Chapter 117

.::Too Quiet::.

It was ten thirty in the morning, and the group chat on FacePage was quiet. Too quiet if you asked Kyouka.

She should be preparing for their showdown with Gentle Criminal that afternoon. Should be going over the maps they'd downloaded of the area around Mitsuru, marking potential escape routes to intercept them. Make some plan or strategy for fighting Tokoyami beyond "hit him with flash bombs and hope it weakens Dark Shadow." Hatsume had even whipped up a special super-powerful flashlight that looked like a ray gun last night after Kyouka mentioned that weakness. She could be doing some last-minute practice with it like Denki was now.

But instead she was sitting on the couch staring at her phone, keenly aware of the lack of messages.

She knew most of the others were busy. Mina had sent a message announcing Uraraka would be getting un-Quirked, so she was probably heading to Nabu at that very moment. Mina had also mentioned Todoroki had volunteered for guard duty, which meant he wouldn't take anything that could access FacePage around Mic. And shortly after that, Mina announced she would be spending the morning questioning Mail.

Or at least, she'd planned to do that until she sent an update that they forgot to inform the runaways about yesterday's events, so they were now arranging a meeting to discuss that. Kyouka wasn't jealous one bit.

So, yeah. That meant three people were busy, and with her and Denki needing to prep for their showdown, they didn't have much time to freely chat either. That wiped out almost everyone in the jumpers' group chat.

The issue lay with the final person: Midoriya.

He hadn't sent any messages since yesterday's brush with a minor existential crisis or whatever about his counterpart. Kyouka hadn't thought much of his silence, and probably still wouldn't think much of it...

Except she'd been trying to get in touch with him for the past sixteen hours.

The fact was, Midoriya was the only person who'd had direct contact with Gentle Criminal in either universe. Articles and videos could only tell her so much about the guy. Sure, those could give her plenty of info and speculation about his Quirk, but honestly? She wasn't much of an analyst. And those articles also lacked info on whoever else might be working with him, because no way did that guy work alone in their world. Someone had to film those videos in the field, she was pretty sure he'd directly filmed and uploaded some of his exploits.

Unfortunately though, Kyouka had never bothered watching the videos back home or looked into the whole deal even after hearing about Midoriya's encounter. It hadn't seemed all that important or interesting to her. So even if the cameraman did appear in the videos, or heck, just talked, she wouldn't know.

So, yeah. Info about that potential accomplice, and Midoriya's hyper-detailed analysis from his actual fight with Gentle Criminal would be very appreciated right now. So much so, she had pinged him for his input in the group chat last night when he didn't return by dinnertime. And then taken to persistently sending him private messages after he didn't respond to that.

The first ping had been close to sixteen hours ago, a bit after six thirty. As far as she could tell, her messages were all left unread.

Something felt very wrong, and while she really hoped it was just paranoia... Well, he was surrounded by villains. Her paranoia felt justified.

"Hey Jirou—I mean Kyouka," Denki called, correcting himself again. Old habits died hard and all that. He'd emerged from the neighboring room where he'd been testing Hatsume's latest invention, goggles pushed up to leave his hair even messier than usual. "Don't you wanna try out the new Flash Ray? I think we should test our goggles to make sure they're good, because this thing is really bright."

Kyouka sighed as she nodded, knowing he was right. She couldn't put off preparing for the raid just to worry over Midoriya's lack of answers, they were on a time crunch. "Yeah, yeah, gimme a sec. Need to do something real quick." She exited the private chat with Midoriya to open the one with Anjou. "Hey, just to double-check, you mentioned Anjou hijacked your sense of hearing or something, right?"

"Back at the autograph signing?" Denki replied. "Yeah, she totally switched our ears. It was suddenly like the crowd around me was silent and all I could hear was her whispering. Kinda spooky. Why?"

"Just curious, is all," she said with a shrug. "I'll head over in a minute, go back to practicing without me."

Denki seemed to hesitate, and she could practically feel his pensive look. "Is everything okay?" he asked. "You've been acting kinda weird this morning."

"Yeah, it's all cool. Just, kinda nervous, I guess." No point getting Denki worked up over Midoriya too; they'd need to have all their focus on the fight. Having both of them distracted would end pretty badly. "Look, I'll be there in a sec, okay? Just. Go in without me."

Once again he seemed to hesitate, but finally he sighed. "Alright, I guess," he muttered. "Knock before you enter so you won't get blinded."

"Got it," she called, and listened to his footsteps retreat as she scrolled through the message history. She and Anjou had been griping about final exams on Monday evening, since Kyouka had few people to vent to about her stunted knowledge and Anjou was in a similar position. ("I like my friends, but most of them are idiots." "Same.")

At one point they'd compared their daily exam schedules, which now turned out to be very useful. She found the screencap Anjou had sent, marking her lunch break as lasting an hour from noon to one. With that confirmed, she briefly swapped over to the jumpers' chat to take screenshots of the last message from Midoriya and her first ping. Then she went back to attach the two screenshots and typed up a quick message.

'Hey, sorry to send this when you've got exams, but when you get a chance can you check on Deku? He hasn't sent any messages since this one last night. I also kept messaging him to ask for intel on GC but he hasn't responded to those either. But if something IS wrong, don't message me or Chargebolt until after you know what. We need to focus on that. But tell everyone else so you guys can work out a plan ASAP.'

Kyouka stared at the message for a moment and then pressed send, before plugging her phone into the charger and getting up. With that, she'd done all she could do. One and a half hours wasn't too far away, and she knew Anjou would check her phone; Mina had griped a lot about Anjou spending all of their lunch periods glued to it. If something was wrong, Anjou would find out soon enough.

For now though, Kyouka had to wipe her hands of this. She had a fight to prepare for.

Something was wrong with Midoriya, and Shouta was probably spiraling. There really wasn't a better way to describe the rapid-fire slew of panicked thoughts racking his brain as he laid in the bed staring at the ceiling. Kurogiri had left a magazine in reach after taking away the breakfast tray, but he didn't care to look at it or even see what magazine it was. It was too hard to focus on anything else.

Shigaraki's ominous warning made it clear that something happened to Midoriya, but not what, and Kurogiri had refused to elaborate. Looking back, whatever it was, it must have occurred last night. Kurogiri had delivered dinner instead of Midoriya, but he had explained it away as Midoriya being busy. It hadn't been the first time, so Shouta had tried not to overthink it.

How ironic. The one time he'd tried to convince himself that everything was fine, and it wasn't. He almost wanted to laugh but he managed to tamp down the urge, focusing on his breathing for a few... minutes, now. Would probably keep doing that for a while, since the alternative was panicking at his helplessness.

"Eraserhead."

He jolted at the unfamiliar voice, head snapping up. The door hadn't opened, and he saw no one inside the room. But with Quirks like Kurogiri's, doors weren't necessary, and neither did it mean he'd see any visitors. While he might be spiraling, he was pretty sure he wasn't at the point of hallucinating, so there probably was someone.

"Who's there?" he demanded. "Show yourself."

"No." Now that he was paying attention he could tell the voice came from the foot of the bed, and he craned his neck as much as possible but still didn't see the visitor. Most full-grown adults would have at least the tops of their heads visible from this angle, even if they sat on the floor. Either they had an invisibility Quirk or were short. Judging by the voice though, this probably wasn't an adult.

He exhaled softly, willing the sternness to leave his face and his voice to come out more calmly. "You sound young," he commented. Younger than anyone else he'd seen here, she sounded like she hadn't even hit puberty. "Don't tell me the Alliance recruits elementary school kids."

"It does not," Seiko replied, voice bland and inflectionless. Just as he suspected she sat at the foot of the bed, knees bent in front of her chest and hands splayed on the floor on either side of herself. She didn't give him time to probe for more information, continuing, "Izuku asked me to visit you and explain."

That had Shouta's full attention, sitting up straighter. "What's going on? Why is he sending you instead of coming here himself?"

"Because Shigaraki discovered he's having an episode, and has locked him in isolation." Shouta's thoughts faltered at that, staring at the empty space at the foot of his bed as if it would provide clarity. After several moments he sighed, leaning his head to the side to rub his eyes with his one un-mittened hand.

"What, exactly, are episodes?" he asked slowly.

"A type of amnesia. Around four years ago, Izuku vanished for two days and was found with Quirk-induced memory loss. Shigaraki concluded it was the work of a local criminal who had a memory-altering Quirk and eliminated him. However, since then Izuku has periodically experienced bouts of partial-amnesia, which we call 'episodes' for simplicity."

Her choice of words didn't skip Shouta's notice. "You don't think the man Shigaraki killed was responsible, do you?"

Unseen by him, the corners of Seiko's lips twitched upwards into a faint smirk that failed to reflect in her voice. "Izuku's memories were impacted by a Quirk, and the man Shigaraki killed did possess a memory-related Quirk. However, we know nothing of its finer mechanics, and Izuku has no memories of the attack that he can speak of. That is currently irrelevant though. All you need to know is that he's been discovered."

Shouta still had questions, picking up on yet another bit of unusual wording (no memories that he can speak of?), but he decided to let it slide. As his visitor stated, it was irrelevant, and right now he needed to get more immediate information on the general situation. "What do you mean by 'discovered?' Shouldn't it be obvious if he's experiencing amnesia?"

"The way episodes work are unusual, as he doesn't seem to forget periods of time, but pieces of information. He sometimes remembers that Shigaraki is a villain and the leader of the Alliance, but not their relationship or that his parents are dead. Sometimes he remembers their relationship and parts of their time together, but not the formation of the Alliance. Sometimes he remembers me, sometimes he does not. Hence why I call it partial amnesia. Because of this, he's able to occasionally cover up the fact he's having an episode by using myself and his journals to fill in gaps in his memories. It's like a game, to see how long he can get away with it."

Her voice lifted slightly at the last bit, the closest thing to emotion yet. Shouta frowned as he turned the information over in his head; these "episodes" didn't sound like regular amnesia. In fact, it sounded almost too fantastical, even for "partial" amnesia. "Why should I believe that?" he asked warily.

"Why would I lie?" the unseen girl asked in return, and he frowned as he pondered it.

"Amusement for starters. See what I'm willing to believe, no matter how ridiculous or far-fetched it sounds. That also opens the way to potential manipulation, by swaying my sympathies in his favor and making him out to be a victim. It would make me more wary of the rest of the Alliance's goals towards him."

"How so?"

"Because the memory loss you just described seems too unusual to be random," he declared bluntly. "It would be more in line with something intentional to try to keep him from escaping. Even the 'game' of remaining undetected could be a ploy to minimize escape attempts."

There was a long moment of silence. And then, ever so lightly, "Interesting." He shuddered involuntarily, something about the faint trace of amusement sending a chill down his spine. The girl's voice kept that light note as she continued, "So that is how it appears to outsiders, then. Or at least to heroes. I can see how you could reach that conclusion, but I can assure you, the episodes are real. And it's not the work of Shigaraki or anyone else in the Alliance."

The amusement faded from her voice by the end, back to the flat and dull tones Shouta recognized as normal for her. "I do not know how it works and what triggers it. Whether you believe it or not is ultimately irrelevant to me though. He asked me to explain to you because no one else would, and he'll be kept in isolation until this episode ends for his own safety."

That had Shouta's gaze sharpening. "For his own safety?"

"He has attempted to 'escape' before while confused, which he typically regrets when he regains his memories. I believe you should know of at least one incident."

It took a moment for Shouta to piece together what she meant. "You mean the incident last year." A year ago Midoriya had gone along with one of Nighteye's students in a plan to leave the Alliance's base until abruptly changing his mind at the last second for no discernible reason. It had been the event that brought Midoriya's existence to their attention in the first place, and started their investigations into the boy.

They hadn't been able to determine why Midoriya had changed his mind about running away so late into it. It had been quite literally at the last second, stopping right after they left the building to head back with no explanation other than a hasty apology. So far Shouta hadn't asked Midoriya about it, beyond that one time he'd referenced it while trying to provoke a reaction and get a better idea of the kid's character. And given how that ended... well, he'd rather not broach the topic again.

That thought had him stilling, something suddenly slotting into place. "These episodes," he said after a moment, and paused, trying to gather his thoughts. It had only just struck him, the pieces still vague in his head and not yet fully slotting together enough to understand what he had realized, but he likely wouldn't get another chance to question her. "You say it basically... scrambles his memories, to different degrees. Can that happen on a smaller degree? In a conversation?"

"They can suddenly occur during conversations," the girl confirmed, validating his thoughts. "Though I do not know if what you witnessed was, in fact, an episode." So she had figured out his reason for asking.

The odd reaction Midoriya had when Shouta provoked him—the way he cut off mid-sentence and his face suddenly turned blank, the following disorientation—it hadn't been normal, and Shouta had no idea what it was. It almost seemed like a panic attack or something similar at first, but it just wasn't. But, if his memories had suddenly scrambled in the conversation, that could explain it.

That still raised questions. Left many blanks for Shouta to sort through. But, the story didn't seem quite so far-fetched now. It would explain Shigaraki's sudden visit that morning as well. A person with partial amnesia would be particularly prone to manipulation and coercion, especially in Midoriya's current circumstances. All signs pointed to Midoriya's admiration of heroes to be genuine, and Shouta was, oddly enough, his favorite hero according to all accounts. If he remembered his admiration for Eraserhead and knew it was him, then it would be easy for Shouta to sway and influence him—

And then Shouta suddenly remembered: Midoriya didn't remember how he'd heard of him.

The realization had him jolting, ignoring the sharp pang in his broken leg as the sudden motion jostled it. During their first conversation when Shouta had asked about it, Midoriya's wording had made it clear enough he didn't remember how he'd heard of him. Either the kid was the world's best actor and had been setting this up from their first meeting, or he genuinely didn't remember.

Shit. He didn't like the other implications of that.

"This one is quite unusual," the girl continued before he could fully process it, and he had to force himself to stop thinking and pay attention. "The longest episode lasted forty-three days, and the shortest three, but they typically last an average of two weeks. Usually they get detected quite fast. This is the longest he's managed to go undiscovered by Shigaraki or Kurogiri. Someone else managed to figure it out though, so his streak already ended at twenty-one days. As I said, it's like a game."

Once again her voice took that light, almost playful quality. The number twenty-one stuck out like a glaring alarm though, making his blood chill as it brought back his previous thought. Shouta might not know exactly how long he had been here, but he knew it wasn't that long. "Are you saying he's been in the middle of an episode this whole time?"

"He has. It has been thirty days as of today."

Shit. The sheer implications of that—this just kept getting worse and worse. He took a deep breath and pushed it to the back of his mind though, at least for the moment. He could spiral later, he needed to get more information before jumping to conclusions. "What was the record before this? Of going undiscovered, I mean."

"Seven days." And yet again, Shouta found himself thrown off. Twenty-one days was a very large leap from the previous record. His frown deepened as he analyzed the new information. If everything this girl stated was true, then he couldn't say he knew Midoriya as well as he thought. With his memories compromised, that would likely impact his personality.

However, if he'd gone twenty-one days without someone noticing—and twenty-nine until Shigaraki did—then it must be close to his original behavior. This painted their interactions in a new light, and he'd have to think back and re-analyze them with this new information.

That could wait until later though, after this girl left. Because right now, he knew the visit's time would be limited. The fact Midoriya sent her to inform him, combined with Shigaraki's threat that morning, made it clear this visit wasn't supposed to happen. "Can you prove Midoriya was the one who sent you, and not Shigaraki or someone else?"

"Shigaraki does not know I exist, and I am not part of the Alliance." The response had him sitting up straighter, eyes narrowing at the empty space.

"You never said who you are," he commented.

"I did not." The answer made it clear enough she didn't intend to give him a name. That, and the fact she hadn't shown herself.

"Is there anything you're willing to let me know?" he asked dryly.

Seiko hummed once, closing her eyes as her head tilted to the side. "Tell me, Eraserhead, what do you think I am?"

The choice of what instead of who had Shouta frowning again, but he decided not to address that as he mulled it over. "So far, I don't know what to make of you," he started. "Your voice sounds young, and you're small since I can't see you over the end of the bed. That, or you're invisible, but I personally doubt that. I'd almost suspect you're Mion," he added wryly, "since you managed to get in here without using the door. But last I checked, Mion shouldn't be able to use her Quirk."

"I see," the voice said simply. "I am not a cat." With how flat she sounded, it almost sounded like a joke. Almost.

"When you put it all together, that leads me to believe you're a child," Shouta concluded. Then after a moment he added, "But you're not actually a kid, are you?"

There was a long pause. And then,

she stood up.

A small girl appeared in his line of vision, back to him at first so he could only see black hair left largely loose but pulled into a ponytail on one side of her head. She was smaller than he'd expected, wearing a black sailor fuku dress almost like a school uniform and a cherry blossom hairpin.

And as she turned he saw pale, pale skin, with inverted eyes that reflected no light.

Shouta's breath caught, his whole body going stock-still as he stared at her. Her head inclined almost mechanically to the side, gazing at him with blank, empty eyes. "You're observant," she commented, voice still so bland, so emotionless, so—lifeless. "Most people don't figure that out. Maybe it's because you only had my voice and didn't see me."

She wasn't wrong. If he had seen her childlike appearance he might have been fooled, but with only her voice he had paid attention. Despite her youthful voice her speech patterns felt too off to Shouta to be a child, her tone and words a bit too bland. Yet he couldn't bring himself to confirm that, couldn't do anything but stare at her pale face which lacked even the minutest twitch of muscles save for her mouth when she spoke. An unnatural stillness that no face should possess at any age.

"You are an interesting man, Eraserhead. I can see why so many people here find you fascinating. But, I do not care for you."

Shouta didn't respond to the blunt declaration, just looked at her wide-eyed. Every instinct in his body was screaming wrong, danger, something is horribly wrong, and he knew exactly why.

"I have passed on Izuku's message so I have no reason to stay. Farewell."

And then she was gone, dropping into the floor and out of sight. Shouta could only sit frozen even after she left, still shellshocked by the girl's appearance. Even now he felt his skin prickle with goosebumps, the hairs on his neck standing up. He hoped it was just the lighting messing with his imagination, he hoped he was wrong about his first impression.

After all, she did look like a child.

(A dead child.)

Important news: for the foreseeable future, I'm switching to updating every other Monday.

I've thought long and hard, and this is the best solution. The buffer is just too low, and we're too close to the escape in-universe. I need time to make sure each chapter works together more than ever, and going on hiatuses isn't really working well. Once I get the buffer up I'll go back to weekly updates, but for now I'll be doing this. So I'll see you guys in two Mondays! In the meantime, the Ignite server is still open to anyone, and we have some other awesome fics on there with their own channels! Like Incident Zero, and everything by Downix and Owl.

I also started an AO3-exclusive fic: Untitled Goose Fic. Title says everything you need to know. It's basically just silly drabbles and won't update consistently, but it's a thing that exists and will likely be a collab with other writers from the Ignite server. It won't cut into writing time for Ignite, so don't worry about that.

Question for next time (courtesy of Ernand): If you had to have Shigaraki give you any hero as a pet, which hero would it be?