Chapter 125

.::Different IS Scary::.

1-A_Dancing_Queen: So just a heads up, we'll need to change the meeting place today.

1-A_Chargebolt: Why? Did something happen?

1-A_Dancing_Queen: Kinda?

1-A_Dancing_Queen: Turns out there was a REALLY good reason they didn't want to tell Kaitou and Lee about Hijack

Mina wouldn't lie: she was mildly terrified of Ojiro now.

"Untie us right now, or I'll rip out your throats too!" he snarled as he strained against the ropes tying him to the pillar. His tail thumped against the column where it had also been tied down, writhing furiously in its contained state. "I'll strangle you all with my tail and use your bodies as weapons against those bastards!"

She was very terrified of Ojiro now.

Watching her usually mild-mannered classmate snarl like a feral animal was one of the most surreal parts of this whole interdimensional experience, which was really saying something. She admittedly wasn't too close to him back home, but she still knew this was wildly out of character. He'd been spewing threats ever since she entered the restaurant, and didn't seem likely to stop anytime soon.

Monoma was only slightly better, glowering at them from where he'd been tied to his own support column. "You all realize you're just as bad as they are, right?" he asked loftily. "That we're now perfectly justified in leaving Odawara forever once we rescue Hitoshi and kill those bastards?"

The fact he could say that so calmly was also terrifying, and had Mina inching closer to the door. Both boys seemed radically different from the versions she knew at UA, much more open to violence and anger than back home. Even with all the differences they'd encountered (just look at Dabi), this was one of the more extreme ones.

The only mercy was that their ire wasn't directed at her at the moment, but at Tsu-chan. The frog girl just tilted her head, a finger pressed to her chin. "This is why we decided to not tell you, kero. You're letting your emotions get the better of you."

"You'd be just as angry if you were in our shoes!" Mashirao hissed, eyes burning with unadulterated fury.

"Maybe, kero, but I don't think I would stage a suicide assault on a large enemy organization."

"Which you were obviously planning to when we caught you," Akai piped up next to her, totally deadpan.

"They deserve to die," Ojiro growled, baring his teeth in the process. Mina suppressed the urge to whimper.

Akai remained unmoved, staring him down fearlessly. "You would die first."

"We're not amateurs," Monoma huffed. "It wouldn't be the first time we were outnumbered. We have plenty of tricks up our sleeves."

"That confidence would just get you killed, kero," Tsuyu said bluntly. As the debate continued Mina felt a tap on her shoulder, and turned to see Rogue gesturing for her to go outside. She followed him outside in silence, for once happy to brave the chilly winter temperatures. As soon as the door closed she breathed a sigh of relief, the heavy pressure gone.

"Was it that bad?" Ochako asked.

"I can never look at either of them the same way again." She was so glad Tooru-chan wasn't here to witness this, it would probably traumatize her with how close she was to their Ojiro.

"Midori and Akai have both volunteered for guard duty, so that's settled for now," Rogue said tiredly. "Working out the roster for that on top of the one for Present Mic is going to be a royal pain though. We're supposed to be moving now, but we have to delay the next wave to sort that out, and also because Kaitou was basically in charge of that. So, thanks for that," he finished sarcastically, directing the quip at Mail who sat cross-legged in the air next to Ochako.

The ghost just shrugged, looking barely repentant at all. "Sorry. In my defense, I really didn't expect them to knock Glitch over the head and go on a rampage to reach the train station."

"Yeah, well, they did," Glitch huffed in annoyance. For once his voice wasn't wavering in pitch and tone but instead remained a steady low whisper, which might be related to the hit Rogue just mentioned. He'd seated himself on the ground right next to the restaurant, head leaning against the wall. "I swear, if it turns out I have a concussion..."

"In my defense, they always seemed pretty level-headed," Mail continued idly. "I just wanted them to drop the name of wherever the Alliance is headquartered, since none of you are willing to tell me. If I knew they'd try to run off on a kamikaze mission, I wouldn't have said anything."

"Yeah, well, you did say it, and now Parasyte has one arm missing, Sanada has a tail-shaped bruise on his torso, Maria had to trim her vines after Kaitou fused them with a bunch of padding, Fuse has a sprained ankle, Mars got his tail burnt and fused with a glove, Aki and Haru almost got hypothermia, and Lee and Kaitou did get hypothermia from the freaking glacier it took to get them to stop."

"Yeah, that was... definitely pretty chaotic," Mail said in response to Rogue's summary. "I'm seriously curious about some of those Quirks Monoma threw around, because I didn't see anyone else use those cutting energy waves."

"We're not giving you any hints how his Quirk works," Glitch interjected flatly.

"Well, at least no one got seriously hurt, right?" Ochako said before the tensions could rise more. She then grimaced as she added, "I mean, besides Shouji's arm, but at least that one was a duplicated arm, so..." She trailed off, probably realizing she wasn't really helping. Mina just wisely stayed silent for once, still a bit dazed when she thought back to the aftermath of the whole mess.

Shouji had called Shouto's burner phone to request backup last night, and of course Mina and Ochako went along too. They got lucky most of the fighting happened in a generally abandoned part of town, because they'd arrived to find a good number of runaways injured. She and Ochako stuck behind to help with the wounded while Shouto went to stop Ojiro and Monoma, so she hadn't seen their skills firsthand. But it was pretty savage from what she'd heard and seen.

"How are they so different?" she whispered to herself. "I mean, I know they both ran away from home and were super upset about Shinsou-kun, but..."

"They're so much more brutal here," Ochako finished softly.

"They probably weren't trained by Stendhal in your world," Rogue sighed. "He's a strong fighter from what I know, but also pretty brutal."

"That's an understatement," Glitch muttered, which felt pretty ominous to Mina.

Mail meanwhile looked thoughtful. "I know a bit about him, Nighteye and Kas have investigated him before. He's basically a serial killer who targets criminals, but he also goes for permanently debilitating wounds... Oh right. I think Saki mentioned he goes by Stain in some worlds, so if that's—okay, yeah, that's a pretty decent confirmation you know him," he said when both jumpers automatically winced.

"They were trained by Hero Killer Stain?" Ochako whispered, face draining of color.

"No wonder they're so messed up!" Mina groaned as she threw up her arms in exasperation. "That guy's totally nuts!"

"Okay, the hero killer part is kind of alarming," Rogue said with wide eyes, with even Glitch turning his head to stare at them in shock.

"You know, in retrospect, you guys actually did mention he trained them before but it slipped my mind," Mail mused. "If I remembered, I wouldn't have mentioned Shinsou. That guy's a maniac, and that's really saying something coming from me."

"But you did mention Shinsou," Rogue said icily, glaring at him with renewed coldness that put even the winter chill to shame. "And now we have to deal with the aftermath."

"If you're fishing for an apology, you're not getting one. Just so you know."

"Thanks."

"Anyways, Kendo and Shouji said they'd meet the others at the train station and take them to the new place," Ochako said hastily before the conversation could spiral further. "Since, you know, we obviously can't meet here anymore and this is the only place the others saw."

"Unfortunately, the ghost limits our options," Glitch quipped dryly. "The restaurant, karaoke bar and tunnel are the only places we know for a fact he knows about. And the restaurant's the only place with support columns we can use to secure Kaitou and Lee."

"What about Mime's cubes? Those work for Mic-sensei."

"Because he's not trying too hard to escape since his Quirk is dangerous and he doesn't want to hurt a bunch of kids. They won't work against those two." Rogue sighed yet again, rubbing his forehead. "This officially sucks. So much. I have no idea how Nettmegg organizes people like this all the time."

"An-chan's just awesome like that," Mina said haughtily, feeling a smug sense of pride in her friend.

"By the way, where's Todoroki?" Mail asked. "I thought you three would all be together."

"He, uh, had some stuff to do," Ochako said vaguely, Mina quickly nodding in agreement. Mail had already learned a bit too much about Shouto's life in this world before they realized he, well, existed. While they couldn't do anything about him probably knowing Dabi was his not-dead brother (thanks, Hawks), they could at least keep Mail from learning he was now in Odawara. If they got lucky, he might even forget about Dabi altogether.

Besides, someone had to get food for the meeting. This would be the longest and biggest reunion yet.

Kuroe hated little more than the sound of his phone's alarm after yet another ridiculously late night, groaning as he turned it off and reluctantly forcing himself out of bed. He'd been up until four trying to figure out what was breaking a program he made with one of the client's on-site IT guys. And it was good he had someone physically on-site to troubleshoot, because they eventually found the problem wasn't anything with his code, but the client deleting another program that fed data to it.

It had to be one of the most frustrating nights of his career. At times like this, he really wondered if he should just stop freelancing and go into the information broker gig full-time. The only reasons he abstained so far were because the job was incredibly dangerous and he wanted a clean source of money, but... It was really tempting.

Especially since despite going to bed close to five, he still had to get up at ten for an appointment with another freelance client.

So he wasn't in the best mood (or particularly awake) when he trudged downstairs to his kitchen. Even before he reached it he could hear Todoroki and someone else talking, reminding him his house was still being actively invaded by teenagers. His only solace was the familiar aroma of coffee already waiting for him, the caffeine calling to his senses like a siren singing to a sailor.

"Good morning, Kuroe-san," Todoroki greeted as he shuffled through the doorway. Kuroe grunted in reply, barely paying any mind to him and the other person as he went to the coffee maker to quickly pour himself a cup. Todoroki was used to this behavior, and resumed his prior conversation. "So do you think konbini food would be enough?"

"Shouto, we've got like ten people coming at a minimum," the other guy snorted. "I don't think we can buy that many pre-wrapped onigiri and lunchboxes without making people suspicious. And it'd be a hassle to carry."

"Hmm, true. What do you suggest then?"

"Honestly, no clue. Not many places are able to cook up a big bulk order with no notice. I think most of them are still serving the breakfast menu right now, too, and I doubt everyone wants pancakes or whatever for lunch."

Kuroe only half-listened as he went to the fridge to get a bottle of honey to pour into his coffee. While he didn't need honey and coffee to function like Ran did every morning, he liked to mix some in now and then. It was a nice homage to their mother, and one of the few ways he had to honor her memory. Also, the sweetness might help kick-start his brain into action.

Then, because he was still half-asleep, he turned the bottle over the mug and poured in a liberal amount of honey rather than the usual single squirt. He watched it flow for about five seconds before he realized what he was doing and stopped.

"Why does the breakfast menu matter?" Todoroki asked as Kuroe stared at his coffee, pondering if it was worth trying. Five seconds of pour-time meant it had a lot of honey in it.

"...You know, I want to blame Endeavor for sheltering you, but we don't go to many restaurants anyway, so that's on me too. So look, a lot of restaurants will only cook breakfast foods until, like, ten or ten-thirty. And then after that, they only cook everything else. If you want breakfast, you're out of luck."

"What? Why?"

"No clue. Honestly, I always found that kinda stupid. Anyways, how many people are supposed to be there?"

Screw it, Kuroe needed the caffeine if he was barely following the conversation even while doing literally nothing else except staring at his coffee. He lifted the mug and downed a big gulp like a shot of whiskey while Todoroki took a moment to count. He regretted it instantly, finding the flavor altered in all the worst ways.

Well, at least he was more awake now, but that was an awful way to wake up.

"I don't know the exact number because I don't know what runaways will be there," Todoroki said as Kuroe mournfully carried his mug to dump it in the sink. "But without them... At least thirteen, no, fourteen. So probably fifteen minimum, I think...?"

"And that's without the runaways? Wow. Never had to feed that many people before. We might as well have hired a caterer. You got any recommendations?" The question was directed to Kuroe this time, who turned to face them blearily.

"Pizza," he said flatly, meeting vivid blue eyes with a dead look. "Get five extra-large pizzas. Act like you're high and hungry, they won't question it."

"Pizza, huh?" Touya mused thoughtfully, and nodded. "Yeah, guess that's an easy one. Thanks for the recommendation. Shouto, check if there's any nearby places." Kuroe grunted in acknowledgment as he retrieved a second, untainted mug from the cabinet to fill up, only to freeze and do a double-take.

Yes, that was definitely Touya or whatever name he went by now. Sitting at his kitchen table with a bowl of cereal while watching Todoroki use his phone. Their eyes met and the scarred man arched an eyebrow at him, as if silently challenging and taunting him.

'What the fuck,' Kuroe mouthed, and Touya smirked, the purple scarring on his jaw making it look more like a full-blown grin.

'You will say nothing,' he mouthed back, casually flicking his wrist so his spoon seemed to lightly glide across his throat in an obvious threat.

"There's two nearby that are open," Todoroki reported, oblivious to the silent conversation and still looking at his phone. Then he seemed to realize something and glanced up. "Oh, right, Kuroe, this is... Um—"

"Don't," Kuroe cut in, and picked up the coffee pot. "I don't even want to know, ignorance is bliss, yadda yadda, I have a meeting soon so bye." He proceeded to trudge out of the room with the whole coffee pot. So what if drinking directly from the pot was unsanitary? He still felt half-asleep—hell, for all he knew he was asleep and this was just a stupid dream.

If it wasn't, he did not want to know about whatever mess was going on.

He just went straight to his bedroom and locked the door before sitting at his computer. When he grabbed his phone for the usual morning check, he bit back a sigh at the text notification from 'Totoro' on the lock screen. So he did keep Kuroe's number when Aiko gave him the new phone, yippee. With a bitter air of resignation, he unlocked his phone to read the message.

'We are strangers. I'm not Touya, Dabi, Totoro, or any other freaking name you guys like. You will say NOTHING to them, and NOTHING to Aiko.

Also, we're talking later about why you didn't tell me my darling brother was here.'

Kuroe didn't even have the energy to care about the unspoken threats dripping from the message, and typed out a simple reply.

'Fine. Just tell me if they plan to destroy Japan.'

Then he promptly powered off his phone before he could get a response and set it aside to focus on preparing for the meeting. Because it was way too early to get confirmation about another impending collapse of Japanese society. Maybe this time it would rebuild into something actually decent, gotta be optimistic and all that.

Meanwhile, Ran gazed at her phone as she stood in the train station, watching three dots draw ever closer. As the bullet train slowed she pocketed her phone and quickly made her way down the platform. This close she didn't need to look at her phone to check the locations of her marks, reaching the third car from her starting point just as the doors opened.

When she stepped onboard, she quickly spotted the people she was looking for. Bird head mutations and pitch black skin were so convenient when trying to quickly find someone. She strode over and plopped into the empty seat beside them, giving a brief nod as she pulled out her phone again. "Hey."

Tokoyami and Kuroiro just stared at her in obvious shock. "Uh, why are you here?" Kuroiro managed to ask.

"Because there's a big meeting today, and I'm not missing it. That, and I have to help do damage control in Odawara anyway."

"...That's not what I meant, but what do you mean by damage control?"

"Long story, not talking about it on a bullet train surrounded by strangers." Kuroiro just continued to stare at her while she browsed the news on her phone.

"We did not expect to see you here," Tokoyami commented wryly. "Do you live near this station then?"

"Nope." She'd caught a different train just so she could intercept and board this one after calculating which train they'd likely take. Not many trains ran from Hosu to Odawara, so it wasn't too hard to figure it out. "By the way, how long do you think it'll take them to notice I'm here?"

"When we get off," Kuroiro huffed, crossing his arms and glaring at the row in front of them. Jirou, Kaminari and Hagakure had claimed the trio of seats with the usually-invisible girl in the center, animatedly talking to them both in hushed tones. From what she'd heard, Hagakure had spent the whole night at their place just catching up with the vigilante duo. After a whole month of being unsure if anyone else was there, it made sense she'd cling to familiar faces.

Somewhat predictably, Kuroiro did not look pleased at his friend's closeness to them though. He'd always been pretty protective of her, more like a guard dog than anything. Ran figured this situation would only amplify those feelings, and judging by the dark look he sent at the back of Jirou and Kaminari's heads, she was right. That was just one of her reasons for catching the same bullet train, to make sure things didn't go too sour.

The other reason was to check something else. "So, how are the others getting there?" she asked casually, opening her map app to find the dots for Gentle Criminal and La Brava. It had been mentioned on FacePage last night they'd split into two groups to travel to Odawara, but they hadn't explained how the adults would travel. They were moving along a highway at a pretty decent speed, not as fast as the bullet train but still fairly fast.

"They're driving," Kuroiro said, confirming her suspicions.

Ran arched an eyebrow anyway, switching back to the news app. "Funny. Last I checked, your boss never got a license, and Aiba literally needs a car seat because she's so short. Did they hire a taxi or something?" She hoped not, because it would be so easy to track a taxi going across prefecture lines.

"They found an... alternate option for a chauffeur," Tokoyami said somewhat cryptically. "You'll meet him when we arrive."

That had Ran pause. "...I'm going to be really annoyed by this, aren't I."

"I think everyone will be."

~A Private Message Chain on FacePage the Previous Night~

Hundred_Peaches: Um, please don't freak out, but...

Hundred_Peaches: Someone was spying on the warehouse, but Mei-chan and I made caught him.

powerofmusic: What?

Hundred_Peaches: He's a vigilante, and depending on how long he's been spying on you, he might know your identities

powerofmusic: Shit. That's bad

Hundred_Peaches: It gets... slightly worse.

Hundred_Peaches: I don't really know much about him, but I'm pretty sure he works with Ingenium

powerofmusic: FUCK

powerofmusic: Okay, scale of 1-10, how screwed are we?

Hundred_Peaches: 6

powerofmusic: That's not as bad I expected...?

Hundred_Peaches: Well, he claims he wants to mentor you two, which I think is probably a trap to try to get us to let our guard down

Hundred_Peaches: But I think that also means he might not have told Ingenium about you yet if he DOES know your identities, and is trying to stall so he can think of a plan.

Hundred_Peaches: So we might have some time.

powerofmusic: Okay. Let me talk to the others real quick

Hundred_Peaches: Alright.

powerofmusic: Okay, back

powerofmusic: This is going to sound REALLY random, but:

powerofmusic: Can he drive?

When he got captured by two teenage girls wielding homemade support gear... Well, Koichi literally had no idea what to expect. Like, seriously, he'd had some crazy encounters as a vigilante, but this was a new one and he couldn't get a read on the girls. At one point he half-expected to be used as a lab experiment, then he half-expected to be given a terrifying makeover with new gear. Then he half-expected the vigilantes he'd actually been following to burst in, or Iida to appear out of no where...

Even after spending a night in a plexiglass cell in a storage room surrounded by lasers, Koichi still had zero idea what he'd gotten himself into. When the girls finally returned in the morning and slapped some electrified bands on his arms and bound his hands in front of him, he kinda figured he'd be led to some evil leader.

Instead, they led him out of the storage room to reveal the warehouse's loading door had been opened so a car could pull inside. A car with two people by it: a man in a cloak, and a tiny girl who barely reached his waist.

As unpredictable as everything had been so far, "forced chauffeur for a road trip from hell" was the point where he gave up on trying to predict what would happen next.

"Turn left at the next corner Roach-kun," the unidentified pink menace ordered from the passenger seat as she looked at her phone. Koichi had to jerk the wheel to quickly change lanes in order to make the turn, heavily jarring the car's occupants.

"Hey!" the red-haired girl yelped from the back, her car seat rocking wildly with the sudden swerving. The cloaked man reflexively grabbed the seat and nudged it into its original position.

"You know, you could give me a little more notice," Koichi grumbled.

"Eh, you made the turn on time," the pink-haired teen said dismissively. He'd glare at her if he didn't have to keep his eyes on the road. Not for the first time, he pondered just ignoring the directions and driving to a police station or something. Because, well, he was technically kidnapped (they didn't even untie his hands to drive), and he was ninety-percent sure the guy in the back was Gentle Criminal.

But the metal bands on his arms reminded him of why that wasn't a good idea. Particularly the two stubby metal prongs digging into his skin, ready to shoot him with electricity at the pink teen's command. They hadn't demonstrated it so it could be a bluff, but given everything else they had, he had no reason to doubt they worked.

So for now, he just had to go along with it and drive to whatever mystery destination they had. Not that he particularly minded. He had even less understanding of what he'd gotten himself into than when he'd first been ambushed by two teenage girls, but he figured he'd get answers soon enough. No one was acting particularly hostile, just using him as an unwilling chauffeur, so he could already tell he wasn't in danger.

So for now, Koichi would just go with the flow and drive to wherever, and get his answers there. Because there had to be some crazy reason for a phantom thief, a team of teenage vigilantes, and two bonafide mad scientist teens to be apparently working together.

Still, as he made another turn he couldn't help but think that some of the scenery felt familiar. "We're not going to Odawara by any chance, are we?" he asked half-jokingly, thinking of his recent road trip with another pink teenager.

The heavy silence after the quip had him pausing though, glancing at the teen in disbelief. "...Wait, are we—"

"Eyes on the road, Roach-kun!" she interrupted, and his eyes automatically snapped back towards the road, clutching the steering wheel a bit tighter. "If you have time for questions, you're distracted and can crash! Safety first!"

Why did that feel weird and almost hypocritical coming from that girl? Still, he kept his thoughts to himself and focused on the road even as his mind raced wildly. Were they actually going to Odawara? Were they somehow connected to those teens he'd driven a couple weeks back? Seriously, what was going on!?

Not much to say today. Just a regular reminder to take care of yourselves, and also that murder is ethically wrong no matter what Monoma and Ojiro say.

Also, with the last segment, I leave you with a recent realization I had: several characters like La Brava and Mineta are small enough they'd probably need car seats. So please imagine Gran Torino throwing a tantrum about having to ride in a car seat while Recovery Girl just calmly sits in hers already buckled in.

Question for next time: If you could bring one person from the Ignite!verse to canon, who would it be?