Chapter 73

.::Desperate Determination::.

One hour, forty-three minutes.

It took one hour and forty-three minutes after Midoriya Izuku left for Hizashi to wrap up the meet and greet. He spent another fifteen minutes urgently informing all the relevant parties about the encounter, and another hour after that to get the necessary permissions to access security footage. By that time it was far too late to find the boy and Hizashi knew he was long gone, but he was a man on a mission.

"Mic, your eyes are gonna burn out," Oracle commented. They sat in a conference room at the local police station, reviewing local security footage on police-owned computers for the past two hours. (That made a total of five hours since he saw Midoriya Izuku, five hours since the kid slipped out of his reach.) "Seriously, every time I look over your face is practically touching the screen. That's not healthy."

"I don't care," Hizashi snapped, gaze locked on the monitor. The footage from this camera was on the grainier end of the spectrum, lacking color so he had to look even harder. "I've found that kid more than you have."

"Yes, a total of two times as opposed to my one," Oracle deadpanned, and Hizashi heard his chair roll back and footsteps stroll over. "Seriously Mic, I get you want to find this kid, but we've reached a dead end. We managed to track him through three cameras. Four if we count the meet and greet."

"Yeah, only three, the earliest one ten minutes before we met!" Hizashi growled, still focused on the video. He felt like those three clips were firmly burned into his memory despite only viewing them today. One had Midoriya as part of a crowd of people walking down a street past a high-end clothing store's outdoor camera. The second showed the group on another street, some of the teens eagerly conversing with Midoriya about something.

The third had him and that orange-haired girl walking down a different street, alone, and cutting through an alley by a convenience store. No cameras were present on the other side, and he had yet to find any more footage after that point.

His eyes did feel like they were starting to burn, but he didn't care. He closed out of this camera as the timestamp passed the point where Midoriya could have passed that point while en route to meeting that group of teens. A casual query about the size of the group revealed they'd all met at a Wacdonald's, but that street didn't have any working cameras. He'd found other footage with various members of that group heading there, but none of Midoriya and that girl.

As he opened another camera's footage Oracle sighed behind him. "Mic, that's enough. Seriously."

"He didn't appear out of no where!" Hizashi grumbled.

"Or he did, because teleportation Quirks are a thing," Oracle countered sharply, and that made Hizashi still, fingers curling tight around the computer mouse. A moment of silence passed before the other hero grabbed his chair and yanked it back, making Hizashi yelp in surprise as he was dragged away. By the time he dug his heels into the floor to stop the chair's rapid departure Oracle had leaned forward to close the video.

"Hey!" Hizashi snapped irritably, but Oracle leveled him with a dark look.

"Stand down, Present Mic," he ordered in harsh English. Hizashi felt his jaw clench in irritation but remained silent, letting the younger man continue. "There's already evidence that the Villain Alliance has a warp Quirk on its side given how fast they come and go before and after planned attacks. All current intel suggests that they're also highly protective over Midoriya Izuku. Therefore, it's only normal that they would take precautions to make sure he couldn't be tracked."

"For a spontaneous meet and greet though?" Hizashi argued. "We only decided to do that today!"

"Yeah, so your manager would go along with you stopping by Kamino to help check out Ashido and Kirishima's apartments. Which we skipped out on." The reminder had his jaw clenching shut once more, glaring at the younger man.

The whole reason he came out was to try to see if they could find anything hinting at where Ashido and Kirishima could be. As it stood, those two were the only leads they had, thin as they were. Ashido had been in contact with Uraraka, and Uraraka had run away after meeting Midoriya. And now, Shouta was in the custody of the Alliance. It was such a small lead, but that was all she could get.

And the worst part of it all was that they were so close. Lady of the Night had been there. Public events still posed a risk for attacks, so she'd tagged along to the meet and greet posing as a radio station employee as extra security before going to the kids' apartments. With her psychometry, she'd taken to trying to touch every piece of memorabilia fans brought for him to sign.

She'd touched the poster Midoriya had brought, and she got nothing they could use. The kid didn't regularly touch it or anything, it just hung on the wall all the time, so it didn't pick up his emotions or any useful information like a location. All she got were impressions of when he first got it, of a woman with dark green hair and childish excitement and babbling.

That, and guilt.

Guilt that rang very fresh with glimpses of Shouta's face mixed in.

Knowing that Midoriya had thought of Shouta while holding the poster told Hizashi he knew. He knew Hizashi was looking for him. Lady hadn't detected as much, but that had to be why he'd felt guilt. Hizashi was sure he knew, and he'd said nothing. Just got an autograph as if it were perfectly normal.

Oracle held up a hand before Hizashi could speak. "Yeah, I know this feels like a more solid lead and it's frustrating he got away. But even if we find the origin point of where they teleported, it won't tell us where the Alliance is." He paused and added, "And no, I really don't think they've killed him. What Rita says about it being wasted energy to not just kill him on the spot stands." He then pinched his eyebrows and grumbled, "I meant Saki. Don't repeat that name."

Then he stilled, and pulled his hand away to glare at Hizashi. "Fuck you," he snarled in English, and spun on his heel to stalk back to his assigned computer while Hizashi basked in his success. Having one-sided conversations could get annoying as hell, so he felt pleased that at least one of his planned comebacks succeeded in riling the teal-haired man.

Still, he quickly got serious when Oracle continued. "Back to business, I have no idea who that orange-haired girl is. I already took a screenshot with a clear look at her face and forwarded it to Saki, and she'll take care of getting it checked out. I'm not getting my hopes up though, willing to bet it's some kind of disguise since she didn't even wear a hat."

"Yeah, I'd be surprised too," Hizashi admitted reluctantly with a sigh. Given how she barely tried to conceal herself while Midoriya had layered up with a scarf and hat, she must be pretty confident they'd find nothing on her. It could just be cockiness, but like Oracle said, he wouldn't get up his hopes.

Another thought came to him, and Oracle beat him to the punch before he could ask. "No, I don't know anything about that blondie. Could know him, but could also just be part of that crowd since he was in those other clips. I think it's normal for some people to kinda gravitate towards other people, and pick them as 'new friend for the day' and never speak again." Hizashi arched his eyebrows, and Oracle swiveled his chair to face him with a deadpan expression. "I didn't exactly have a normal childhood. I am not a good judge of this stuff."

"So looking into him is probably a bust too, huh," Hizashi muttered sullenly, and hey, at least Oracle let him actually gripe this time. "Come on, there's gotta be something."

"Sorry, this is all mostly a bunch of dead ends," Oracle responded with a shrug as he turned back. He pulled up a screencap of the group. "Look, most of that crowd? Students at Sakakura. Based on your own testimony after making small talk, the rest are people they know online who came just to see you. Midoriya is definitely in that group. And we can't exactly ask anyone if they knew Midoriya without making them suspicious. Worst case scenario, whoever he knows mentions the questioning to him, and he goes dark. Deletes everything."

"So it's not worth pursuing," Hizashi sighed. Oracle just remained silent, clicking around the screenshots before pausing on one.

"Actually, there's one interesting detail," he commented. "That blond kid you mentioned seems to know Anjou Ran." Hizashi sat a bit straighter at that, and didn't have to voice his confusion before Oracle explained, "That's one of the girls that knew Ashido. I noticed her in some of the shots, but it doesn't seem like she came up to you and just hung back. But they walked together to and from the event."

He scooted his chair aside to give Hizashi an unimpeded view of the image on the screen. It was a screencap of that blond boy and a teal-haired girl, walking down a street alone. "No, I don't know when or where they met up," Oracle answered his unspoken question with an eyeroll. "There aren't any working cameras by her apartment building, and I'm not in the mood to hunt down video of that blond kid before they met. And yes, so far Anjou's in the clear about the runaway plot. Probably."

"Probably?"

"Officially, she's been cleared by Tsukauchi," Oracle responded. "I listened to the recording though, and something about her answers feel... off. No idea why, so I haven't made any moves or reported it yet. Can't really do any investigations on an empty hunch, and it doesn't feel like she's a villain or caught up in anything bad-illegal."

"Bad illegal?" Hizashi repeated, faintly amused, and Oracle snorted.

"As far as I'm concerned, some shades of illegal are less bad than others. I was born into the underworld, we develop an eye for this sort of thing. Don't know what's up with her, but I do think she's caught up in something, but not as malicious as the Alliance. Maybe the vigilante sort." He shrugged, pulling out his phone as he added, "I've learned to trust my instincts."

Hizashi hummed in thought, staring at the girl's face. "Can I take a peek at what you've got on her, or would that be breaking protocol?" Even as he spoke his phone buzzed with a notification, and he checked it to find an email from Oracle titled "Notes." His face quickly soured. "Seriously?"

"There's no formal file on her, but I wrote up some quick notes on Ashido's friends and the whole case for personal reference. Take a peek, I'm gonna send those clips off to the folks at Nighteye's place and your UA pals." Hizashi rolled his eyes but downloaded the attached file. They really were just quick notes, just a bunch of bullet points listing basic facts organized into smaller sections using headers.

The section for Anjou was pretty brief. Sixteen years old, mentioned a Quirk registered as "Neural Networking" but no details on its mechanics. A nearly lifelong foster kid who moved to Kamino for school and lived alone, scored second in her class on the last round of exams and fourth for her whole year. Had befriended Ashido Mina and Kirameki Kumiko at the beginning of the year, and had only recently started talking to Kirishima Eijirou.

One detail caught his eye though and made Hizashi sit a little straighter. While she was in the foster system, she had a biological brother about ten years older than her. They never lived together and he never applied for custody after he aged out, but they still kept in contact. She had gone to visit him just this weekend, a trip planned well before Ashido and Kirishima ran away.

Odawara, huh... It was a long shot and very likely unrelated, but Hizashi was a desperate man. For the first time since Shouta went missing they had hope that he was still alive, confirmation he'd been alive just a week ago. Up until then he'd been ready to start accepting the worst, but now he was reinvigorated more than ever to find him and save him. If it could bring him any closer to finding his best friend, he'd even go to Mars.

Hizashi would save Shouta, he just needed to hang on a little longer.

The hours crawled by after Midoriya left following lunch, leaving Shouta to his own thoughts. The boy hadn't stayed too long this time, just enough to deliver the food and let him know his friend was fine. He'd seemed distracted for most of the visit, looking mildly guilty for some reason. Given he avoided more detailed queries about his friend's condition, Shouta suspected it was tied to that more than his own situation.

Shouta spent most of the time after Midoriya left wondering about what the kid did online. He doubted he just had friends on FacePage with how paranoid normal people had gotten about privacy and safety, let alone the Alliance. No, Midoriya must use some special interest sites instead. Maybe for some video game he liked, or music.

Or Pro Heroes. Kid definitely seemed to be a fan of Pro Heroes, illogical and surprising as that was for Shigaraki's younger brother.

Eventually Shouta let up on his musing when an absent-minded stretch reminded him of his broken leg through a sharp wave of pain. Only then did he remember the painkiller still hidden beneath his pillow, and he spent about a minute fumbling to uncover and pick it up, eying it warily in the palm of his mitten. The kid's reaction that morning seemed to suggest it wasn't something harmful, so it might be genuine.

If he was going to make any progress at all towards escaping, slim as that scenario seemed to be now, he'd have to trust Midoriya at some point.

For that reason Shouta downed the pill, and then laid down to wait for the effects to kick in and went back to his pondering. Nothing happened immediately, but at some point while wondering about whether Midoriya might be catfished he realized the pain had indeed faded a bit. The discomfort had vanished, enough for him to fall asleep.

He was eventually startled awake by the door opening, and sat up with a soft groan, rubbing his eyes. When he looked though he froze, heart sinking with horror.

That wasn't Midoriya at the door.

It was the mist-covered man who'd brought the kids to the cell yesterday. Kurogiri, if he remembered right. His identity didn't matter nearly as much as the fact he wasn't Midoriya though. Especially because he carried a tray with dinner on it, just like that girl had on Sunday morning after the fight with Midoriya.

Before Shouta could begin to absorb the implications of that the misty man entered and set the tray down. "My apologies for disturbing your rest, Eraserhead, I did not know you were asleep," he greeted, voice deep and smooth. "However, it is past six so it is time to eat." Shouta swallowed thickly as he sat upright, trying not to let his anxiety show.

"Where's Midoriya?" he asked.

"He is currently playing video games with Tomura. They have not spent much quality time together lately, and I do not expect Tomura will allow him to leave anytime soon so I took the liberty of preparing your dinner myself." The comment had Shouta calming down a bit, quelling his concerns Midoriya had suddenly lost interest in him. Then he just felt mildly annoyed at himself for worrying about that in the first place.

He pushed away the thoughts as Kurogiri knelt on the floor beside him. "Hold out your hands."

"Why?" Shouta asked, not bothering to hide his wariness.

"Because I want to remove the mittens." The declaration took Shouta by genuine surprise, staring in shock. "You do not need to look or act so surprised, Eraserhead. As it stands, I suspect you know you're in no position to attempt escape or to attack me."

Shouta's mouth thinned at the reference to his current state. A broken leg, chained to the floor by a collar and the shackle around his other foot... He really wasn't in a position to try anything if his hands were freed. "Yet you still leave them on all the time," he muttered darkly.

"We put them on you to minimize risk of harm to Izuku or attempts to escape when left alone. People can go to unpredictable lengths when they're desperate. As long as you do not try to use your Quirk on myself though, I see no risk in removing them temporarily."

"Going by that logic, you should just blindfold me," Shouta snarked.

"I do not believe that is what concerns me," Kurogiri replied simply, and Shouta felt himself freeze for a moment before sighing. Of course he knew, should've figured the Alliance would know about it if they were connected to Aiko.

"I won't use it," he promised dully, holding out his hands. Kurogiri reached out to remove the leather handcuffs, the misty residue shrouding his hands concealing much of the action from Shouta's sight. Once the cuffs were off he undid the clasps holding the mittens in place before pulling them away, and for a moment Shouta just stared at his hands.

It had been a week since he had been brought to the Alliance, and in that time he'd only seen his hands on two occasions: when the mittens were first put on, and that time he was dragged into the shower. Something about that realization just made him feel more pathetic. He'd gotten used to being restrained, awful as that was to say, but the inability to even see his own hands even while holding them right in front of his face was a whole new level of loss of autonomy.

Well, it still wasn't as bad as then though.

Fuck it. He couldn't dwell on that, he'd already come close enough to breaking down once. He should just accept this brief reprieve for what it was. He pushed the memories away and turned his attention to the tray, only to pause as he actually looked at its contents for the first time.

So far Midoriya had brought largely simple meals: sandwiches, onigiri, pre-made pastries, the sushi that one time. This, however, was a full-fledged Japanese dinner: yakisoba noodles with vegetables and chicken, a bowl of rice, even a small plate with apple slices to the side. Shouta just stared for a moment, not used to seeing an actual, complete meal. When had the last time even been?

"Is there an issue with the food?" Kurogiri asked, so nonchalant, and Shouta turned wary eyes towards him.

"What's the catch?" Villains were simply not this kind to prisoners, not when they kept them chained up on the floor of a cell. Kurogiri put on a gentleman's front and spoke politely, but this was a full meal. Not even Midoriya went that far, and the kid was quite obviously trying to earn Shouta's good graces.

Maybe it was just paranoia from being held captive for so long, but every bit of this screamed trap at him.

"There is no catch," Kurogiri informed him. "I simply felt that since you would be able to use your hands, it would illogical to give you a simple meal."

"You can't expect me to believe that's the only reason," Shouta quipped back. There had to be some sort of catch somewhere. The man had to be trying to earn his trust for something.

"Whether you believe me or not is beyond my control. However, I would suggest you eat it, since I will not be preparing an alternative." Shouta glowered at him but soon turned his attention to the meal to begin eating, knowing better than to waste food in these circumstances.

And damn if it wasn't good. This was his first proper meal in ages, and despite how little he trusted the mist-covered villain he soon found himself devouring it. Maybe he should feel embarrassed by how eagerly he was eating in front of a villain, but he'd learned to ignore his pride months ago. It just—it tasted so good. Dammit, he almost wanted to cry.

He'd nearly finished and reached for the last bit of chicken in the yakisoba when a small mew sounded, and both men immediately turned to see Sushi sitting nearby. The kitten gave a plaintive mew, large eyes focused on the plate.

For a moment neither man reacted, and finally Shouta turned to frown at Kurogiri. "I didn't see her when you entered."

"Neither did I," the villain murmured, confirming Shouta's suspicions that he was not trying to further bribe him with a cat on top of the food. His attention returned to Sushi as she mewed again, trotting over to sniff at the yakisoba. Shouta quickly snatched up the plate out of her reach, making her voice her displeasure.

"This is human food, not for cats. The seasoning might be bad for you anyway." Sushi didn't seem to agree since she mewed again while reaching for the plate. She didn't get to try for long before Kurogiri scooped her up, allowing Shouta to finish eating in peace.

"Strange, Sushi should be with Hijack," he remarked. "And even if she escaped his room at mealtime, she shouldn't have been able to enter here."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure you entered alone," Shouta agreed. He felt like he would have noticed a kitten trailing behind him. Sushi squirmed in Kurogiri's hands but he kept a firm grip until Shouta finished eating, at which point he finally released the kitten. She promptly darted to Shouta and looked disappointed at the empty plate, turning and climbing onto his lap to voice her displeasure. He absently went to scratch her ears before suddenly freezing at the feeling of fur against his fingers.

Once again he found himself stunned at something that should be so normal. She felt just as soft as she looked, her fur smooth like velvet. Blinking a few times, he reached out to scoop her up, gently cradling her in his arms in a way so that his bare hands still touched her. He raised her closer to his face and she immediately nuzzled his cheek, purring contently.

He let his eyes slide shut as he held her close, just reveling in the feeling of her softness against his face and palms. How long had it been since he'd last properly managed to pet a cat and feel fur? It had been far, far too long. It was awkward to hold her like this and he wanted to savor the feeling of her fur with both hands, so he lowered her back to his lap and went back to petting her normally.

In his current awed state, it took Shouta a minute to remember that he wasn't actually alone. His head snapped up to find Kurogiri watching him in silence, his face literally unreadable since only his glowing yellow eyes were visible, and even those seemed to be made of mist. Shouta's mouth thinned at the thought of showing his brief moment of vulnerability in front of the villain, giving Sushi a final scratch before gently pushing her away.

"You should get her back to Hijack," he declared roughly. He didn't want to make his fondness for the kitten too obvious, it was a weakness that could be exploited. Sushi getting hurt felt bad enough, but the kid's potential reaction if that happened made it all the worse. He'd clearly bonded with Sushi, and her safety mattered to the kid just as much as it did to Shouta, if not more.

"Very well. Since you have finished eating, it is time to take my leave anyway. Please hold out your hands." Shouta's face soured, but he dutifully extended his hands as Kurogiri knelt next to him to fasten the mittens back in place, followed by the cuffs. Once again he felt a dull emptiness as he stared at his covered hands, his wrists separated by only a single chain link.

Kurogiri scooped up Sushi and the tray with the empty plates. "Rest well," he said, and departed without another word. Shouta let himself slump against the pillows on the floor with a quiet sigh, eyes sliding shut.

Today, he got to pet a cat. That was good. Small, but good. He should try to focus on the good things for now.

Meanwhile in Odawara, Ochako laid on the bed of a hotel room staring at the ceiling blankly, mind still spinning from the events of the day. Everyone had parted ways an hour ago, Jirou, Kaminari and Hatsume returning to Hosu, while Ashido, Todoroki and Kirishima returned to Kuroe's house. Ochako had declined to join them, saying she wanted time to think alone, and true to her word that was all she'd been doing since checking in.

When they finished reading Deku's letter something clicked in Ochako's head, something she should have realized even before they read it. Even now she still reeled from it and could barely focus on anything else, mouth pressed into a tight, almost painful line as her hands clenched at her sides.

According to Deku, Aiko probably had a compulsion Quirk and had used it to make shut down his panic attack. And it made sense. It lined up with how she'd talked to Ochako that morning, likely using those questions this morning to compel her into silence by making her swear not to tell anyone.

But the first time Ochako met her, all she could remember were black-tipped fingers shoving her into a void.

Aiko had two Quirks. Maybe more, with how she seemed to change her whole physique that time she disguised herself as a man. In retrospect, even that should have been a warning sign to her, but it hadn't occurred to her then. It had been so easy to just write that off as a not-so-simple disguise.

But she and Deku had never spoken about it. He'd never mentioned the panic attack thing, and Ochako had never told him about her experience being pushed into that pocket of empty space. They were just so relieved to be together again, and Deku had been so anxious about Aizawa and everything else going on, it just... never came up.

And Ochako knew even before trying that she had no way to warn anyone. And she had tried, so desperately, but her mouth wouldn't even make a sound. The censoring effect seemed heaviest when discussing Aiko; she couldn't get out a single word about it. Ochako had no way to tell them she had two Quirks, no way to tell them she had admitted to being a serial killer that morning.

All she could do was hope Deku would figure it out.

Kudos to everyone who remembered Aiko had basically shoved Uraraka into a pocket dimension when they first met!

So you're getting a surprise chapter today! I wasn't planning on it, but if you live in the United States... Well, I think you can understand why I thought a little distraction might be good right now. These are crazy times, so stay safe everyone! (And we'd all hoped 2021 would be better... ;v; )

Also, I feel I should make an announcement for anime-only fans. After much consideration, I'm going to be incorporating one MAJOR detail about Kurogiri's backstory. Honestly, I want to keep this story as spoiler-free as possible, but this is one detail that I just can't ignore with how the world-building events in Ignite unfolded, and I can't just do it all in one chapter. This is something that has long-lasting ramifications once revealed. I'll place a warning on the ACTUAL reveal, but I'm going to be dropping pretty heavy hints and foreshadowing, and it will probably come up again later.

That said, there WILL be some alterations from canon in that regard. My justification is that with the multiverse rules I have in place in Ignite, even if something isn't canon, it can be true in other universes. I also don't want to spoil ALL the details of it and leave some as a surprise for when it airs in the anime.

Since I updated twice in one week, question remains the same! What questions would you ask the OCs?