Chapter 120
.::Enter: Gentle Criminal and Phantom Shadow!::.
Mitsuru Corporation's headquarters was located near the edge of the business district of Hosu. As the office of a cosmetics manufacturing company, it didn't need to be in the heart of Hosu to facilitate regular interactions with collaborating companies, choosing to instead operate next to its local warehouse. The general area didn't get much foot traffic outside the typical salarymen, and the building was rather unassuming overall. Just a typical office building, for a typical company.
Which did nothing to keep it off the radar of Gentle Criminal.
Entering the building was, as usual, quite flashy, and a bit destructive this time since they chose to enter through a window. Workers could be heard shouting in alarm as they heard glass shatter as the duo swung into an empty room. Phantom Shadow naturally landed first, Dark Shadow pulling Gentle Criminal behind him so the elder thief landed neatly on his feet.
Gentle patted down his suit as the shadow released him to smooth the wrinkles, pressing a hand to the comm set in his ear as he and Phantom Shadow headed for the door. "We have successfully entered. Please commence the second stage."
"Of course," La Brava replied, and the lights in the room began flickering. By the time they opened the door panic had started to spring among the workers, the combined sound of shattered glass and flickering power making it clear something was happening. People had already started evacuating and shouting for others to alert other floors, following the standard procedures for presumed villain attacks outlined in their virtual files. It was easy for the pair of thieves to evade those routes, smoothly slipping down the halls for the employee lounge with their target.
As they arrived the lights stopped flickering to turn off entirely and left the building in darkness, save for a few lights by a display case. Like many CEOs, the man currently heading Mitsuru Corporation had a sizable ego and a desire to show off his success, so he had elected to use a lounge on the fifth floor to display his lost prized possession: a framed 2000 yen note. According to the plaque on the display, it was a gift from his sister as a show of support in his business aspirations back when he was first starting out.
Usually the display had several internal spotlights proudly illuminating it, but not this time. The interior of the case was shrouded in darkness, allowing Dark Shadow to easily reach inside with shadowy tendrils and weave through a still-active invisible laser grid. They lifted the frame and quickly retreated along the same path, holding the framed note to Gentle Criminal who accepted it gingerly.
"Thank you," he said, and then plucked the yen note from the frame and let it fall to the floor. He turned and held the frame beneath the lights still on in the lounge, the gold gleaming even in the dimness. The CEO had spared no expense on the frame, solid gold and encrusted with jewels. Center among those jewels was a vivid orange stone, and the center of Gentle's attention. The surface glittered and sparkled as he turned the frame under the lights, the vivid hues inside shimmering like a fiery sunset contained within glass.
A smile curled across the thief's lips at the display. Any doubts about its veracity were wiped away; even a layman could tell that no mere glass trinket could mimic that beautiful internal display. This was, without a doubt, the Sunset Padparadscha Sapphire.
The Sunset Padparadscha Sapphire was one of the more famous specimens among fans of the rare sapphire variety. Not only for the colors which earned its nickname, but also for being one of the first gemstones produced by a Quirk. There were so many stories associated with its creation, legends of torrid affairs and passions giving way to fiery fury and burning resentment that only added to the jewel's mystique.
Most would be wary of displaying such a valuable gem in public, let alone as a decoration on a frame, but the current CEO happened to be descended from the person who'd produced it. Having grown up with it, he had lost some of his appreciation for it other than the fact it was special and unique. As such, he'd found flaunting it to his employees boosted his pride much more than only showing it to potential business partners and the like.
It was the perfect target for Gentle Criminal.
"Please hold onto this, dear boy," he said as he held the frame to Phantom Shadow. A dark hand emerged from his assistant's cloak to retrieve it and pull it inside, and Gentle turned with a flourish that had his own cloak flowing wide as he strode to the door. "Now come, it's time to make haste and depart! La Brava, can you give an update on the building's status?"
"The escape route is clear, just like we expected," his partner reported over the earpiece. "It looks like some of them have figured out it's probably you and not a villain attack though, a bunch are talking in the lobby about you. Police have been called, but they're busy with that decoy robbery on the other side of town so it will be fifteen minutes at minimum. The nearest on-duty Idaten sidekick team is also ten minutes out."
"That's more than enough time," Gentle said lightly. "But tell me, what of our guests of honor?"
"No word from them yet," she replied. "If they're here, they're not in the building. No sign of them in the building—ah, heads up, security's storming up the stairs. Two people, no obvious Quirks, heading your way. They'll reach your location in ten, turning the corner by the stairs behind you."
He hummed in acknowledgment, casually twisting his torso to wave a hand at the air behind him before turning forward once more and resuming his walk. He didn't look back as he heard the security officers storm into the hall and chase after him with angry shouts, only to bounce against the invisible barrier and get rebounded backwards to the far wall. He picked up his pace to a light jog with Phantom Shadow close behind as they headed towards the back hallways to make their escape.
Their destination was simple: a large window that actually opened. It was meant for deploying an emergency escape chute kept in a box in front of it, which they ignored in favor of simply jumping out. Gentle quickly clapped his hands together and spun them below himself, turning the air itself into yet another elastic barrier that gently bounced them so they wouldn't plummet to their deaths. Below he could hear shouts of awe and amazement, the crowd of evacuated employees clearly recognizing them.
The duo skipped through the air in large strides, seeming to gracefully glide over the streets to the casual observer. This was, of course, the result of endless practice so they wouldn't look ridiculous as they essentially bounced on an invisible trampoline. It kept them well out of reach of anyone on the ground, and they had no problem reaching the opposite building's empty rooftop. The excited voices of the crowd were quieter and more distant now, this building's height giving a clear look at a few other surrounding buildings.
Gentle hummed as they paused in the center of the empty space, taking a moment to look around. "Hm. That was admittedly rather..."
"Anticlimactic?" Phantom Shadow offered.
"Straightforward," Gentle settled, and his assistant nodded.
"Indeed. We expected more of a challenge, or some obstacle to hinder us." His voice carried an undercurrent of disappointment, subtle enough that not many would pick up on it. The fact was, usually something would go wrong on a heist, whether it was a hero's arrival or a security guard deviating from their usual habits. Yes, they had arranged it so that no police and heroes would be in the immediate vicinity, but usually they would still encounter some unexpected difficulty.
Gentle did not consider himself particularly superstitious, but the smoothness of this heist so far left him feeling wary. "La Brava," he said softly into his earpiece while Dark Shadow shot out to grasp a nearby rooftop, "how are things inside Mitsuru?"
"The security guards spent about two minutes trying to find an alternate way past your wall. The evacuation's been called off, they're all waiting for police now. It looks like some idiot manager is trying to order his team back to work though." The remark got a soft huff from Gentle, the noise lost over the rush of wind as he and Phantom Shadow were essentially reeled to the nearby rooftop.
"Their priorities leave much to be desired, as expected," he commented as they landed and he glanced around. This building, taller than their original perch, allowed them to see all the surrounding rooftops clearly. And specifically, how empty they were. "Do keep an eye on things there."
"Will do, Gentle!" La Brava agreed cheerily before signing off, leaving him to stew in his quiet unease.
"I suppose we should have expected that our guests would not follow us into the office building," he mused. "It would be a rather messy place for a fight. I had hoped they would be waiting nearby, but it appears at the very least, they're not on this rooftop." Phantom Shadow hummed in agreement, the two already heading for the opposite side of the roof to make their exit.
Which was, of course, when something silver flew at their feet. The two responded immediately by jumping back, just in time for the object to explode into a thick plume of smoke.
A grin immediately broke out on Gentle's face as the air was suddenly shrouded with smoke, recognizing what this meant. "So the guests of honor finally make their grand entrance!" he bellowed. "Please, come out and show yourselves! The spotlight is wide enough for all of us, that's why I sent you the invitation in the first place!"
"Thanks, but we'll pass," a voice said behind him, and he whirled to see... nothing. Suddenly he felt a shove from behind, but even without looking he could recognize the touch wasn't a person but the oddly soft texture of Dark Shadow's hands. He turned his head just in time to see a golden needle pierce the shadowy arm, instantly sparking with light and electricity.
The sentient Quirk screeched and immediately withdrew, retreating to the shade of his assistant's cloak and making the needle fall to the ground in the process. Gentle meanwhile spun towards the direction the needle came from, spying a hooded figure through the clearing smoke with an index finger pointed towards them like a gun.
"Bang," he said simply, and Gentle let himself grin even more.
The 1-A Vigilantes were officially on the scene.
Denki knew he looked cool, posed with index finger pointed like a gun after shooting a lightning rod at Gentle Criminal. It was the kind of entrance he fantasized about. He jerked his wrist back and the wire attached automatically reeled the rod back into the compartment on the back of his hand, signifying its return with a click. He'd been aiming at Gentle Criminal, but the fact Dark Shadow intercepted it changed little. He'd wanted their attention, and he had it.
"Thanks for the invite," he said, utterly nonchalant and cool as he stuffed his hands in his pockets. "But not a fan of the stalker vibes from it."
Surprisingly enough, Gentle Criminal seemed to take offense at that. "Come now, you make it sound nefarious," he huffed, his mustache bristling as he frowned at Denki. "We were perfectly polite and proper, we hardly put anything personal in your invitations to merit such an accusation."
"You sent it to our personal emails," Kyouka's distorted voice deadpanned from the stairwell, making Tokoyami whirl to face that direction to find no one, of course. "We don't go advertising our actual identities on the internet or anywhere else. So yeah, that's pretty stalker-ish."
Denki couldn't see Tokoyami's face under that mask, but he figured he must be pretty on edge by not being able to see her given how he subtly glanced around the roof. The speakers Yaomomo and Hatsume made were small and hard to see, especially with the still-fading smoke, but very loud for their size. It sounded like she was right there, which had to be disorienting for the thieves.
If it bothered him, Gentle Criminal didn't let any unease show. "Well, we had to make sure you would see our invitation in time," he said. "It was quite short notice, after all, and we wanted to give you at least a little time to prepare. After all, what good is having a rival if their performance cannot match us on the grand stage?"
He grinned then, spreading his arms wide in a grand gesture. "This is a monumental moment in our careers! Your first true brush with fame, and our first brush with someone who may be truly able to complement us. After all, what good is it if our nemeses are heroes? We may be thieves, but we are hardly villains! It is only right that our greatest rivals be in a similarly dubious position in the eyes of the law, but still on the other side of the scale!
"So please, do not disappoint us," he finished, dipping into a gracious half-bow with one arm folded in front of his chest. "We look forward to your performance today."
With that he straightened and skipped back towards the edge of the roof. Denki surged into motion then, pulling a pink pellet from his pocket and hurling it right at the thief. Dark Shadow darted out from Tokoyami's cloak to intercept its trajectory, and then loudly squawked in dismay as it exploded into sticky pink goo all over it.
Hatsume's new sticky bombs were even stickier than before, and Denki could see globs of pink sticking to the Quirk as it withdrew towards Tokoyami. Tokoyami then made a similar sound of dismay as the goo caught on the hem of his cloak, quickly jumping back. "What is this insidious substance?" he exclaimed, and Denki smirked even as he kept rushing after Gentle Criminal.
"That, my friend, is bonafide WHAT THE—" He cut himself off with a yelp as his foot suddenly sank into the rooftop and then sharply bounced up. With one foot shooting into the air so abruptly and the other still on the roof it threw him completely off balance, staggering back and hopping on one foot to try to keep from falling down. It actually wasn't that hard, just made him a little wobbly on his feet for a second.
Which of course left him wide open for something to hit him square in the chest, knocking him firmly onto his back.
He landed with a pained yelp, back sore from hitting the concrete or whatever material the roof was made of, and his chest sore from whatever hit him there. The object rolled off his chest and he turned his head to see, of all things, a teacup. It actually bounced a bit as it rolled along the rooftop, coming to a stop when it bumped into a shiny dark brown shoe. Denki's gaze instinctively trailed up the attached leg to see none other than Gentle Criminal.
"Tea is a superb beverage, don't you agree?" he asked conversationally as he bent to retrieve the cup. "I find that it is only sensible to always carry a teacup on my person. Not just so I am always ready for tea should the opportunity arise, but also because they can be surprisingly useful in battle." Denki just grunted as he sat up, but as he did he spied movement and his head swiveled to see Tokoyami fleeing for the edge of the roof.
His heart skipped a beat as he all but jumped to his feet. "Oh, no you don't!" he hollered, electricity instinctively sparking along his hands as he took aim with his index finger, but then had to abort the motion as he saw more movement in his periphery. He jerked back two steps and narrowly avoided the teacup as it hurled past where his head had been.
"Now, now, young Taser, don't focus on him," Gentle chided, hands raising above his head. "I believe my company should be ample enough for you!" Instinct alone had Denki dodging to the side when the thief threw his hands at him, and a moment later he felt a whoosh of air as something invisible passed him.
Denki's head turned in shock as the movement jostled his hood. They knew Gentle could make barriers to move in air—Yaomomo theorized he made the air elastic—but this was new. "You can throw those things?" he exclaimed. "Oh, come on, that's just not fair!"
He turned and crossed his arms above his chest as Gentle charged at him even as he shouted, guarding against the thief's kick. The shock-absorption padding in the sleeves was put to the test by the impact, Gentle using Denki's crossed arms almost like a springboard to flip higher into the air. "You say that, but you have a tendency to use a variety of tools!" he responded as his torso twisted, waving his hands beneath himself. He landed in a crouch in the air above Denki, bouncing only slightly. "Those tools give you plenty of options, and even obscure your Quirk. But I know better. That electricity is your true power, isn't it?"
He raised his hands above his head once more, leering down at Denki with a smug and condescending air. With the sun above him it cast his face in an ominous shadow, making his teeth seem to almost glow as he smirked. "Let's see how well you can fare against me!"
Denki mentally cursed and lunged to the side as Gentle threw his arms downwards, the roof caving slightly where he'd just been under the invisible barriers. This was not the plan, he wasn't supposed to fight Gentle. At least with Tokoyami he had an idea of what to expect from their world. Gentle Criminal was totally new to him, and all Denki had been able to gather was that he made stuff bendy. He wasn't the most strategic, and he knew it. Fighting him alone would be hard.
However, the fight wouldn't be quite as divided as Gentle Criminal and Tokoyami had planned.
After jumping off the roof, Tokoyami probably intended to land on the lower roof of a neighboring building. In the process he had to drop past the windows of the top floor of the building he jumped from though, including an open one where Kyouka waited. She held the Flash Ray at the ready and had her earphone jacks already plugged into her boots, and the second she saw the flash of black she blasted her Quirk through the speakers.
The sound waves hit Tokoyami square in the back, catching him midair and sending him hurtling towards the lower roof. Dark Shadow shot out from beneath his cloak, scrabbling for something to grab and stop their fall, but Kyouka quickly aimed the Flash Ray and pulled the trigger. The megaphone-like device flashed with a blinding light, making the shadow shriek as its form wavered before quickly withdrawing, and Tokoyami crashed onto the roof none too gracefully.
With him down, Kyouka hopped into the window frame. "Thanks for letting me stay here," she said to the woman in the office before jumping out, the woman closing the window behind her. She landed on the lower roof neatly, striding over to her fallen classmate who struggled to get up. The pink sticky bomb residue clinging to his cloak had stuck to the rooftop, proving surprisingly effective at limiting his movements.
"What madness is this?" he growled, raising his head and twisting it to look at her. "How did you sneak up on us? Where did you come from?"
"Same way you escaped Mitsuru Corporation," Kyouka replied with a huff, aiming the Flash Ray at him. "I used a window."
While Gentle Criminal and Tokoyami had clearly planned their heist in advance, Kyouka and Denki had also been able to make a plan—or rather, Yaoyorozu had. She had been able to fill in the gaps of their knowledge on Mitsuru Corporation, predicting details down to their likely target and the most probable escape route. With the knowledge of a fire escape on the same floor as a jewel-encrusted frame, it was easy to figure out the most likely points to intercept them.
And in a great stroke of luck, one of those buildings happened to be owned by Yaoyorozu's family. So discreetly arranging with one of the workers for Kyouka to wait in an office, with the story of Yaoyorozu being contacted for help as a fan of the 1-A Vigilantes, was child's play.
She kept the Flash Ray trained on Tokoyami as he turned his head to glare at her, giving Kyouka her first real look at his mask. In all the photos and videos—even the ones filmed outside the heists by Gentle Criminal himself—the mask's details hadn't been too clear. The black material and his tendency to lurk in the shadows during the videos made it too hard to make out much beyond the fact it had a long, snout-like protrusion to accommodate his beak.
Now, she could see it wasn't just snout-like, it was a snout. She could faintly make out the outline of a nose at the end, and a line along the side matching up with a mouth. She could also now see two bumps in his hood above his forehead as well, lining up with the position of horns or... ears.
Her eyebrows rose as the pieces slotted together. "Are you wearing a wolf mask?"
She could practically feel his glare, even if she couldn't see his eyes through the black mesh shrouding the eye holes. "No," he replied testily. "I am wearing the mask of Anubis, not some mere canine."
"Ah, my bad," Kyouka replied, resisting the urge to snort. Of course he'd choose a god of death for his disguise. He named himself after the Shinto Moon God in their world as a hero, so why not go the other way here? Good to know he was still just as melodramatic in all universes. "Alright then, Anubis, I'm guessing you guys have comms or something, so I recommend you tell Gentle Criminal to come save your—what the hell!?"
She startled as Tokoyami suddenly shoved himself off the ground, bits of his cloak ripping in the process as the pink goo remained firmly stuck to the roof. The movement was abrupt and his arms hadn't moved that she saw, so it had to be Dark Shadow pushing him, but that didn't matter too much at the moment. He turned to face Kyouka squarely, his cloak ominously swirling behind him with the motion.
"It seems we'll have to take this fight more seriously," he said, and then lunged at her, a black hand reaching from the front of his cloak. She instinctively raised the Flash Ray and pulled the trigger, the silver cone lighting up and reflecting all of the light right at Tokoyami, but this time the dark hand didn't withdraw. The lack of reaction took Kyouka by surprise, enough so that she delayed in dodging and the hand managed to grab the rim of the ray.
"Wha—hey!" She pulled the trigger again as she tried to jerk it back, but the flash still had no effect and the hand yanked. The Flash Ray was pulled from her fingers and thrown to the side, while another shadowy hand shot out to slash at Kyouka. She jumped back to dodge and felt the claw-like tips scrape the fabric of her hoodie in passing, though not enough to do any real damage.
Her evasive maneuver placed her closer to the edge of the roof than she'd like, but she didn't dare risk taking her eyes off Tokoyami to check the distance. "Did you really think a measly light would be enough to defeat me?" he questioned. "I would be a fool to not have some guard against my weaknesses! I am the thief born of the darkness itself, Phantom Shadow! You will have to try harder than that!"
Thank goodness for villain monologues, Kyouka thought while he spoke, taking the chance to extend her earphone jacks to plug into her boots again, the action hidden by her costume's design. She squeezed her left fist and quickly tapped twice against a sensor in her glove's palm connected to her voice modulator to change the setting. Then she quickly tapped a pattern against her right palm, connecting her voice modulator to the speakers they'd placed. One, two, three, four, this better the right one—
"It's Taser time!" she called, Denki's distorted voice crying from a speaker placed behind Tokoyami. He jolted in alarm and whirled around, and Kyouka took the opportunity to blast him with another sound wave, knocking him off his feet. Some of the remaining sticky bomb residue stuck to the rooftop when he fell, but there wasn't much left and she didn't give him a chance to try to get up as she charged. She pulled a flash bomb from her pocket and lobbed it at him, hitting the roof right next to his head.
The resulting explosion of light was genuinely blinding, even brighter than the Flash Ray. Even with her protective gear she briefly winced, while Tokoyami cried out in pain as it went off right in front of his face. Still, while it might momentarily disorient him she wouldn't take any chances, already reaching into her pocket again for the first thing she could grab. She recognized the shape of an expanding foam pellet as she pulled it out, which wasn't as useful as the sticky bombs, but she'd make do.
This time she aimed directly at his back, mainly intending to buy time to grab the Flash Ray. The foam might not be sticky, but it would make it harder for him to get up while she darted over to the fallen device.
She didn't expect a hand to shoot out of his back and catch it mid-air. The pellet still exploded into foam upon impact though, and she heard a curse as the hand tried to shake it off. Kyouka froze for a split-second before resuming her lunge for the Flash Ray and swiping it up. Even as she aimed it at the now rising Tokoyami she didn't bother pulling the trigger though, knowing it wouldn't help.
After all, that voice wasn't Tokoyami's.
"That arm isn't your Quirk, is it?" she asked bluntly. Tokoyami shook off some of the foam as he rose, his cloak ripping around the few spots of sticky bomb residue left, and turned to face her. Kyouka held his gaze steadily as she said, "There's actually two of you, aren't there?"
"I told you," Tokoyami said coolly. "I would be a fool to not have some safeguard against my weaknesses." Even as he spoke an arm emerged from the side of his cloak followed by a shoulder, and Kyouka caught a glimpse of white hair before her attention got snatched by the arm hurling something at her. She dodged to the side, turning her head to see pitch black fabric wrapped around something small sail past. It hit the wall of the building behind her with a thud followed by an audible poof.
She didn't dare look back to see what it was, keeping her eyes trained on Tokoyami and the head partially sticking out from his cloak. The face was pitch black, making the shaggy white hair and eyes look almost luminescent, and she saw a flash of white as the face grinned at her and laughed.
And just like that, her battle had turned from one opponent to two.
I almost delayed this chapter, and just last night I was thinking of posting something else with a promise to update with the actual chapter as soon as it was ready. The ending was just so tricky for some reason, particularly how to tie it into the next chapter. I actually finished the final scene just now (and to everyone who guessed Kuroiro works with Gentle Criminal and Tokoyami: congrats, you get a cookie!).
But I ultimately decided against that. Because I think everyone needs a little distraction from current events. I don't think I need to explain what I mean. I honestly regret running out of buffer, because I would have posted this ASAP after things went bad. Instead, I've spent the past two weeks busy monitoring the situation on the Ignite server. (We have a channel called "war-room" now. Which is just... horrifying that even has to exist.)
So with that in mind, I'll just say this:
Remember, you're not alone. No matter where you are or what you're going through, we're all in this together, even if it's just behind a screen. If you need any extra support or just some distraction from current events, feel free to join the Ignite discord server (the invite link ends in 6WWwTXU). We'll be happy to help, whether it's to provide emotional support, or just give you some other things to distract yourself.
Thank you for reading this. I'll see you guys soon with the next chapter!
And a question for next time: what do you think is the most ridiculous and hilarious way a heist could go wrong? (For example: they accidentally break in only to find a school is visiting on a field trip)