Chapter 118

.::Choosing Words Carefully::.

For once, Himiko didn't have a bounce in her step as she walked down the halls of the Alliance's base, her mood unusually dull and sober. If anyone saw her, they'd probably find the lack of the typical manic gleam in her eyes as unsettling as when she had it. Half the Alliance were out busy preparing for that raid though, so she didn't have to worry about putting on a front as she carried a tray of food through the halls.

Izu-kun got found out and was now stuck in isolation. When she'd realized he was having an episode, Himiko knew it would be a matter of time until that happened. People always found out, even if Tomu didn't realize every time, and usually someone would tell him. With Jackie, Tsuki-chan and Eraserhead, it was only natural he'd overreact and lock up Mido-chan until the episode ended.

It sucked, but she'd expected it. That didn't make her any happier it happened though, and she doubted Izu-kun would be happy either.

As she reached the door to his room she paused and took a breath before pasting on a big smile. No point acting all mopey in front of him, he'd be mopey enough for both of them. She rapped on the door three times before punching in the code on the keypad, and flung it open with a big grin. "Mido-chan, I got lunch!" she announced brightly.

Izu-kun nearly fell out of his chair when she burst into the room, twisting to face her wide-eyed. "T-Toga?" he sputtered, and she beamed as she skipped inside and used her foot to kick the door shut behind her.

"Come on, clear up some space! I got your favorite!"

"Katsudon?" he asked even as he turned back to the desk to move his stuff to the side to make room for the tray.

"Nope! Pork dumplings and rice! It's got pork and rice, so close enough!" She giggled as she bounced over to set it on the desk, Izu-kun looking at the tray almost warily. There were two plates, one for her and one for him.

"Did, did you make that?" he asked after a moment, and she laughed.

"No, silly! I'm not on the list, remember? I got Mustard to make it!" He hadn't been too happy when she asked him, since he was one of a very few people allowed to cook proper meals in the kitchen. People had been bugging him about it a lot. Thankfully he agreed though when she'd pointed out that A) it was for Mido-chan, so Tomu would be happy, and B) making a giant batch of pork dumplings should leave plenty for others for a while.

Mido-chan still looked a bit wary of the meal, but after a few seconds picked up the chopsticks. Himiko returned to the door and opened it just long enough to grab the rolling chair sitting in the hall outside, rolling it over to the desk. Mido-chan shot it a bizarre look even as she sat down. "Did you bring a chair?" he asked incredulously.

"Nah, Tomu leaves one in the hall for when he comes in. He doesn't like to leave two chairs inside because you threw them at him once." He did an actual double-take at that, while Himiko just picked up chopsticks to start eating her own dumplings. After a few seconds Mid-chan started eating too, and quickly relaxed as they ate in silence.

As they ate Himiko glanced at the rest of the desk. "What were you writing, anyway?" she asked, leaning forward curiously. There were wads of paper piled by an open notebook, numerous and surprisingly small. He had obviously been tearing up each page to prevent them from being read before crumpling them up. Paranoid as ever, at least some things never changed.

Izu-kun seemed to hesitate at the question, freezing in place with cheeks still puffed up with dumplings. After a moment he swallowed and stammered, "Uh, j-just... some stuff... But hey, did Tomura leave? He mentioned something about a raid party this morning...?"

It was an obvious redirect, but Himiko would let it slide. She bobbed her head and swallowed her own mouthful of food before saying, "Yeah, some other group beat up Braquey and Yale-chan super bad. Yale-chan couldn't even come back, and I heard that Braquey was hurting so much that Tanuki-san had to knock him out again!"

Mido winced at the description, and chewed with a thoughtful look before admitting, "I have no idea who any of those people are."

"That's okay, you'll remember eventually," she said with a shrug. "But like half the Alliance is out right now working on this, Tomu is pissed. They're basically just scouting things and trying to rescue Yale-chan though, so they'll probably be back pretty soon. So if you wanted to break out, now's still not the best time."

For some reason her casual comment had Mido jumping in alarm, almost choking on a mouthful of dumpling. "W-what?" he managed to sputter.

"That's why you're asking, right?" Himiko asked idly. "To figure out if it's a good time to escape? Well, it's not. I don't know when they'll be back, but they've already been gone a while so it'll be pretty soon."

Still he stared at her wide-eyed, clearly shocked by something. "You, you still want to help escape?" he finally asked, and she huffed and rolled her eyes.

"Of course, silly. I said I'd help, didn't I?" She might be hurt by his lack of faith in her, but as it stood she'd give him a pass this time. He didn't remember her fully, and he was pretty shaken up by everything. "It'll probably be better to wait until the episode ends though and he lowers his guard."

The second she said that he flinched though, looking wide-eyed before rapidly shaking his head. "No, that's—no, I can't wait that long."

"But it'll be easier though," she pointed out. "Tomu won't be so paranoid, and then you won't have to sneak around as much, either. If you're worried about the others, I can make sure they're all fine until then! It can't last that much longer, right?"

She flashed her teeth in a friendly smile, meant to be reassuring, but his uncertainty persisted. His thumb raised to his mouth as he lowered his gaze to the plate, shaking his head and muttering. "No, no, that's... That won't... No..." He trailed off, chewing on the tip of his thumb, and Himiko's smile faded.

Something was wrong here. This felt like more than the usual nerves. "Izu-kun," she said, and he snapped to attention at her voice, unusual in its seriousness. "Is there something else going on? Why are you so on edge?"

He didn't reply, just looked at her with a startled look like a deer in headlights. Finally though he broke eye contact and inhaled a shaky breath. "Toga, I—" Then he stopped short, jolting in his seat and eyes going wide. "I...?" Once again he trailed off, but she could see a sudden light in his eyes, some sort of epiphany unfolding.

Then, he began speaking more rapidly. "I'm not okay. Tomura figured out I'm having an episode, I'm stuck in isolation and I can't leave or tell anyone. All I could do was get Seiko to tell Eraserhead what's going on—oh crap, Seiko?" He cringed as he called out her name, but she didn't appear.

"She left a while ago," Himiko informed him with a shrug. "She told me she was gonna check out the situation with Yale-chan. She said to tell you she wouldn't do 'that' again, so I guess she meant you making her talk to Eraserhead? She seemed pretty mad," she added thoughtfully.

That got her a blank look. "How can you even tell?" he whispered, but then shook his head and said, "Know what, never mind. We don't have time for that. But it sounds like she did tell him, so that's one thing down. But we still need to tell Kacchan and Shi—Hijack." Himiko perked up at the hastily corrected slip, leaning forward expectantly as a smile split across her face.

"Did Jackie tell you his name?" she asked eagerly. "What is it, what is it?"

Rather predictably, he winced and shook his head. "Uh, I can't—he didn't—I'm not—um, no," he finished lamely, shoulders slumping as he turned to quickly scribble something in his notebook. "Sorry. Just forget about that, and don't mention it. But back to the point," he said before she could press him, turning back to her once more, "Toga, you're really willing to help? You're absolutely serious?"

Himiko let her smile fade, expression serious once more. "Of course I am," she said firmly. "I told you, it's wrong that they were kidnapped and forced into this against their will. If they don't want to be here, they shouldn't have to. So I'm on your side. Even if you somehow change your mind once this episode ends, I'll make sure they get out just like I promised yesterday. Eraserhead, too."

Izuku looked at her closely, his expression hard to read. Himiko just met his gaze calmly, willing her sincerity to show. After a long moment he blinked and nodded. "I think sheʼs telling the truth," he mumbled, almost too quiet for her to catch, before saying more clearly, "Toga, I need you to tell them what's going on."

If he didn't have Himiko's attention before, he certainly did now. She perked up, tilting her head. "Oh? You didn't ask Seiko-chan to tell them?"

He shook his head. "No, she'd have to tell them both separately since Tomura apparently... doesn't know she exists." He shot her a look, to which she just shrugged.

"Don't look at me like that. It's fun to see her just hang around with Tomu not knowing she's there! I forgot you wouldn't remember that though."

He didn't seem totally satisfied by her answer, but soon enough sighed and let it go. "Fine. But anyways, it would be easier to have them together for the explanation, and you're the only person who can get them together without having another person supervising. So," he turned to the notebook, and mumbled to himself too low to hear as he picked up his pen. He then grimaced before scribbling some more before continuing, "I need to finish this, and then I need you to take this letter explaining everything, okay?"

Then he paused and muttered some stuff too quietly for her to hear, looking a bit annoyed for some reason, before turning to her. "Toga, you're the only person I can ask to do this. I'm taking a big risk, but I have no choice. And... I think," and he hesitated, ever so briefly before pushing on, "I think I trust you."

Something about his words took her by surprise, looking at him for a moment before her face lit up with a soft smile. She could feel the weight of his words, see the sincerity in his face even as his eyes still glimmered with uncertainty. "Aw, thank you, Izu-kun!" she chirped, reaching out to pat his shoulder. "You're so good. You can count on me!"

He managed to offer a feeble smile in return, nodding. "Thank you. I'm just, gonna finish writing this now, I guess."

"Okay!" Himiko said, sitting back and picking up her chopsticks again. "Take your time, even if Tomu comes back it'd be totally normal for me to have lunch with you anyway." He just nodded and turned back to his desk, picking up his pen once more while Toga resumed eating.

Barely two minutes into her lunch break, and Ran knew she probably wouldn't get much time to eat or study. The message from Jirou made sure of that.

After uttering a quick excuse about cramming in a quieter place, she broke away from her friends and headed to a classroom. Several of the teachers had an open offer for some students to use their classrooms if their Quirks made the lunchroom too overwhelming, and luckily Ran was on that list. She slipped into the one furthest from the cafeteria and sat at a desk in the far back corner with her bento, and then swapped a single ear with Midoriya.

At first she heard silence, but then, "Toga, I—" Then he stopped short, no doubt picking up on the difference in his hearing. Even with only one ear swapped out, it made your own voice sound radically different. "I...?"

He trailed off, and Ran took the opportunity to whisper, "It's Anjou. I swapped an ear out to check everything's okay. If now's a bad time, just—"

She didn't have a chance to finish before he declared, "I'm not okay," and then revealed one of their worst fears had become a reality. Shigaraki had figured out he was missing his memories, and locked him up.

Ran's stomach sank as she listened to the conversation. While he couldn't speak to her freely, he was still able to pass along enough through talking to Toga for her to glean the details. He'd been stuck since last night, and had managed to pass on a message to Eraserhead through Seiko (who apparently, Shigaraki didn't know existed? What?), but hadn't told Shinsou or Bakugou.

And when the idiot almost slipped with Shinsou's name, she felt a spike of irritation and had to grit her teeth to bite back a threat. She quickly found her attention focused to another thing though: Midoriya wanted Toga to deliver a letter.

"Are you crazy?" Ran hissed when there was a small break in the conversation. "I know you said she's willing to help, but this is a huge risk! We don't know if she can be trusted!"

She could hear the soft intake of breath, before he murmured quietly, barely audible even with the silence on both ends, "I know, but... Swap eyes with me for a second." Ran scowled but did as told, covering one eye with her palm before swapping the other. She saw a piece of paper on a desk, Midoriya's line of vision bobbing slightly as he adjusted to the suddenly split vision. He quickly focused though and scribbled a sentence at the bottom of the page:

'If you have any doubts, just tell me what you think after I look at her.'

"What does that mean?" she hissed, but Midoriya then swiveled his head to look at Toga. This marked Ran's first actual glimpse of Toga Himiko, since during their prior meeting she'd been transformed. She looked surprisingly normal for the most part: narrow eyes with slight bags, messy blonde hair pulled into buns on either side of her head, and what looked like a school uniform.

Her eyes also had a sharpness to them as she gazed at Midoriya, sitting up a bit straighter. He raised his voice, addressing both Toga and Ran as he said, "Toga, you're the only person I can ask to do this. I'm taking a big risk, but I have no choice. And... I think, I think I trust you."

There was only the slightest of hesitance in his tone, but he finished the sentence firmly. And an important thing about Ran: she was good at reading people. She could read between the lines, pick up on what they didn't say, and this time she heard it clearly:

He felt a subconscious degree of trust towards Toga, meaning his counterpart trusted her.

"Dammit," she mouthed soundlessly, moving her palm to cover her whole face and closing her open eye. That didn't cut off the connection of course, so she could still see the way Toga's eyes flickered with surprise before her expression grew soft. And, dammit, Ran could see the sincerity in her face, the way Toga was moved by that show of trust and reciprocated it. She could feel it from both of them, through the links she'd set up when she met them.

Ran kinda wanted to bang her head on the desk at how mushy it all felt. This was one of the most annoying parts of her Quirk: even when she wasn't trying to tap into it, she just subconsciously picked up on people's emotions sometimes while focusing on links. She might be good at reading people, but she didn't really like handling feelings like this. It just felt too sappy for her taste.

But it also meant she could sense Toga was serious, and could probably be trusted. Probably.

Ran was still very unhappy about this.

"I hate this so much," she muttered under her breath.

"That makes two of us," Midoriya murmured back, turning back to his notebook and scribbling out the sentence. "We don't have a choice though. Do you think she can be trusted?"

"Probably," Ran grumbled. "And write other words over the sentence to cover it." Midoriya paused but then did just that, and the layered kanji quickly became indecipherable. Ran cut the swap of their eyes then, pulling her hand away from her face and opening her eyes to gaze at her untouched bento. It would have to go untouched a little longer unfortunately, and she pulled out her phone. "I'll DM the others with the news. By the way, Uraraka is on her way to get that Quirk reversed."

She heard the pencil pause in its scratching, and then very quietly, "Is that safe?"

"We have literally no other choice." The irony wasn't lost on Ran. "Dabi's there, and if he wants answers he'll have to make sure she's not kidnapped or anything, so there's that at least." Which was still more insurance than they had with Toga.

There was another pause, and then a sigh. "This sucks," he said flatly.

"It'll be okay, Mido-chan!" Toga chirped, and Ran just shook her head. Nope, she was not dealing with this part any longer.

"I'm gonna break the link and text them. Got anything specific for me to tell them before I go?"

"I... don't think so, but can you check in after school? When I'll be alone?"

"You say something?" Toga asked.

"No, j-just, thinking out loud, I guess," Midoriya stammered nervously.

"Yeah, I can do that," Ran said dryly as she listened to the exchanged. Right now obviously wasn't a good time to talk with Toga around. "If it's a bad time when I swap ears, just click your teeth together two times and I'll try again later." There was a pause, and then an experimental clack of teeth as he tried it, prompting her to deadpan, "Yeah, I can hear it. It's one of those sounds you learn to subconsciously block out. I have a lot to do, so I'm breaking the link now. Just hang in there."

"Okay," he whispered back, and Ran swapped their ears back, effectively breaking the link. For a moment she just sat there, but then she slowly exhaled and opened up FacePage. A few taps, and she had a new group chat open with Ashido, Todoroki and Uraraka.

'Heads up: Deku got caught having an episode. He's using the shapeshifter girl to get a letter to your classmate and Hijack, and already had Seiko tell your teacher the situation. I still have exams so I need to focus on that, but I'll check in with him again after school. You guys should work on rescue plans, but also, don't tell Music or Chargebolt until after they do their thing today.'

Ochako just stared at her phone in mute horror and disbelief, her jaw hanging open. She knew that a message from Anjou when she was busy with exams couldn't mean anything good, but she still hadn't been prepared for this. This was seriously one of their worst-case scenarios.

She kinda wanted to scream in frustration, but she knew now was a horrible time for that. Which was reinforced when Aiko set a mug of hot chocolate in front of her. The clatter of porcelain against wood made Ochako jolt and nearly drop her phone.

"Jumpy, aren't you?" Dabi remarked wryly, and Ochako couldn't even muster the will for a half-hearted glare as she willed her heart rate to calm down.

"Thanks," she mumbled, pocketing her phone before taking the mug. It had been bitterly cold outside and her hands still hadn't fully warmed up, so the warm drink was very welcome.

"Is everything okay?" Aiko asked as she sat at the table across from her. "You look kinda... Freaked out."

"I'm fine!" Ochako squeaked in a high-pitched voice, making herself wince at how strained it sounded.

"Sure you are," Dabi snorted with an eye roll, and this time Ochako did glare at him. Not that it phased him. She sighed as she turned forward, taking a sip from the mug. For all her problems with Aiko, the woman made the best hot chocolate. She knew Aiko used a box mix, but she clearly added some other stuff to improve it and make it even sweeter. It was almost enough to make her relax and forget her problems.

Almost.

"One of my friends just texted me some crazy news, that's all," she said, knowing she had to tell them something. "Some, uh, stuff happened that we didn't expect. It's, um, not important to... This. So, you don't need to worry about it." She shrugged awkwardly, hoping they wouldn't push for more details.

Of course she wasn't that lucky. "You're not talking about Shouto, right?" Dabi asked, and she quickly shook her head.

"No, someone else. You wouldn't know them. Todoroki's probably fine."

"Probably?" he repeated dryly, and she grimaced. Yeah, could have chosen a better word.

"I mean, he was okay when I saw him last night?" she said. "He was already gone this morning when I woke up so I didn't talk to him today, but he's not doing anything dangerous."

"Not gonna lie kid, the fact you have to specify that is kinda suspicious," Dabi deadpanned, and Ochako's shoulders slumped with a groan while Aiko glanced between them.

"Should, should I be worried?" she asked, and her expression was a perfect replica of Deku's when he got flustered and concerned. "Are you caught up in some kind of conspiracy? Are you in danger?"

Yes, yes she was, and Aiko was one of the threats. She couldn't say that though, or anything else about the constant dangers they faced. "Um, it's complicated, and I really don't want to talk about it with you. But it's nothing that bad."

She might be lying through her teeth there—emphasis on might. She had no idea how to rank how bad any part of their situation was, this world was screwed up enough to skew her perception of how bad things were. When the bar was set at All Might is dead, heroes are basically a dying breed, and UA closed due to a massacre, that made a lot of things feel pretty inconsequential.

(Well, the whole "stuck in another world" thing was still pretty major and bad, but in a different way.)

Aiko still had that weirdly Deku-like worried look, which was seriously so similar and felt almost uncanny to see on someone else's face. It was clear she wasn't reassured by Ochako's words. "Whatever is going on, Izuku won't be pulled into it, right?" she asked. "Please? Because he's already been caught up in one crazy teenage conspiracy, he really doesn't need to be pulled into another."

Once again, Ochako wanted to scream because that was exactly why she wanted to scream in the first place. They hadn't done anything, Deku got in trouble by just living with the Alliance. They were trying to get him out of danger! "I swear we won't do anything to put him in danger," she said. "He's my friend. I care about his safety too, so you don't need to remind me about that."

"As interesting and important as this all is," Dabi cut in, "shouldn't we get down to business? Floaty's here for a reason after all."

That had Ochako and Aiko both sitting up a bit straighter, nodding seriously as they mentally switched gears. "Totoro says you can't even point out Nabu on a map?" Aiko asked, and Ochako nodded, but then paused.

"Totoro?" she repeated curiously, while Dabi openly glared at Aiko.

"You know, I have a different name I actually like now," he said crisply.

"Yeah, and it's a silly edgelord name," Aiko retorted just as dryly. "I've been calling you Totoro for years. You never liked your actual name, and now you look even more like a tanuki. So now you're even more of a Totoro than before!"

She beamed at him, sunny and cheerful. His glare accentuated the purple scars under his eyes, which sort of proved her point. "Anyways," he grit out, turning to Ochako, "Can you just tell her what Shouto said?"

Ochako nodded, quickly refocusing on the subject at hand. "Like he said, I can't point out Nabu on a map, or talk about or mention it. I can't even pick it out on a screen."

"How did you get here last time then?" Aiko asked, her gaze sharp, and Ochako sucked on the inside of her cheek. She should have expected Aiko would ask that.

"I... came here with Todoroki-kun," she admitted reluctantly. "We were traveling together for safety, and we had some stuff to do here unrelated to Deku. He bought the tickets, so... yeah." Again, not even a total lie. They'd planned to look around Nabu and maybe leave some graffiti messages since Mail had mentioned Porter would be likely to check out cities where the League/Alliance had bases. They'd gotten distracted after hearing about the Shinsou situation and then looking for Deku's notebook, but the intent was there. So, not a complete lie.

(She was a bit paranoid about straight-up lying to Aiko, okay? Who knew what sorts of Quirks she had?)

Her answer seemed to appease Aiko, who nodded after a moment. "Follow-up, who's Kaminari?" she asked, and that had Ochako freezing, stomach dropping.

"W-what?" she whispered. How did she know his name?

"You mentioned on that phone call you couldn't talk about Kaminari's something," Dabi interjected almost lazily, but his eyes had a sharp glint as he watched her. "I mentioned that to Aiko when explaining why Taboo or whatever she calls it wasn't the most flawless thing."

Ochako couldn't fully remember mentioning Kaminari, but she had a pretty good guess on the context. "Um, well, he's a friend of mine," she said after a beat. "And he mentioned a creepy teacher he had, and then I realized I couldn't say her name. And I'd definitely never met her, so..." She trailed off and shrugged, hoping Aiko would focus on that rather than try to push for details on Kaminari.

And mercifully, she did, her gaze serious as she leaned forward with a hand raised to her chin. Once again Ochako found herself thrown off by the similarity to Deku's expressions, this time perfectly mimicking his thinking face. "That's definitely too extreme," she murmured. "It wasn't that strict the last time I used it, but that was years ago... I don't need to use it that much, and it doesn't take effect around me so I never get to see the effects in action... Are there other limitations too we just don't know about yet?"

She even mumbled like Deku. Something about that just made the sight feel so surreal to Ochako, and she might laugh if it wasn't for the situation. "So you're gonna lift it, right?" Dabi said, and that seemed to snap Aiko out of her mumble trance, blinking once as she looked up.

"Of course. I didn't think it would block anything about Nabu or the names of people she had never met. If I knew it would be that strict, I wouldn't have used it in the first place." Ochako almost sagged in relief, glad to know it was finally almost over. But of course, her relief was short-lived when Aiko continued, "We still need to figure out some other solution though."

"What?" Ochako said, feeling her heart sink.

"The core issue is still the same," Aiko explained with a frown, crossing her arms. "Being able to talk about the Alliance is a huge security risk, and I don't mean you going to the police or heroes. They've made a lot of enemies over the years, and you're already a runaway. It wouldn't be hard to make you disappear if someone found out you knew even the smallest details about it."

Well, that was a new angle, and Ochako wanted to scream all over again. Because the only other solutions she could imagine were A) confining her, and B) trying another Quirk. Neither of which she wanted.

Fortunately for her though, Dabi spoke up before Aiko could propose either option. "You don't need to be so paranoid about her blabbing," he said. "I can make sure she doesn't talk about them until you come up with something. I was planning to catch a ride back with her to wherever she and Shouto are hanging out anyway, right?" He gave her a subtle but pointed look as he said that, and Ochako had to fight back a wince.

"Yeah, I guess so," she agreed, trying to sound cheerful. Of course he'd go with her, why had she expected anything else? He'd gone through plenty of trouble to get even a single lead on Todoroki, and now that he'd fulfilled his end of the bargain, it was only natural he'd want instant resolution. Looks like the confrontation would be happening today, which was admittedly bad because they hadn't talked about that yet.

Between the Deku situation, Kyouka and Denki facing down Gentle Criminal, and now the suddenly impending Dabi meeting, today was going to be very hectic. But at least Taboo would be lifted, given Aiko's nod. "Alright then," she said, and got up to walk to Ochako's side. "Let's remove it then."

She held out a hand, and Ochako happily gripped it. Things might be getting ever more complicated, but at least this one thing would become a little more simple.

Fun fact: I finished the rough draft yesterday because I spent this whole past week playing Pokémon Legends: Arceus. 10/10 game, totally worth it, best Pokémon game in YEARS, and I beat the main story at around 65 hours and can now finally get back to my life.

So, yeah, buffer is at exactly zero now. I have minimal regrets.

Also, I only realized that Dabi would insist on going to Odawara with Ochako while writing this chapter. So yeah, this really IS going to be a super-busy day in-universe! :D

Today's question for next time is a bit different. If you went into a standard fantasy world, defeated the demon king and all that, and could return to Earth with one power or skill from your adventure, what would it be? This could be anything from flight to controlling plants or animals to weather manipulation, to more "trained" skills like archery or maxed-out cleaning, or even just stats like strength. Basically, anything you've seen in fantasy or a video game as a skill is an option.