"Hey Tomura-nii," Izuku greeted as he put down his phone. Not for the first time, he felt amazed at how calm he felt around the villain, though for different reasons today. Even yesterday seeing Shigaraki probably would have sent him into another panicked internal screaming fit, but today it felt fine. The disorientation from whatever happened on Saturday seemed to have worn off for the most part, much to his relief.
"Heard from Kurogiri you got an autograph from that Present Mic guy," Shigaraki commented, and his wording gave Izuku pause.
"Wait, didn't Toga talk to you about it before we left?"
"She asked Kurogiri, not me," Shigaraki scoffed. "I found out when she showed off selfies with her 'new bestie' in the bar."
"She let Toga take pictures of her?" Izuku asked in surprise. Anjou seemed like she'd be too paranoid to let that happen, especially since knew Toga was a villain.
"The other girl was covering her face in all of them," Shigaraki scoffed, rolling his eyes. "She didn't look too happy about it, pretty sure she was only in them because Toga had an arm around her." Well, it sounded like Anjou had probably managed to tag her at least. "Anyways, so... You still like Present Mic, huh?"
The question came out slightly awkward, and for some reason Izuku felt alarm bells go off. "Are you thinking of kidnapping him like Eraserhead?" he asked without thinking.
"...No." The pause made Izuku suddenly feel very tired, and maybe it showed on his face because Shigaraki grumbled, "Kurogiri and Aiko already told me that humans can't be pets and that it's traumatizing, so I won't."
"Please don't get any souvenirs from him either," Izuku told him flatly. He'd found some references in older journals about Shigaraki gifting him some stuff from defeated heroes he knew Izuku liked. Needless to say, just reading about it felt a bit traumatizing.
"Fine," Shigaraki huffed. "Then play a game with me."
The sudden topic changed caught Izuku off-guard. "What?"
"It's been forever since we last played something with just the two of us," Shigaraki grumbled. "We've only been doing party games lately. I don't want to play with your party, and I'm bored of all the single-player ones. I only want one player two right now." He looked away as he muttered, and... was he pouting? The expression was just so weird on him.
Something about the villain's expression made Izuku huff a small sigh as he smiled. "Alright, sure. You can pick the game since it's been so long."
"You'll regret that," Shigaraki quipped as they walked out. Izuku had a feeling he would, but he didn't mind. While he still felt a little on edge around Shigaraki, somehow this felt oddly nice. Maybe his counterpart's memories really were still tied to his subconscious and influencing him, just a little.
And right now, that didn't feel like such a bad thing.
The mood in the kitchen felt a bit more somber now, no one really feeling particularly chatty. A few minutes had passed since Mail and the other new arrivals had left, leaving the dimension jumpers, Rogue, Shouji, Hatsume and Eijirou. They didn't say much as they waited, mostly just thinking.
Eijirou felt a bit lost after listening to Mail's explanation. It was clear from the conversation that to him, the concept of multiple worlds existing wasn't just possible, but normal. Porter was younger than him, sure, but Mail had spent more years hearing about all these other worlds than not. To him, it was just... a thing. A basic fact of life (or, afterlife?). Even if he knew nothing about Class 1-A, he had no problems believing it.
However, once he elaborated on Porter's Quirk, it became clear that it most likely wasn't responsible for this mess.
"It has two parts that generally hold true across all instances," he'd told them. "The first part, and the one we grew up with, is the dreams. When he touches someone, he can basically see what's happening to your counterparts in every dimension at once, ranging from that moment back to the last time they woke up. It's like a split-second omniscience, and it can be broken. But once he uses his Quirk, he forgets everything he saw. All that remains is whatever memory he chooses to share in the dream, which he'll also see next time he goes to sleep.
"The memory in the dream is a two-way thing. This world's Shouji saw that amusing moment with All Might, and that world's Shouji saw what you were doing at the same moment. With that said, he can't share memories where he's directly present on either end, and he can only do one memory per waking period. And no, we didn't test how naps play into it or anything like that. Wasn't a good environment for rigorous testing.
"Which brings me to the next point: the three adult Porters we've met. They said they can send people to other worlds, but only one per day. One managed to train or change it to a point where Porter didn't count as part of that limit, but the other two could only do it with himself or another person. And that leads to the biggest limits: he transports the whole person, not just their bodies, and he can't send people, including himself, to a world where another version of that person currently exists."
He'd looked them square in the eye then, voice flat. "You guys are in your counterparts' bodies, not your own. So either they're actually dead and his Quirk works a little differently, or it's someone else's Quirk."
The mood had plummeted pretty fast after that, and Eijirou couldn't blame the others for being disappointed. It had to be disheartening to realize that the guy Shouji mentioned, their first and only solid lead to how this whole thing even happened, probably had nothing to do with it. Even Eijirou felt pretty upset, it felt like they'd hit the motherload only to suddenly be flung back to square one.
Mail did mention that sometimes Quirks could differ across the many worlds, but Porter's Quirk typically seemed to follow the same rules in all worlds as a default. It could have evolved or changed differently in some worlds, but he'd made it clear they shouldn't get their hopes up. Even if one existed like that, Mail couldn't think of a motive for him to use it on a bunch of UA students since their lives simply wouldn't intersect.
At least it hadn't ended as a total loss, as Mail pointed out it'd be worth looking for him anyway. "Any version of Porter would know more about this stuff than we would," he'd explained. "There's no better expert than him, and one of the ones we met did mention meeting another person with a multiverse Quirk. At the very least, he might be able to help you send messages to your world if he can figure out which one it is."
So in short, Porter probably wasn't the culprit, but he was still the best lead to find out what happened, and maybe get some help from their world. Which, was a wild thought, interdimensional messaging? Still, this had to be a blow to everyone's motivation.
As someone sighed for the umpteenth time, Rogue seemed to reach the end of his patience. He pressed a hand to one eye in apparent exasperation before removing it and speaking up. "Okay, enough sulking. I get you guys are disappointed, but half of you literally just learned this guy existed today. And it's not like the lead's a total bust."
Eijirou jumped on the opening to try to lift the mood, just as eager to dispel it as the rest. "Yeah, he's right! Like Mail said, this Porter guy would still know more about this stuff than anyone else. I mean, not like there's any other experts we can find on this stuff, right?"
"Yeah, guess you got a point," Jirou conceded with a sigh. "Just, kinda sucks to get our hopes up like that, you know?"
"We still don't even know what he looks like," Uraraka added in a grumble. "I mean, 'brown-haired foreign man that might have pierced ears' doesn't really stand out much."
"Sorry I can't give a more distinct description," Shouji remarked dryly. "If I see him again, I'll pay closer attention to how his skin looks so I can try to look up the exact shade of 'caucasian' he is."
Uraraka winced a bit at the sarcastic remark, as did Eijirou and a few of the others. "Sorry, didn't mean to sound like I was blaming you."
"Yeah, it just sucks he looks so plain," Ashido said with a pout. "We're just frustrated at everything, not you!"
"It's fine, I think we're all stressed," Shouji said, shoulders heaving as he sighed.
"Anyways, we can't do anything about that right now, but there's still other stuff you can do," Rogue continued. "Nettmegg just confirmed that Glitch and Kaitou have the ghost holed up at a park, and he's unlikely to break off to zoom back here. So might as well read those letters now."
Everyone perked up at that, and Eijirou wondered if Anjou did that sense-hijacking thing Kaminari mentioned since the older teen hadn't taken out his phone. He thought the others looked pretty curious too, but Kaminari perked up and pulled out several folded papers from his coat pocket.
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about these!" he exclaimed. "I know we never finished that original one from Midoriya, but I'm really curious about the new one, so I kinda want to start with it. Is that cool?"
"It'll have more details anyway," Uraraka agreed with a firm nod. "The first one is just basic background information, and you really need to hear what the other letter says." That seemed to make up everyone else's minds.
"Okay, then who wants the honors of reading it out loud?" Kaminari asked, looking for volunteers, and Jirou started to step forward when Uraraka spoke up.
"Um, could Kirishima or Shouji read it?" she asked, catching everyone by surprise. "It's just, when I learned some of that stuff, I couldn't keep a cool head. So I think it'd be better for one of them to read it since they're not as connected to it."
"It's that bad?" Jirou asked, and the brunette nodded with a frown.
"Yeah, it is." That made the room grow more tense, everyone exchanging quiet looks. Eijirou felt a heavy pang of dread at what most be in those papers to make her suggest that, looking at them warily, but then took a deep breath.
"I'll do it," he volunteered. He couldn't be a coward forever, and reading a letter was a small step towards improving himself. Plus Ultra.
He walked over to take the papers from Kaminari while Rogue turned to Shouji. "Remember, no repeating any of this to any of the others," he warned him, and the other boy nodded while Eijirou looked at the first page. He blinked as he saw it how it started, instantly reminded of Uraraka's brief attempt to read the original letter.
"Huh, this is kinda funny," he commented, and then read out loud, "Dear everyone. Hi, this is Izuku."
Dear everyone,
Hi, this is Izuku. You already knew that I guess, but whatever, I don't have time to scrap and rewrite this constantly so I won't let myself start now. There's a lot to go over, so I'll try to get straight to it. Todoroki, burn this letter when you're done.
Small stuff first. You guys might have figured it out from talking to Uraraka, but along with Shigaraki and Kurogiri, the Alliance members include Toga, Mr. Compress, Twice, Magne, and Mustard. If you don't remember Mustard, he was the kid who made that toxic gas at the training camp. He's around our age, and I don't know much else about him. There's another high-ranking member named Slycer who I don't interact with much, but my notebooks say his Quirk makes his body cut stuff.
There's also a ton of grunts, but no signs of Spinner or Dabi. Also nothing about Stain, but I don't think he was actually a member in our world either. And on that note, I haven't seen anything about the Noumu. I don't think they exist in this world? I think All For One, the guy from Kamino, had a hand in making them, and I'm pretty sure he's actually dead this time or the letter probably would've mentioned that.
I guess we also have multiple bases, based on that letter, but the one we're at now is in Nabu. Could've put that earlier, but I thought it might be too risky to have that in the second paragraph in case anyone tried to glance at this so. I forget the exact address, but look up 'old Quirk research lab Nabu' and I think you'll find it pretty fast.
And Seiko is here too. I don't know what she does or why she's here, and I'm starting to think the other me doesn't really know either based on some of the journal entries? But I basically told you everything I know about her anyway, nothing new to add to that. She's just really creepy sometimes.
I already said this on the call, but Kacchan and Shinsou are here as prisoners, and Shigaraki wants me to add them to my 'party.' I'm keeping them up to date on everything we're up to and told them about you guys, but not the dimension jumping bit for obvious reasons. And it looks like we'll be doing tutoring sessions with Aizawa-sensei now every other day? It's... going to be weird.
And that's all the small stuff. Onto the most important part.
There's a woman named Aiko. I've never seen her in our world, and she doesn't live in the base. I don't think she's a full-time member, but she's definitely a villain and everyone seems to respect her a lot. She lives in an empty apartment building near this area where Kurogiri usually warps me when I don't have a specific place to go. I actually have another room there, so I visit her a lot. She's actually the person who Uraraka stayed with while she was here in Nabu, and was the only person who knows about her.
Honestly, Uraraka probably knows more about her than I do. Aiko's the one person not mentioned anywhere: not my notebooks, my journals, no where. Literally the only place it's written down is that letter for when I have episodes, and. Hold on. I used hiragana in the letter, but just now I wrote it in kanji? So it's spelled with the kanji for 'indigo' instead of 'love'? I guess it's the subconscious thing again? But yeah, I didn't really know anything about her until she showed up one day and still don't know what she really does.
Actually I know one thing. She has a chemistry lab in the basement here, she uses it to make stuff to counter Quirks. And also make poisons I think. And other stuff. She gave us a tour. Quirk chemistry is terrifying. That's all I'll say. But the Alliance doesn't really use any that stuff, and no one really goes there. I don't think many people even know she has a lab down there? It's off-limits to everyone.
Also, we're pretty sure Dabi knows her. We haven't confirmed it directly, but he texted Uraraka to be careful about chemistry. And he also told her the Alliance was in Nabu because of a friend he said wasn't a member, but still connected to them, so... I don't think they're in regular contact though, and Jirou says Uraraka can still say his name so I really don't think he's involved with the Alliance, Todoroki!
Anyways, even though I know almost nothing about her we're really close (well, her and this world's me). The way she talks, I think she's basically like my older sister, kind of? We're close enough she could tell I was 'having an episode' the first time we met, and I barely even said anything! She promised not to tell anyone and I don't think she will, so I'm safe on that end, but she DOES know about it. Honestly I'm lucky she doesn't live here, I think she'd pick up that I'm planning something.
It's pretty obvious she cares about me, so I'm not worried about her hurting me or anything like that if she figures it out. I'm worried about everyone else.
Aiko HAS to be the one who did that to Uraraka. I think she must have some kind of compulsion Quirk. On the day the Alliance kidnapped Aizawa-sensei, Kurogiri warped me to her apartment and I almost had a panic attack but she did something to stop it so I was suddenly all calm. I don't know the specifics of her Quirk though, we've never talked about it?
I know it's not a flashy or physical Quirk, but I don't think she needs one. She has that chemistry stuff, but I'm ALSO pretty sure she broke Shigaraki's hand, and she's still alive. So, either he didn't try to kill her for doing that, or he did and he failed. And either way, I think you guys get how dangerous that makes her.
But that's not my biggest concern. I wanted to get all that out of the way first because I don't think you'll be able to focus on anything else after this next part.
I don't know the details, but the first time I met her, she was wearing Aizawa-sensei's goggles. I don't know how or when she got them, but it had to be something bad because, well, she's a villain. I actually thought he might be dead for a while? I'd been trying to keep her from finding out Aizawa-sensei was here, but Toga told her.
On Sunday she visited him and sent him into a panic attack, I think? I don't know. I wasn't there for most of it, but I don't think she was using her Quirk to mess with his emotions. Just her BEING there was enough to trigger something. All she did was sit there, but he was just totally shutting down and freaked out when I arrived. Guys, I've never seen him act that scared before, not even at USJ or Overhaul's base.
I don't know what happened between them in the past, but I think he has PTSD from it. When she left it was like he just—gave up. The last time I saw him on Saturday, he was hostile and I ended up having that weird white-out I mentioned, but after she left he was basically just apologizing over and over, and seemed terrified of making me mad? He wouldn't tell me how they met, but he seemed scared of how I'd react to him refusing and started to freak out again. He was just so anxious, he just felt desperate.
He's been really off and distant ever since then. He only started to act kinda normal again today and try to get information again when I mentioned I had some online friends. All the other times made me want to cry because he's treating me like an enemy, but this time felt like a relief.
But right now, I think he still doesn't really expect to get out of here on his own. On Saturday night we were fighting over why I didn't tell the police or Pro Heroes if I thought all of this was wrong, but on Sunday... He just said I was right. I don't know what Aiko did to him before, but just knowing she's here, Aizawa-sensei seems convinced that it's too dangerous even for other Pro Heroes.
I'm sorry. I wish I could tell you more. I'm going to try to ask Aiko about how they know each other later. I think the disorientation from Saturday is wearing off so I think I should be able to meet her now without setting off any alarm bells. But right now, I think Aiko is honestly the biggest risk of all. I don't know if she'll try to visit Aizawa-sensei again or when, but we NEED to get him out of here as soon as possible.
That's all I have to say. I hope I got down everything important. Oh, also! I know Uraraka can't tell you guys stuff or point at maps, but she can probably just... take someone to Nabu? So Ashido or Todoroki or both could just follow her, since they're already runaways, and we can meet up there at some point? So we can talk more then.
Anyways, don't have anything else to say right now. Again, burn this letter.
Bye everyone, I hope to see some of you guys soon!
There was a tense silence when Kirishima finished reading the letter. The others refrained from comments for the most part, making small little off-hand remarks up until he reached the part about Aiko wearing Aizawa's goggles. The dimension jumpers had changed instantly at that, faces briefly screwing up with horror before shifting to hard glares. Their dark looks hadn't dissipated since then, their glares getting heavier with each word.
Now, the room was filled with a simmering sense of protective rage, the air thick and heavy with it. Nakamura Shizuo considered himself pretty cool-headed under pressure, choosing the moniker "Rogue" for more than just his ability to sneak around, but even he felt a bit intimidated by it. He didn't blame Kirishima for crowding closer to Shouji when he finished. Only Hatsume seemed unbothered by the tense atmosphere, focused on her work.
Either way, the dimension jumpers looked ready to commit murder, and Shizuo didn't blame them. He may not know Aizawa, but he could relate to that instinctive anger all too well. One look at their expressions told him the man wasn't just a teacher to them, but family. Even if this might not be their Aizawa, Shizuo would be just as angry in their places if any of the runaways were in a similar position.
"So this Aiko is the biggest enemy," Ashido finally said, unusually dark and serious, and everyone nodded.
"I can't imagine what she must've done to make Aizawa freak out," Jirou growled. "I can't even imagine him looking scared."
"I know, right?" Kaminari agreed. "He totally didn't flinch when he saw all those villains at USJ!"
"If she knows Dabi, does she know me?" Todoroki wondered with a frown. This time the others didn't try to respond like the last time he'd pondered Dabi, all of them just exchanging heavy frowns. It seemed they couldn't reassure him this time. They didn't know the relationship between Aiko and Dabi, let alone Aiko and Todoroki, so they couldn't just write off his question this time and reassure him he wasn't a villain.
Shizuo quietly sighed to himself and decided to speak up, if only because he was sick of all the tense silences. Just because his Quirk made him silent didn't mean he liked silence. "Well, it doesn't sound like they work together," he pointed out. "If they did, that Dabi guy would have probably recognized Midoriya's name when Uraraka mentioned him."
"Yeah!" Kirishima agreed quickly, obviously just as tired of the tension. "And plus, the guy was willing to ask Hawks to help look for you. It feels like—I don't know. I mean, would he work with villains and a hero? Just. It just feels like it would've come up by now, y'know?" He glanced at Uraraka as he added, "Uraraka, did she ever... mention..."
He trailed off as he noticed the look on Uraraka's face, everyone's attention now focused on her. The brunette had been silent this whole time and stood with an almost haunted look, eyes wide and mouth pressed into a firm line as she looked down. Something about it chilled Shizuo, realizing just what must be causing that look.
"The letter's missing something, isn't it," he said, not bothering to phrase it as a question. She could only nod, mouth pressed in a line so tight it looked almost painful, and they knew without asking she wouldn't be able to tell them what.
I originally titled this "One More Letter" but then I saw 67 had "Another Letter Reading" for the title. What is with this story and letters?
Not much else to say today. The big manga chapter dropped yesterday, and uh... It's not happy. I've said this before, but this time I will be genuinely stunned if anyone manages to avoid it entirely until the anime airs. The wiki has already updated to reflect what happened, so... yeah. There's now a channel on the Ignite discord server just for anime-only fans who want to vent. Server's link is the usual Discord string with /Eu7rnQxANr!
Question for next time: if you could ask any of the OCs one question, what would it be?