Chapter 126
.::Some People Walk Into a Bar::.
Six dimension jumpers, four phantom thieves, three runaways, two vigilantes, a third kidnapped vigilante, an underground network coordinator, a psychotic inventor, and a legally dead man walk into a bar.
It sounded like the setup for a joke, but it was very much reality. Nineteen people, from various and radically different walks of life, had gathered in an abandoned karaoke bar. Complete with pizza.
If only this was a bad joke, Eijirou (one of the three aforementioned runaways) thought as he watched the reunion. Upon arriving Ashido had basically claimed half of the room and gathered the five other dimension jumpers there for their reunion. Five, because there were seven total. At least seven. At this rate, he had to wonder if anyone else would show up from outside the mythical Class 1-A.
Apparently he wasn't the only one to think that. "If All Might or Endeavor rise from the dead, I am done with this," Anjou muttered beside him, and he snorted quietly to himself, feeling a little hysterical at the thought. Yeah, that was a fair limit.
"I can't believe you're all here," the seventh jumper, Hagakure, sniffled in the midst of Ashido's embrace, who had predictably dragged her into a hug pretty much immediately. The comment had her give the blue-haired girl a squeeze before finally pulling away to grin at her.
"I can't believe we can see your face!" she exclaimed, smushing the other girl's cheeks with a look of wonder. "Your face is so cute!" Eijirou heard a low growl from the black-skinned boy watching from the other side of Anjou, who grabbed his arm and gave a brief squeeze.
"Down," she murmured, as if talking to a dog. He scowled but fell silent while Hagakure laughed.
"I know! It's so weird! I look nothing like me!"
"Still can't tell if that's a joke or not," Kaminari mumbled, almost too quietly for Eijirou to hear, and Jirou snorted and rolled her eyes.
"But forget that! What about Todo's hair?" Hagakure whirled to face Todoroki, openly gawking at him with wide eyes. Todoroki blinked, taken aback at the sudden attention as she leaned closer to his face. "It's black! Is it just black in this world?"
"It's dyed," Dabi called from where he leaned against a wall. "Same as mine." Hagakure, Jirou and Kaminari all turned to stare at him, the excited mood briefly dissipating.
"This is so weird," Kaminari whispered. "I mean, we never saw you back home, but. This is still so weird."
"You get used to it," Uraraka said with a sheepish smile, and Hagakure promptly spun to tackle her in a hug while laughing.
"Don't think I forgot about you, Occhan! And Todo, you get in here for a hug too!" she added. "I'm not leaving anyone out!"
Todoroki looked frozen like a deer in headlights at the prospect of a hug, but a grinning Ashido shoved him towards the other two to get pulled into the embrace. The boy next to Anjou seemed irritated again, his teeth flashing across the pitch black depths of his face as he scowled at the scene. Anjou took one look and sighed quietly before muttering to him again.
Eijirou didn't try to listen this time, taking the chance to quietly inch away. He had a feeling that if Hagakure looked at him and recognized him, he'd be on the receiving end of that glare, and he'd rather not deal with that.
He quickly scurried over to Shouji's side, who had taken up a place towards the back of the room to watch everything unfold. He glanced at Eijirou from the corner of his eye as he sidled up to him, a look that would have felt imposing before they traveled to Musutafu and Eijirou got to know him better. "Don't want to watch the reunion?" he asked softly.
"More like I don't want to be glared at," Eijirou replied quietly with a sheepish smile, and glanced at the other half of the room. "So, what's going on over here?"
"Not much, since we just got here." Rogue and Kendo stood together near the far wall, grouped more out of vague familiarity than camaraderie. Across from them and closer to the center of the room stood Gentle Criminal himself and the two other members of his team. Eijirou had no idea who the girl (or woman, maybe?) with red hair was, but the bird-headed boy had to be Tokoyami.
There was a certain tension between the two groups as they faced each other, wariness clearly visible on their faces. It almost, almost felt like the groups were staring each other down, if not for Spinner and the tied up vigilante between them.
"Oh my gosh, you're the Crawler!" Spinner exclaimed, almost squealing with delight as he bounced next to him. "I'm a huge fan! You're one of my biggest inspirations as a vigilante!"
"I'd say it's nice to meet you, but uh, it's kinda not right now," Haimawari replied as he glanced down at the liberal layers of rope tying him to a chair.
Haimawari, the guy who drove him and Ashido to Odawara.
Eijirou kind of wanted to laugh hysterically, because yeah, this was getting kind of ridiculous. He knew Haimawari was a vigilante, even knew the guy had connections in Hosu, but still. To meet again here? Like this? What were the odds?
"Are you okay?" Shouji whispered to him, and Eijirou realized his internal hysteria must be showing a bit on his face or something. He managed to paste on a smile as he turned to face the larger teen.
"Just thinking how crazy life is, that's all!" The mask made it a bit hard to tell, but Shouji didn't seem too reassured. So far Haimawari at least hadn't noticed them, delaying the inevitable awkwardness. Gentle Criminal and crew effectively created a human wall blocking his view of Ashido, and meanwhile, Eijirou had dyed his hair red. So he wouldn't be instantly recognizable anymore—at least, not to people from here. This world. His world.
This was so bizarre. How was this his life?
"Why is he even here?" Rogue asked as he stared at Gentle Criminal. "Why would you kidnap someone and bring him here?"
"First of all, I would like to note that we did not kidnap him," the phantom thief huffed. "We are thieves, not kidnappers."
"You certainly didn't try to help when you saw me though," Haimawari said casually. Was he actually being casual? Was it just a façade? Was he freaking out just as much inside as Eijirou was? Was Eijirou overthinking this? Probably.
"What is with you people and kidnapping?" Kendo sighed. "Do you kidnap all the vigilantes you meet?"
Her question was loud enough to draw the attention of the jumpers. "Hey, I want to point out we had nothing to do with this," Jirou said as she stepped around the line of thieves to enter his line of sight. "That was all Yaomomo and Hatsume." She gestured to the pink-haired inventor in question, who'd seated herself on a bench to tinker with... something. Eijirou had no idea what she was working on, but with the stories he'd heard, he'd rather not find out.
"Yeah, and please keep me away from her," Haimawari said, leaning away from her as much as he could while tied to a chair. "I think there's something wrong with her."
"There is," Kaminari agreed with the haunted eyes of a man who had been through too much.
"And besides him, you two are the only vigilantes we've met," Jirou continued, and then paused to think over her words. "Well, active vigilantes, I guess? I don't really know how to count... uh, the ones here."
"And you two followed Kiri and Shouji!" Ashido piped up defensively, circling around the thieves. "So we didn't really kidnap you! We captured you in purely self-defense—"
"Ashido?" Haimawari yelped, and she startled as she looked at him for the first time, her jaw dropping.
"Oh my gosh, Haimawari-san? You're the vigilante that was spying on Kyou and Denki? Oh my gosh, what are the odds!"
"Y-yeah," he said shakily, glancing around the room. "And if you're here, then—" He stopped short as his gaze fell on Eijirou. The teen flinched slightly, raising a hand in a meek half-wave.
"Uh, hi, Haimawari-san," he greeted sheepishly. Yep, this was just as awkward as he had feared.
"KIRISHIMA!" Hagakure shouted, bursting through the thin crowd in the center of the room to race over to him. Mercifully she didn't hug him, but she got very close to his personal bubble to bounce excitedly in front of him. "Oh my gosh, I knew you were here because Kyou-chan mentioned it, but it's still so crazy to see you! Your hair looks so flat! Oh! But you still have that same scar on your eyebrow!"
Eijirou was right. That jet-black teen's glare was just as intimidating as he expected. He shrunk back while Hagakure turned to Shouji to continue her raving, "And you, Shouji-kun! You look just the same as back home!"
"Um, you don't, I think," he muttered, leaning back a bit. "Aren't you supposed to be...?"
"Invisible?" And suddenly, Hagakure was gone, the space in front of them totally empty as her voice declared, "I'm still Invisible Girl! My Quirk just works differently here!"
"Ruru!" the black guy hissed, darting forward to grab her. She blinked back into existence—or rather, visibility—with a jolt as he grabbed her arm, her expression sheepish as she turned to him.
"Oh, uh, sorry Shikkun! I guess I got a little excited, heh..."
"Yeah, uh, please don't do that," Anjou said, looking actually alarmed for once as she glanced at the direction of Haimawari, Kendo and Spinner. "That's, uh, super dangerous to reveal."
No shit, Eijirou thought hysterically. She wasn't just invisible, she could trigger it at will. Invisibility on its own was a highly desirable power by villains; it was why he'd half-expected them to never find out what she was up to in this world. Anyone with a power like that would be deep in hiding if they hadn't been recruited already. No wonder she worked with Gentle Criminal!
"We're not going to use it," Kendo said flatly, looking offended. "We're vigilantes, not villains."
"We protect the law," Spinner added haughtily.
"Which is the problem," Anjou hissed through gritted teeth, unusually agitated, before turning away with a huff. It set Eijirou on edge to see her like that; she'd always been the epitome of cool and collected, with a bit of smugness. So for her to be agitated was foreboding.
"Okay, can someone please tell me what's going on?" Haimawari piped up. "Because all I know is I was staking out a couple vigilantes when I got kidnapped by two mad scientist teenagers, forced to drive Gentle Criminal here all the way from Hosu, and now I'm meeting with the two runaway kids who I was asked to drive here with a bunch of other people I don't know. So, yeah. Some answers would be nice."
"Wait, you can drive?" Kendo asked, eyes narrowing.
"...Not gonna lie, that's a really weird thing to take away from all that."
"I think I finally see why he's here," Rogue sighed.
"And it means we're going to have to brief him on everything," Anjou added with a frustrated sigh as she pulled out her phone. "Screw it. I'll... figure something out, gimme a while. In the meantime, everyone but Not-so-Invisible Girl: start explaining for the new people."
"Why not me?" Hagakure asked with a pout. Anjou turned to look at her flatly, and she sighed. "Okay, fine, I get. Can I at least explain some of what happened after I woke up here, though?"
"Fine, sure. After everyone else goes."
"And may I ask you all hold nothing back?" Gentle Criminal interjected smoothly. "I have not been told the full details, but I have a suspicion that whatever reason you have for gathering this many people means you have a serious request. One that doesn't relate to finding how to return these children to their world."
"Wait, what?" Haimawari asked blankly. "Are, are they aliens?"
"I'm starting to think that might have been simpler," Rogue muttered, while the jumpers all glanced at each other. Finally Uraraka stepped forward.
"We're not aliens, but we're still not from this world," she declared. "We're from another dimension."
As she opened the door, Saki noted today's theme in the Super Happy Funtime Supernatural ESP Investigation Department seemed to be paisley. The teardrop-like shapes floated and writhed in the air like strange, pretty-looking amoeba. Pretty-looking amoeba with eyes that turned to greet her.
She paused in the door as she unexpectedly made eye contact with about a dozen paisley eyeballs, and calmly sipped from her can of black tea.
"Morning, Lady," Togata greeted with a nod from where he, Nejire, Amajiki, Utsushimi and a couple other interns had huddled around a whiteboard. No doubt working on the vigilante recruitment list again; for some reason they'd decided to use this place as their base of operations for that project.
She just grunted in acknowledgment as she walked past them for her office. She'd just gotten out of a long meeting with Sir Nighteye, Centipeder and some heroes from another agency, and wasn't in the mood to talk to any teens right now.
"Hey Sayonaka, your brother's here," Figment piped up as she passed his desk, and she bit back a sigh.
"Great. Thanks for the warning." Kas might not be a teenager, but he had the emotional maturity of one sometimes.
Figment glanced at the teens and sat up to lean a bit closer. "Also, I think Nejire spooked him," he added in a stage-whisper, though still quiet enough to probably avoid being overheard. "He did this joke when he walked in that he was here to see the interns, not you. Then I swear he shot her a wary look before correcting himself and hurrying to your office."
Saki quietly snorted. It wouldn't surprise her if Nejire's questions managed to overwhelm him in a Quirk-vision. Brat deserved it after how much he liked to use it to mess with people. "Nice to know, I'll have to keep that in mind. I'll go see what he wants."
"Take your time," Figment said as he sat back. "It's looking to be a slow day here." She nodded as she continued on her way, dropping her now-empty can into a recycling bin just outside her door.
When she slipped inside, she found Kas seated at her desk slumped over with face planted on the little space not occupied by mementos. Her eyebrows rose when he didn't react to the door closing, a decent sign he was asleep. "Well, this is a rare sight," she mused aloud.
Kas was on his feet in an instant, a knife flying directly at her face. She dodged with ease by simply stepping to the side, her hand rising to grab the handle before it could hit the door behind her. Even so she twisted her body slightly, raising her arm high to avoid the resulting whiplash from the near-invisible wire attached to the handle.
"You know, you should really disarm yourself before falling asleep in public," she commented wryly. Kas breathed heavily as he stared at her, visibly tense as he processed his surroundings, but after a moment he exhaled and nodded.
"To be fair, your office isn't really public, is it?" he replied, but his voice lacked some of its usual teasing edge. Saki released the knife's handle and he flicked his wrist back, the wire quickly retracting to pull the blade into his sleeve.
"Still dumb to fall asleep here. What if my meeting got extended, and Moashi or Manaka came in to tell you?"
"Who?"
"Centipeder and Figment," she sighed, shaking her head. "You know, you visit so much, you should at least learn their names."
"Mm... Nah, I think I'm good." She expected as much. Kas, extroverted as he was compared to her, was also a bit more picky about his acquaintances. She had no idea if he even had any friends at this point; if someone didn't interest him, he wouldn't bother putting in the effort to learn even their names.
"Why are you so tired, anyway?" she asked.
"I spent three hours last night fleeing from Hawks around Nagoya, and then another two hours walking to a city with a train on the line to Numazu only to find I missed the last train. So I ended up walking to another city to camp out at the train station there and catch the first one there."
Saki absorbed the information passively, taking a moment to consider it. "I feel like made that a lot harder on yourself than you had to."
"Absolutely," he snorted. "Paranoia comes with the trauma. And sleep deprivation." He chuckled and shook his head. "Gotta say, Hawks earned that pseudo-number-one spot. I was on my toes all night long."
"Which brings me to my next point. Why were you being chased by Hawks?"
"Oh right, I almost forgot. I got you a present!" He bent down to pick up a backpack from behind the desk and then freaking tossed it at her.
She had to dart forward to catch it before its contents could spill on the floor, barely managing to snag it in time. "What the hell, Kas?" she hissed, shooting him an acidic glare. "Did you seriously throw this over my desk? What if you knocked something over, idiot?"
"But I didn't," he replied with a smirk, and then plopped back into the chair and started spinning in circles. "Anyways, behold, the latest subject of Yuri's paranoia!"
Saki didn't move to check the contents or even reply, just continued glaring. After a minute he stopped spinning with a sigh, giving in to her silent demand for elaboration. "Okay, more details: some kids were hanging around Storm Chaser HQ recently and it made him paranoid, so he slipped a bug into one guy's bag. And then told me to check its location without telling me anything else."
Already, Saki was able to connect the dots. "And Hawks was waiting there."
"Exactly," he said with a nod. "Was waiting in an abandoned building to ambush whoever planted the bug, and very clearly didn't want me to take the bag. So naturally, I did. And I already mentioned how that went down, which brings us almost to the present."
Almost to the present. He did mention riding a train to Numazu, so: "Yuri refused to tell you anything about the kids, didn't he."
"Yep, insisted I should take it straight to you. And then Januarius decided to try a new chemical cocktail since I was there. So I got to sit around for two hours and wait for him to revive, you know how it goes."
Kas laughed while Saki just hummed, not really wanting to ask for more details. The one time she met and touched Januarius, it had been the same as touching a corpse. One with dozens of different causes of death. "You ever think it's bad to leave a kid with a guy whose sense of self-preservation is screwed over by his regeneration Quirk?"
"A little," Kas said with a shrug, "but not as bad as our childhoods."
"We had a childhood?" she asked dryly, and he barked out a sharp laugh. While he laughed she opened the backpack, pulling out a crumpled-up shirt with an arched eyebrow. Directly below it was an even more rumpled-looking torn towel. "What, did this belong to a runaway?"
"No clue, that's why I brought it to you." She rolled her eyes before closing them to focus on the shirt in her hand, allowing her psychometry to take over her senses. She could feel only weak traces, signaling whoever owned it had likely only recently acquired it. She sat on the floor to begin pulling out the bag's contents one by one, looking for something more likely to not be newly purchased.
And halfway down, she found something interesting. "Well, this is useful," she commented as she held up a pair of sunglasses. They were higher quality than the other clothing, even if obviously a bit worn. Hopefully that meant they were more well-used. She folded her hands around them and closed her eyes, letting the attached memories wash over her.
A store. A man with dark hair and a heavily scarred face. A city street with blinding white snow in the middle of winter. Standing beside a river and staring at a phone. A feeling of shock at a murky reflection with dark hair.
Her eyes opened as the flashes of memories ended. That face in the reflection was... familiar. Todoroki Shouto? She probably wouldn't have recognized him if he hadn't been on her mind yesterday when investigating 1-A. "Hey, while it's on my mind, can you ask Yuri to look into the Munakata class registry and get me some photos?" she asked as she resumed sifting for more items to confirm her suspicions.
"Sure. Got any specific names?"
"Teiru Norio, Jirou Kyouka and Kamijo Kameko—what the?" She cut herself with a murmur as she pulled out a bra. A rather girly bra with a little pink bow, obviously meant for teenage girls, and a bit worn out from long-term usage.
Kas perked up at the sight. "Huh."
"Don't say a word," she warned before he could make a comment. Not what she'd expect of Todoroki Shouto, which meant it probably wasn't his. Bras were one thing people wouldn't buy second-hand, so she closed her eyes and focused on it. Soon enough her mind was flooded with memories of a face which had become familiar over the past month.
Her eyes snapped open as she dropped the bra as if burnt. "What is it?" Kas asked, but Saki was already digging through the other items to search for any other traces she could.
Confusion. Drying off after getting caught in rain. Carefully counting change for an internet café. Anxiety and nerves. Sitting in an office building with the same scarred man as earlier. Looking at hair dye. Fear. Staring at a mirror and tucking strands of red and white under a beanie.
Relief, a familiar face—
A laugh slipped out of her at the last memory, reality hitting her in the face. "Saki?" Kas asked sharply, but rather than answer she rose and stalked over to the corkboard. She grabbed a blank notecard and pen from a bin hung below it, scribbling out one name and pinning it up:
Todoroki Shouto.
And behind her, Kas made a sound of delight as she grabbed the blue string to tie it to three other names, recognizing the significance.
They were now up to at least four dimension jumpers.
Those of you in the US, and probably outside, know all about what happened last week. If you're directly affected by this latest tragedy, I am so, so, so sorry. Words really cannot describe how absolutely awful it is. I don't want to get too political, but for me personally, I'm at a point where I no longer feel grief anymore at stories like this. I just feel rage when this keeps happening.
No matter how you feel about this, remember to take care of yourselves though. Put your mental health first. Don't feel obligated to look at news or social media and risk jeopardizing your mental health. In fact, I HIGHLY encourage ditching social media if it's stressing you. Especially Twitter. Twitter is just a cesspool of toxicity these days.
On a brighter note: We're skipping the inter-dimensional rehash this time! Hooray! Also, Hagakure still doesn't fully remember the "don't show your Quirk to strangers" rule. She's just really excited, okay?
Question for next time: What is the worst way you can think of to describe the whole "we're from another world" story?