Chapter 75
.::In Which Teens Plot::.
Meisanki Kuroe was having a normal morning, or as normal as he could with three teenagers he barely knew crashing in his house. The past week had been weird in that regard, and a little unnerving at times given the "barely knew them" part. He'd had kids stay over before briefly when they first arrived in Odawara, but usually they'd move in with the runaways pretty fast. Not this time though.
Today marked the seventh day since Ashido and Kirishima arrived, making a full week which had to be a record. On top of that Todoroki came back on Friday after initially leaving to the runaways, so he now had a total of three teens here. At this point, it felt more weird than anything. Kuroe was used to having his house to himself. Waking up to their voices chattering every morning felt weird and jarring, almost as weird and jarring as knowing he wasn't alone for once.
At least Todoroki made coffee. Sure, it wasn't the best, but it was something. Kuroe might not have the Quirk-based dependency on caffeine like Ran or their mother, but it still helped.
Today, he felt especially grateful for it since he'd slept in later than usual. Last night he'd stayed up late working on a coding project for a client. And that was before getting an email from Chisaki about the yakuza's investigation into that one organization he mentioned at their last meeting. Usually he'd deliver findings in person at those monthly meetings, but it seemed one of the members working on the investigation suddenly went missing.
Kuroe had spent a good two hours talking to Chisaki about the details over email, all of it encrypted. Luckily they had keys to instantly encrypt and decrypt messages, but that still added an extra step to each part of the communication process. If they couldn't find any more leads soon, they'd have to meet in person to discuss this, because a missing yakuza was a pretty big deal.
Wonder if Stendhal could come over on short notice, he wondered while brushing his teeth. He wasn't really keen on meeting anyone from the yakuza alone, but Chisaki in particular just had something off about him. After growing up Quirkless in the foster system, he'd developed an eye for people's true natures, and Chisaki seemed to be... less than well adjusted. Kuroe had a feeling the only thing really keeping him under control was the boss and Shie Hassaikai's current success.
Meeting him alone? Out of the question. If Stendhal couldn't join, he'd have to ask Aiko, and she seemed even less keen on meeting the guy than Kuroe. The whole reason he attended these meetings with Stendhal was because she didn't want to. The second the vigilante came into the picture Aiko had happily opted out of bodyguard duty forever more. Good thing "Karasu" was known to have multiple underworld contacts, so the change in guard hadn't raised any questions.
Either way, today would probably be very busy for him as they sorted this out, and he hadn't even had his morning coffee yet.
Thank goodness Todoroki was around to make coffee so it'd be ready. Sure, it had taken half an hour of training him on how to use the coffee machine on Saturday night (the kid was absolutely Touya's brother), but it was worth the effort. Even now as he walked down the stairs he could smell it, the bitter aroma... actually, it didn't smell exactly fresh, but it was there, and it would be warm.
He walked into the kitchen to find the four teens already seated at the table talking, their conversation pausing when he entered. "Morning, Kuroe-san!" Ashido greeted brightly, and he gave a small grunt of recognition as he shuffled past them to the coffee machine. He poured the dark brew into a mug and took a sip, savoring the admittedly cheap taste. Cheap coffee was better than none, and he welcomed the clarity provided by caffeine.
Then he paused.
Wait, four teens?
He turned to eye the table again. One, two, three... four. Yep, four teens. There were only three staying here, right? Pinkie, redhead, and mini-Touya. So that meant...
His gaze locked onto the completely unfamiliar brown-haired girl, neither saying anything as they stared at each other. The gears in his brain slowly began turning, steadily nudged out of their dormant state and fueled by the power of caffeine. Brown hair, brown eyes, pink circle marks on her cheeks... Nope, she didn't strike him as familiar at all, not even as one of the runaways.
Also, they had a map of Japan spread on the table for some reason?
"I don't even want to know," Kuroe decided, and ignored the confused looks as he promptly shuffled out of the room. He was not dealing with this, he'd been awake for ten minutes. He returned to his bedroom/office to grab his phone off the charger, and sent a text to Aiko.
'They're multiplying
Theres a fourth one now
she better not be staying here too
and they have a map for some reason
fuck it, too tired to deal with it. don't even want to know what they're plotting'
He set down the phone and checked his laptop to see if he'd gotten any more emails from Chisaki about the situation with the missing guy. He hadn't, but he did get one from his client for that actual, legitimate coding job. An email informing him they'd changed their mind about wanting the feature he spent half the night trying to make work with their overly-cluttered and disorganized database. And actually they decided that yesterday but forgot to inform him, so sorry!
It was while glaring at his laptop, wishing he could turn his idiot client into ashes, that his phone buzzed with a text. Kuroe swiped it up and jabbed his finger a little too hard on the screen to unlock it, and glared at the reply from Aiko.
'They're plotting something? Ooh, fun! Teens seem to be so plotty these days, guess I'm not that special after all.'
He stared at the phone blearily, thinking of Aiko's own hare-brained psycho plot. The one where she went off the grid, let him think she was dead for months, and then showed up out of the blue one day revealing she'd made a deal with the guy who killed All Might in a battle to the death that actually altered Japan's map to get another Quirk.
And as he processed that memory another text arrived.
'By the way, you're better at people than I am. How do you approach a guy you probably (definitely) helped traumatize?'
...This was his life. He had idiot clients, yakuza conspiracies, teenagers plotting something in his kitchen, and his best friend was quite possibly the most terrifying person in Japan and also a total idiot.
Screw it. He was going out and buying some actual good coffee for once. If this was any indicator of how the rest of his day would go, Kuroe would fucking pamper himself.
There was an awkward silence in the kitchen when they heard the front door close. Not even five minutes had passed since Kuroe got his morning coffee and saw Uraraka before he suddenly left. Shouto felt a bit surprised at how quickly he'd left the house. He'd slept in until ten today, surprisingly late for the man.
It was late enough for everyone else to wake up and for Uraraka to come over with a map of Japan to begin planning their next move. Their first step was looking for Nabu on said map, because none of them actually knew its location. At one point Kirishima had suggested they just search it on Moogle, but by that point Shouto and Ashido had taken the search as a personal challenge.
Looking back, Shouto supposed it might have been a bit much for Kuroe to see first thing in the morning while still waking up.
He also felt just slightly guilty since they left not even ten minutes after Kuroe did.
Midway through their search for Nabu, Shiozaki had texted him that Glitch had used his Quirk to make Mail visible again that morning. He seemed open to answering questions about "Porter," and that seemed like a good starting point for the day. It took a bit of searching, but they soon found the abandoned karaoke bar she'd identified as the meeting point. She herself had declined against joining, mostly acting as a messenger.
Shouto wasn't surprised to find Shouji waiting inside the bar alongside Mail and Glitch, given he was the only person who'd met Porter. It seemed Rogue wouldn't be present today, which suited Shouto fine. Neither would Monoma or Ojiro, which also suited him fine. There was one face he didn't expect though, but one he readily welcomed compared to the rest: Asui.
"I am very curious about UA," she explained. "And I was talking to Mail-san when Maria and Todoroki-kun worked out the meeting, kero."
"I'm just surprised you were willing to come all this way," Uraraka said. She'd initially been happy to see the other girl, but her face now held a note of worry. "You don't do well with cold, right?"
"I don't, but this seemed important enough to make an exception, kero. Besides, I want to try to help too if I can."
The offer made Uraraka nod gratefully. "Thank you, so much," she said sincerely, effectively echoing everyone's sentiments. They may not know this Asui that well, but she still had that air of calmness that defined her in their own world. As before, her mere presence brought a sense of much-needed stability and comfort.
"You still can't tell her everything though," Glitch reminded them, voice only mildly distorted. He leaned against a nearby wall to survey them warily, his features still flickering like before but not quite as severely. "Mainly the stuff about that Midoriya guy."
"I don't know why you guys are so insistent on hiding that stuff," Mail remarked. "I think they can at least say some of it. I mean, if you tell me where he is, I could go over there and help scope out the place—"
"No," everyone chorused flatly, and he blinked in mild surprise before shrugging.
"Eh, worth a shot."
While he'd been helpful yesterday and mostly open with sharing information, they still didn't know him well enough to fully trust him yet. For all they knew, he could be lying about that Porter guy and just trying to lull them into a false sense of security so he could lure them towards the heroes "for their own good." The runaways had basically done that to Shouto with Tokoyami, so he admittedly might be a bit more wary.
Either way, they needed to be careful right now. Too many lives depended on this, and the wrong move could end with Midoriya moved out of their reach by an overprotective Shigaraki. Until they could get him, Aizawa, Bakugou and that Shinsou kid out of there, they really couldn't take any chances.
To that end, they needed to focus on the other aspects of the investigation for now. "Well, even if you can't help with that, we can probably at least use some help looking for this Porter guy," Kirishima said to Asui.
"Yeah, there are definitely a few places to cover if you're going to be looking for Porter," Mail mused with a nod. "The more people helping, the better."
"So you do know where he is?" Shouji asked sharply, but the specter shook his head.
"Nope. I don't even know if one even is in this world."
"Why not?" Ashido asked. "You said he basically teleports his whole body, so doesn't that mean he can bring a phone with him?"
"Yes, he can," Mail deadpanned. "A cell phone with a contract specific to whatever world he gets it from. And which uses a phone number that is tied to that world, and has contacts which may or may not work in every world because cell phones aren't guaranteed to always use the exact same phone numbers."
"Oh," Ashido said quietly, looking a bit sheepish. Shouto honestly hadn't even thought about that, but Mail raised some good points.
"Then how do you usually find him, then?" Uraraka asked curiously. "Or, does he just find you?" Come to think of it, he had said they'd only met Porter three times (or well, three Porters), so it didn't seem like they met up often.
"Pretty much the second one," Mail confirmed with a nod. "From what they told us, they usually just try to scope out where we are when they arrive at new worlds, but they try to avoid interacting with us since they can get... mixed reception."
He shrugged while Shouto frowned. "Mixed reception?"
"Frankly, with our backgrounds, it's better to be paranoid of anyone we don't personally know from our world. Just because it's another version of us or our siblings doesn't mean our interests align. The only reason the multiverse isn't in chaos is because we have this pact to not use information or memories from other worlds to our own advantage if we're on opposite sides."
"Opposite sides, as in?" Glitch pressed.
"Villains, or non-hero-aligned," Mail replied bluntly. Everyone stiffened at that, but he just huffed. "Oi, don't give me that look. The basic requirement for us to know Porter is that we all got kidnapped by villains and grew up in that hellhole. At least two of my siblings were directly born into that shit, as in they literally don't exist without that specific background." He shook his head as he muttered darkly, "Honestly, the fact any of them ended up as heroes and not villains is pretty damn impressive."
"You said them, not us," Shouto pointed out with narrowed eyes.
"Yes, because I died in the rescue," Mail deadpanned. "Given the whole 'dead' thing, it's kind of pointless to get licensed. I mean, what can they do, throw me in jail for using a Quirk?" He shrugged, sounding pretty casual and dismissive of the notion. "Good luck, I'm literally impossible to contain. Probably one of the only perks of this whole 'stuck in limbo' thing.
"But back to the main point," he continued pointedly before they could respond, "Porters usually avoid our siblings when they go hero because they're the most likely to react violently to it."
"And the villains don't?" Kirishima piped up, understandably skeptical.
"No, because they usually try to keep a low profile and keep to ourselves. Having a Porter show up in a villain-verse isn't as risky because he'd have to be specifically targeting us, which isn't likely. But heroes have more to protect. Any version of Porter is a dangerous person with unknown intent and who knows their weaknesses, along with whatever other juicy, secret info they pick up from adventures in other worlds."
The logic was strange, but Shouto could see his point. Asui tapped a finger to her chin. "How dangerous could that knowledge be, kero? Would he really have access to critical information?" Mail crossed his arms with a hum.
"I mentioned that he can see the memories he shares through dreams too, right?" he asked, and when they nodded he said, "Well, that's how. For reference, Saki has never actually visited UA in this world, but she can usually follow along when Kas talks about it because she's seen a few dreams where she did. Also, she's referenced that skeleton form of All Might for about... three years, now."
The last bit had them all startling. "Wait, what?" Ashido blurted. "Three years? But that's impossible, isn't it? That only happened after he got hurt fighting that All For One guy at Kamino!" Shouto nodded in agreement. Had they seen that form before then, it would have been much more shocking to see it in that battle.
"Hate to break it to you, but it's probably not new in your world," Mail replied with a frown. "Without going into specifics, Saki's Quirk lets her get a sense of people's physical state. She's had a couple dreams where All Might had a major injury to his side, she could detect it both in his All Might state and that other one where he looks like a skeleton. Best as we can tell he had two forms after getting it, and probably some sort of time limit on the 'buff' one because of the strain. Seemed to be secret."
That... was highly unnerving to hear for multiple reasons. All Might had been injured in the past? Shouto automatically wanted to argue, but the bit about the time limit made him hesitate. Come to think of it, All Might had been working less in more recent years. Endeavor had grumbled about it occasionally, finding it even more annoying that All Might held the position of Number One Hero despite spending less time on heroics.
"If that's the case, why would they send that information over a dream?" Shouji asked. "I don't know how long the memories usually are, but my dream lasted about ten minutes total, so it would have to be the main purpose of the dream."
"Length of the memories can vary at Porter's discretion. When I was alive they could be as long as half an hour, and from what I hear he's probably extended it. We figure they'd send those dreams over to warn us to keep an eye on All Might, since there's not many ways to get hurt like that." Mail's mouth twisted wryly as he added, "It's not exactly obvious he's dead in our world, after all."
He paused then, looking at the dimension travelers more thoughtfully now. "Actually, you guys mentioned he teaches at UA in your world, right? Chances are you would've seen that other form around UA before Kamino." At that moment Uraraka snapped to attention with a loud gasp.
"The infirmary!" she blurted excitedly. She flinched when everyone turned to look at her inquisitively, seeming a bit embarrassed by her outburst, but quickly explained. "Back at the Sports Festival, when Deku got hurt in his match with Todoroki, a bunch of us went to check on him in the infirmary. And when we arrived there was a blond guy there! I didn't recognize him then, but that was absolutely All Might!"
"Wait, seriously?" Ashido gasped, jaw falling open. "Does that mean Mido actually does know him?"
"I don't know, but I guess he must have," Uraraka replied with a shrug. "I only remembered him because he was standing by Deku's bed, but he wasn't dressed like a nurse or anything like that. I thought they must be related somehow."
"Then, maybe I was right after all," Shouto murmured, thinking of his brief confrontation with the green-haired boy that day. When everyone looked at him in confusion he just shook his head though. "Sorry. If I'm right, it's not my place to say." If Midoriya was All Might's secret love child, it wasn't his place to reveal it.
Thankfully no one pushed. "Well, in any case, there you have it," Mail said with a shrug. "That pretty much confirms he got a similar injury in your world, but covered it up from the public. Probably to avoid panic since, well, you've seen how this world turned out with him dead." The atmosphere grew a bit more somber at the reminder of what caused this world to diverge so wildly. While that older injury wasn't fatal, Shouto could imagine similar unrest if it became public knowledge.
He frowned, feeling a bit uneasy at the thought. It felt like they'd learned something they weren't supposed to know—which was technically true, he realized, since All Might had never mentioned it even after Kamino. But in this case, it felt more like a violation of privacy than just classified information. It left a bad taste in his mouth.
"So if he can find the weakness of the number one hero, you can see why we'd be wary of an unknown Porter," Mail said, bringing him out of his thoughts. "So usually he'll avoid hero versions of us and overall lay low."
Something suddenly clicked in Shouto's mind that made him freeze. "Wait, you just said a bunch of you are villains. So Porter could share that with villains." He heard some of the others gasp. If the League of Villains got that information before Kamino—Shouto didn't want to think of what could happen.
"And that's why we have an honor code to not share information that isn't directly and obviously shared to us," Mail replied, ever patient in the face of their unease. "The dreams are a two-way street. We also have information on villains we could gather just from paying close attention to details. Not major plans, but still enough to turn the tide if we wanted. So we don't tell anyone or actively use it unless it's shared with us."
"Wait, but isn't that a waste?" Uraraka argued with a frown. "Just knowing stuff like villains' Quirks could save people's lives!"
"Yes, just like the information on the hero side could be an advantage to villain-us," Mail deadpanned, and the girl shrunk back with a soft "oh." "I already said it, but the honor code is probably the main reason the multiverse isn't in chaos. And besides, the information we get isn't guaranteed to be accurate across all worlds. There's room for variation, and I don't mean just events."
"Like what?" Asui asked. Mail crossed his arms as he rolled to face the ceiling, humming in thought.
"Alright, so you guys obviously know Shigaraki."
The remark got several affirming groans and grumbles. As it stood, the hands-laden villain had proven to be a major threat in both worlds, though this world's version posed the bigger obstacle. They hadn't seen hide or tail of Shigaraki in their own world since the summer camp attack, which suited them fine.
Mail just nodded at their unenthused reactions. "So, mind telling me about his Quirk?" Now the sour mood gave way to curious looks, everyone briefly glancing at each other with small frowns.
Finally Uraraka decided to speak up. "He disintegrates stuff by touching it, right?"
"I think it needs all five fingers," Shouto murmured.
"Usually, yes," Mail confirmed. "There's at least one world where he needs to use both hands, though. And one where he can do it with his feet." Now everyone was staring at him in shock, or at least the world jumpers did. Given their encounter at USJ had him covered head to torso in severed hands, they'd developed a pretty strong association between Shigaraki's Quirk and hands.
As they pondered this Ashido's face scrunched up. "Does... does he wear feet instead in that world?" she whispered faintly. Uraraka made a choking noise while Shouto stared blankly into space, imagining Shigaraki with a foot on his face. He didn't know how to feel about that.
"Don't know," Mail replied with a shrug. "I just know Saki added it to her 'weird alternate version' list. She and Kas basically play a game tracking weird alternate versions of people. Other highlights include Sir Nighteye with pink hair, and a weird number of worlds where Togata has super strength on top of his intangibility."
"Wait, does Togata-senpai intern with Sir Nighteye in this world, too?" Uraraka cut in, while Shouto struggled to place the name. It felt very familiar... As he pondered it she bit her lip before hesitantly asking, "Does—does he still have his Quirk?"
Oh, now Shouto remembered. Everyone who'd been at the Overhaul raid had been pretty downtrodden about that turn of events. Kirishima, Asui and even Glitch all snapped sharply to attention, and even Mail seemed to go rigid for a moment. "Um, yes, does," he replied after a beat, and Uraraka slumped with open relief.
"Oh thank goodness."
"I'm sorry, did you just ask if he still has his Quirk?" Kirishima yelped.
"It was... some kind of bullet, right?" Ashido asked, looking unusually solemn. "Our Kiri talked to us about it a little bit after... everything. He was having trouble sleeping so it just came out. It was a pretty heavy night." Mail jolted as his head snapped towards her, eyes wide with shock. Ashido continued to look somber, and he glanced between her and a grim Uraraka with a look of mild shock.
"Okay, so now I have multiple questions about that," he said after a moment, eying the latter almost warily, "but those can wait. To get back to my point: there are worlds where people can be born with different Quirks works differently. And it's not just that. Actually, you all obviously know Eraserhead," he added, back to sounding casual and lighthearted again. They all nodded, suddenly wary, and Mail smirked. "Fun fact: first time Kas heard about him? A dream about a world where he was a villain."
Now they all stared at him in open disbelief. Aizawa, as a villain? Of all the claims so far, that felt like the most ridiculous. "How?" Uraraka whispered.
"Who knows?" Mail shrugged. "We're pretty sure that version of Kas wanted to let him know that there was a guy who'd make a fun fight, and also warn him since, well, Erasure. So you can imagine how surprised he was to have Eraserhead drop in as backup during a brawl." He chuckled and shook his head, clearly amused by their continued stunned stares. Aizawa could be scary, but Shouto just couldn't imagine him as a villain.
As usual, Asui remained the most cool-headed, though this time that might be because she didn't know Aizawa-sensei. "So like you said, the information you get may not be correct, kero," she surmised. "Even if something is true in every world they see, there's still a chance that this world is an exception. So sharing it would just cause problems."
Mail nodded with a pleased smile. "Yes, exactly! So that's the logical reason for not sharing this stuff."
"The logical reason?" Shouto repeated, zeroing in on the emphasis.
"Yeah, the one we'd give if anyone ever tries to ask about it. The actual reason is honestly just the honor code. Don't share information about other sides with outsiders, and use whatever you learn from dreams sparingly unless it's shared specifically to be used. We don't even talk about this being a thing to outsiders," he added with a small frown. "I'm only telling you guys because you already know about one Porter and, well, it's relevant to your situation."
His relaxed demeanor faded then, expression becoming cold and stoic, and suddenly Shouto felt his breath catch. Somehow, the room suddenly felt darker, Mail's pale white-orange eyes seeming eerily bright as he gazed at them. The atmosphere in the empty room felt tense and menacing, and he knew he wasn't the only one to sense it even as he found his gaze transfixed solely on the specter.
"And I'm trusting you won't tell anyone," he said lowly, voice almost empty in the wrong way. "If you do, you won't like the consequences." A chill ran down Shouto's spine because for a second, he wasn't in the karaoke bar anymore.
Suddenly he was in Hosu, standing paralyzed as he watched Stain stand over a freshly slain noumu radiating an air of darkness and death.
Just as soon as the memory appeared it vanished, leaving him breathless and standing far too stiff. It had been brief, but for a moment he swore it felt like Mail emanated the same kind of presence that Stain carried. It was the air of someone dangerous, and someone fully aware of that fact. It was enough to leave him feeling cold for reasons unrelated to his Quirk.
Maybe he'd imagined the effect, because the others didn't seem nearly as affected. "You must really care about that honor code," Shouji muttered and Mail nodded.
"We're willing to die to protect it," he declared, and something about his tone—so firm and resolute—told Shouto he genuinely meant it.
After that Mail relaxed a bit, and Shouto felt like the last traces of that phantom chill vanished. "Anyways, we won't break it, but the thing is, Porter's kinda an exception since it's his Quirk. The code is honestly more in place to respect him than to maintain some natural multi-dimensional order. He doesn't want his Quirk to be used by other people—emphasis on other. Information he finds is free game for himself. So you can see why we're kinda wary of unknown Porters showing up out of the blue.
"But," and here he smirked, "he won't avoid people if they go looking for him."
"We're not bringing in outsiders," Glitch stated without missing a bit, getting firm nods from everyone, runaway and dimension-jumper alike. Mail's smirk faded, looking mildly annoyed at the instantaneous response.
"That's not what I meant. It doesn't have to be our siblings specifically. He won't avoid anyone looking for him." It still took a second to realize what he was trying to say, but Shouto saw Asui suddenly stand straight with a spark of understanding in her eyes.
"He's curious," she stated bluntly. "If someone knew him, he'd want to know who they were and how they knew him, kero."
Mail grinned at her and nodded, quickly slipping back to his original laidback attitude. "Exactly. We don't usually talk about this stuff to outsiders because it's the kind of thing that can be taken advantage of. So if he realizes that a bunch of kids know about it, he'll want to know why. His curiosity's like a Quirk-based compulsion: he wants to figure out what makes each world different from the rest."
It made sense to Shouto. Plenty of Quirks gave their owners certain compulsions that they wouldn't engage in otherwise, as evidenced by the runaways' shopping lists. Looking for differences between worlds seemed like an obvious one. "That still doesn't tell us where to look for him though," Kirishima pointed out.
"No, but we can use that curiosity to narrow it down," Asui replied before Mail could. "For example, when he met Shouji-kun, he was asking about that statue in the park, kero."
"He mentioned it was one of several 'smaller mysteries,'" Shouji added thoughtfully, picking up her line of thought. "He was looking at a small notebook, it must have a list of differences between the worlds. And the way he talked, this world seems to have major differences from most."
Asui nodded in agreement. "If we can find some differences between the worlds, it can narrow down possible locations he might visit."
"There's a lot of really big ones though," Ashido groaned. "I mean, Tokyo's kinda just... not a thing here, somehow? And neither is UA?" Everyone frowned, realizing she had a point. With so many radical changes, narrowing down the list would be tricky.
Uraraka soon perked up though. "What about Kamino?" she suggested. "All Might had that big battle in our world. And I mean, if the League of Villains exists in our world and this one, then maybe they have a base around there in most worlds?"
"Not just one base, but two," Shouto murmured. He hadn't seen the bar, but he still clearly remembered peeking into that warehouse. Seeing the tops of brains peeking out in the seemingly plentiful vats of fluid was something he wouldn't forget. Then something else struck him that had his eyes growing wide. "And if Mail's sister knew that about Shigaraki, then they might work with the League in some worlds." When he looked at Mail he nodded in confirmation.
"Sometimes, yeah. Don't know much about those worlds since I don't dream about them though, and Saki and Kas don't really talk about them."
"But as you said, one of Porter's first priority is finding out if they're heroes," Asui said thoughtfully. "And I don't know who your sister is, but Kaitou and Lee said that your brother is an underground hero, kero."
"They both are," Mail said with a small smirk, and Asui nodded.
"Underground heroes usually avoided the spotlight even before villains started targeting heroes' families, kero, and there's not much press coverage of them. So if he knows where this 'League' has bases, then it might be faster to check those first, especially since you said that villain versions are less likely to attack him." That got some nods of agreement, everyone looking more energized.
Mostly everyone, anyway. "Ugh, I wish we knew about this before we ran away!" Ashido whined. "We were right there! Kiri and I totally could've checked it out ourselves!" As she whined Shouto frowned.
"I could go to Kamino," he volunteered. "I went there in our world, so I could find it again pretty easily." He shrugged nonchalantly, though he secretly felt slightly disappointed. Originally they'd agreed that he and Uraraka would go to Nabu to meet Midoriya, partially due to being the most inconspicuous option, but also because he just really wanted to see him. Of everyone caught up in this mess Shouto knew Midoriya best, and at this point, it would be a relief to meet him. Besides, he'd like to talk to him some more about the Dabi situation.
So he felt a bit of selfish relief when Uraraka shook her head, "No, you're still the best option to meet Deku," she said. "You stand out the least, which is kinda what we need over there. And besides, I could tell you really wanted to meet Deku this morning." Ashido and Kirishima nodded in agreement, and Shouto silently sent them his gratitude.
"And where is he, by the way?" Mail inquired lightly. He was answered by a flurry of random small objects snatched from the tables and thrown his way courtesy of Ashido and Uraraka. Unsettlingly enough, he just smiled pleasantly as they passed right through him and bounced off the wall and ceiling. "Alright, still don't trust me. Got it."
After that, attention turned to plotting out other places Porter could be, everyone getting more energized as the list grew. This was their first true lead to finding a way home, and they were all more than ready to receive answers.
BONUS:
'So. Remember that guy I met years ago?
The one with the eye Quirk who technically helped me, but also technically against his will?
Well he's now Izuku's guest, and not too happy about it. I went to say hi and he uh
Freaked out?
Tried to give him time, but then Izuku showed up so I had to go. So uh. Yeah.
I don't remember the full rules on how to talk to people who're traumatized. Soooo got any advice?'
Kuroe stared at his phone in silence, brain steadily decrypting Aiko's obtuse word choice.
Guy she met with the eye Quirk = Eraserhead
Technically helped but also technically against his will = kidnapped with lasting trauma
Izuku's guest, not too happy = kidnapped again and now in Izuku's custody
Freaked out = flashback to last kidnapping triggered by her presence
Even as he made these connections another text arrived. 'I'm guessing a fruit basket and apology note wouldn't work.' Followed by another one seconds later saying, 'Or... would it?'
Kuroe let his head hit the Sunbucks table with a groan, ignoring the strange looks he got from the other patrons. Really Aiko? Really? "Why is this my life."
Well this chapter went longer than I originally planned. It's over 5.7k words long before the bonus. Got to expand on how the multiverse works though! (Also this gives me justification to change up some minor details from canon just for fun~)
Also, Aiko's trying. That's something, right?
Question for Next Time: What places do you think a world traveler would be likely to visit to gauge major timeline differences in a world?