Chapter 127

.::OOC is Serious Business::.

The explanation had been long, and full of surprises for the people hearing it for the first time. Tooru had already heard a good chunk from Kyouka and Kami, but Shikkun, Fumiyami, Gentle and Manami-chan hadn't heard any of it. And it was also pretty different hearing things directly from Ochako, Todoroki and Mina rather than second-hand or seeing it over text. Meeting Dabi, who was Todoroki's brother, was pretty wild in itself.

(Not that she had much room to talk in this world.)

There had been so many reactions. Exclamations of doubt and concern at the reveal about Midoriya and the Villain Alliance. Shock and horror about Aizawa-sensei's condition after being missing for months. Cries of aggravation and disbelief at the reveal of Mic's capture (news to Kendo and Spinner, and horrifying to Crawler). Surprise when Shouji came forward with his story, and the following revelations from Mail about a man named Porter. Chills at the stories of Aiko and her apparent multiple Quirks.

It took probably half an hour to get through the initial explanations, sticking only to the core details, the most critical information needed for planning. As soon as the explanations finished, they then jumped right into talking strategy and plans.

It drove Tooru crazy. She could only give a brief summary of the past month with Gentle Criminal and crew, but there was so much more she couldn't say. She wanted so badly to pull her fellow jumpers into a karaoke booth, to tell them everything, but she couldn't. They didn't have the time just yet, she couldn't make everyone else wait for her to finish a private meeting and deal with the barrage of questions.

Right now, they were on a time crunch. Every minute counted. She might understand that better than anyone else from her world.

Which was why she was now in front of an abandoned restaurant, Shihai standing behind her and Rogue and Mina next to her. "Are you sure about this?" Mina asked. "They're really upset."

"I know, but I can handle it," Tooru said with a nod, firming her resolve. She took a breath and stalked forward, pushing open the doors.

Her gaze almost instantly fell on Ojiro. He'd been tied to a support column in an almost straight line from the front door, his tail visibly twitching in an attempt to break free of the chains. Chains, not ropes like Mina had mentioned; knowing his strength, he'd probably broken those already. At least they used the chains only for his tail and not the rest of his body.

Her entrance made him turn his head from where he'd been snarling at Tsuyu and a girl with a snake face to glare at her instead. "Who's this?" Monoma asked from where he'd been tied to his own support column. His eyes were cold as he peered at her, mouth pulled into a frown instead of the mocking smile she was used to. "Some other secret you didn't tell us about?"

"We don't know her," the snake-head girl who must be Akai said bluntly, looking at Tooru warily, but she and Tsuyu relaxed a bit when Rogue entered behind her.

The boys had the opposite reaction though. Ojiro immediately strained against his bonds as he spewed curses and threats, his tail rattling the chains used to restrain it. He looked even more feral than Mina had described, nostrils flaring and face twisted with rage. The sheer amount of anger felt so out of place and alien, it made him almost unrecognizable and her chest tighten.

It was easier to focus on Monoma, whose own expression had similarly darkened but not nearly as much as he leaned forward. "You have some nerve showing your face to us, Nakamura," he growled through gritted teeth.

"Rogue," the older teen hissed. "We use codenames in front of outsiders!"

"Does that mean she doesn't know our names, either?" Ojiro demanded, glare momentarily redirecting to her. The obvious lack of recognition made her heart ache a bit, especially when paired with such anger, but she'd have to get used to it.

"Sorry, I do know your names," she admitted sheepishly, and then pasted on a bright smile. Partially to try to lighten the mood, but mostly because one of her natural stress responses was to, well, smile. "My name is Hagakure Tooru! I'm the seventh jumper!"

That got everyone's attention. "The seventh?" Akai repeated.

"How many of you are there?" Monoma grumbled.

"No idea!" Tooru laughed. "I only just finally met up with everyone else yesterday and today, so it's been kind of a wild day for me to catch up on, well, everything!"

"Then congratulations, you're already the most likable person here," Monoma drawled sarcastically, glancing at Mina as he added, "Assuming she also lied about it."

Mina instantly winced. "H-hey, you guys never mentioned Shinsou to us, either! They kept me in the dark just as much as you two! I had no way to make the connection until Awa—" She stopped short and slapped her hands over her mouth, but the damage was done.

"So you did know," Ojiro growled, and Mina shrunk back with a whimper. "And were you about to say Awase? Did he know, too? Did everyone know?"

"We didn't," Tsuyu said, though she was eying Rogue more judgmentally now.

Mina peeled her hands away from her mouth. "He didn't know," she said, seeming reluctant to speak at all. "He mentioned you had a friend who got kidnapped with purple hair and a brainwashing Quirk. It was only on Sunday, I think? So of course I called An-chan, but she said not to tell you guys yet because you'd do... well, what you did yesterday." Her shoulders slumped dejectedly at the last bit.

"Obviously, she wasn't wrong," Shihai quipped dryly, ignoring the way Ojiro pulled against his bonds to hurl more curses his way.

Before it could derail further Tooru clapped her hands to get their attention. "Okay, we can talk about that stuff later!" she said, smile even more strained with all the tension. She hated this sort of atmosphere, and kinda wished she was invisible right now so she could just pretend to not be here. Alas, she had a job to do though, and she turned her head towards Rogue. "Hey, Rogue-san, can you, Tsu-chan and Akai leave for a bit? I um, don't think they'll really listen if you three are around."

Rogue glanced at the glaring boys before nodding. "Fine."

"Are you sure, kero?" Tsuyu asked while he turned to leave. "They're... not in a very good mood."

Ojiro responded by scowling at her, baring his teeth in full. "Don't worry, I've dealt with way worse!" Tooru replied cheerfully, injecting more confidence than she actually felt into her voice. "And besides, I have Shikkun and Mina with me!"

Shihai nodded in silence, eying the restrained pair coolly. Mina seemed a bit more spooked, but still bobbed her head when Tsuyu glanced at her. "Yeah, we've got it! I think," she added under her breath, shrinking a bit when the glares redirected to her.

"We can handle it," Tooru reaffirmed, more confidently this time, and Tsuyu eyed her for a moment before nodding and following Akai outside. The door closed and Tooru turned to the two bound boys, who now directed their full ire to her.

"What do you want?" Ojiro spat.

"Don't talk to her that way!" Shihai growled, but Tooru held up a hand to stop him before he could advance or say more. Her other hand clenched at her side, eyes briefly closing as she took a deep breath.

Part of her want to hide from the obvious hostility in their gazes, genuinely unused to it. Her invisibility back home had spared her from ever being on the receiving end of such glares, so seeing them directed at her felt extra chilling. She'd never really liked confrontation, and this was no exception. Especially with a friend as close and familiar as Ojiro.

In this world though, Hagakure Tooru was a little different. And perhaps because she'd been awake at the time of the swap, those memories were much more intact than her fellow jumpers. It was so easy to let the subconscious remnants of her counterpart's consciousness bleed into her own mind, influence her actions and words. To take control of herself, and the situation.

She opened her eyes and met their gazes squarely. "What was your plan?" she asked, voice cool and professional. The obvious change in demeanor caught them slightly by surprise, enough to diffuse some of their initial simmering anger.

"What do you mean?" Monoma asked.

"What was your plan yesterday, when you two went on that rampage?"

"To get to Nabu and save Hitoshi," Ojiro said, still straining against his bonds, but his anger had been tempered a bit by caution.

"Yeah, I got that part, but how?" she pressed, perfectly flat with a hint of judgment. She could feel Mina shooting her incredulous looks, unused to such a tone from her, but Tooru ignored it easily. She gestured to Shihai and he went to grab a chair while she continued, "How did you plan to take on dozens of villains by yourselves? Or even find them? Did you even bother to grab supplies before heading for the station?"

"We don't have to explain ourselves to you," Monoma said, regaining some of his defiance as his glare hardened. "We don't even know you."

"I was only asking as a formality, but you pretty much confirmed it anyway." Shihai set the chair behind her and she sat down with her arms crossed and one leg folded over the other. He moved to stand behind her, her ever-faithful shadow and guard as she peered at the pair with an air of condescension. "Because what I'm seeing is two teens who were willing to run headfirst to their deaths without any other thoughts."

Their anger intensified once more at that, glares returning full-force as they all but lunged at her while spewing curses. Tooru met their rage with cool-headed apathy, letting them spew all the curses and threats they wanted. Compared to the memories from other Tooru, their anger felt almost trivial. Childish temper tantrums, nothing truly scary or worrisome, and so easy to handle.

She waited about a minute to let them get off some steam before cutting into their threats. "You want to save Shinsou," she said simply.

"Of course we do!" Ojiro yelled, and if he hadn't been tied down he'd probably have lunged at her. She heard Mina give a small yelp at how harshly he jerked forward, eyes burning with even more loathing. "We're not leaving him with those bastards a minute longer!"

"Don't try to talk us out of it!" Monoma added sharply. "We're not backing down!"

Tooru nodded, and then clapped while flashing her usual bright and bubbly smile. "Well, it's a good thing I'm not here to do that!" she chirped.

The abrupt shift in expression and demeanor caught them by surprise once more. "What?" Ojiro managed to stammer, and Tooru uncrossed her arms and legs to fold her hands atop her lap in an ever-graceful and ladylike manner. Going from judging to open to conversation, but still showing she was in charge.

"See, you want to save Shinsou, right? Well, we want to save him and everyone else there, too! Midoriya, Bakugou and Aizawa-sensei! But the thing is, it's super tricky because, well..."

"We don't want to die?" Mina supplied almost sheepishly when she trailed off, and Tooru quickly bobbed her head.

"Exactly! We've seen Shigaraki—the leader-guy—and oh my gosh, he's super scary! He almost turned Tsu-chan to dust!" She abandoned her graceful pose to flail her arms while shaking her head exaggeratedly. "Nuh-uh, no way! We don't want to fight him! Or any of the other big-name goons there! So!" She stopped flailing to clap, flashing them a bright and almost mischievous grin. "We're doing this the smart way!"

At that, she jumped up from the chair and grabbed Mina and Shihai's arms, Mina jolting in surprise before they all vanished when Tooru activated her Quirk. The two boys jumped at their apparent disappearances, heads swiveling wildly. "Where—"

"Still here!" Tooru chirped, making them jump again. She released her friends and they became visible once more, Mina looking a little spooked compared to before but Shihai seeming unbothered. "Tada!"

"Invisibility," Monoma breathed, eyes going wide, and Tooru laughed as she loosened her focus on her Quirk so her clothes became visible while leaving her body invisible. Because ultimately, while it was a transformation-type in this world, her Quirk still affected her body first. It took conscious effort and years of training for other-Tooru to reach the point she could make not only her clothes invisible, but people, too.

"Yeah! It's a little different from what I'm used to, but I have so much control over it here! Other-Tooru really put in a lot of effort!" She waved her arms excitedly, her sleeves illustrating the gesture clearly. "It's perfect for stealth stuff!

"Like breaking into the Alliance," Monoma said with dawning realization, and Tooru bounced a bit as she clapped again.

"Exactly! Everyone else is still figuring out the other details, but we know that part of the plan at least! But I still have limits," she admitted, losing some of her energy. "I mean, I only have two hands! So obviously, I can't get everyone out on my own."

This was the whole reason she was here. Tooru was the closest thing to a true neutral party in this whole mess. She had no connections to the runaways, the Alliance, or anyone else involved in this, and she had literally just learned about Shinsou yesterday, same as these two. Not only that, she was the key component of the rescue, her very existence the proof that the plan was not only serious, but viable. If they'd listen to anyone, it would be her.

And thanks to her counterpart's memories and influence, she also had a better way with words in this world.

"There are four people we need to save," she said, counting off on her fingers. "Shinsou, Midoriya, Bakugou and Aizawa-sensei. So for this to really work, we need you. So!"

She allowed her Quirk to fully fade to reveal a smile as she spread her arms towards them, her eyes earnest and (hopefully) hiding the nerves behind her smile. "Will you guys please stay calm enough to help us actually save them without anyone dying in the process?"

Her voice faltered a bit, losing some of its cool edge as her nerves started to get the better of her once more. Because, while she had her counterpart's memories and some of her skill, she was still the Tooru of 1-A. She wasn't some master wordsmith used to swaying people to follow her, she was used to blending into the background more often than not. But if they noticed her weakness, it apparently didn't matter.

Even before they responded, she could already see their answer in the determined expressions on their faces.

After hours of being in denial, Izuku couldn't avoid it any longer. He had to admit the truth:

He was bored.

It sounded ridiculous that he could be bored in this situation, when he should be stressing out over everyone else's safety, but... he was. He'd done as many exercises as he felt comfortable doing with his body's limits in this world. He'd tried reading some of the books in the room, but apparently his counterpart or whoever stocked the shelf had some different tastes from himself. Even the journals Tomura dropped off quickly proved boring, as they were ones he'd already read.

So, he had nothing to do but lay on his bed staring at the ceiling listlessly and wait for something to happen. Aside from Tomura briefly stopping in with breakfast that morning, he'd been left alone all day. Apparently they still had to deal with that rival villain group that caused trouble yesterday, so Tomura couldn't spend time with him. Even his lunch had been delivered through one of Kurogiri's portals.

Since then, no one else visited. Not Toga, not Kurogiri, not even Seiko (and yeah, he'd called her name a couple times to check, he was that desperate). That also meant no news about Kacchan, Shinsou and Aizawa-sensei, but surely Toga or Seiko would mention if something happened. Or, at least Toga would; Seiko would be just as likely to keep him in the dark for her own amusement, since seeing him freak out while unable to do anything would get tedious after a while.

He paused as he registered the last thought. Was that his thought, or more subconscious influence from his counterpart bleeding through? At least stuff about Seiko would be useful, he thought sulkily, thinking back to the Present Mic socks. He still couldn't understand his counterpart's subconscious priorities. Even now, the biggest potential "bleed" was that dream about Granny Hiyoko, which didn't help him at all.

...He wondered what the others were doing right now. If they were making any progress on planning the escape. Too bad Anjou hadn't contacted him yet. Hopefully everything was okay—

"Midoriya?"

"Looking Glass says they're in," Aiba announced as she checked her phone. "Though they're still not too happy about being kept in the dark."

"They proved we were justified after trying to go on a kamikaze mission," Ran said while Kendo added 'Kaitou' to a notecard to slide to the 'extraction team' group. It was honestly easier to rearrange physical notecards when planning teams for missions like this. A fact which Shouji had pointed out, prompting an impromptu trip to buy the notecards from a nearby store since no one bothered bringing any.

As she had the neatest handwriting, Kendo had been put in charge of writing the notecards. The vigilante had mercifully gotten over her frustration at the fact they'd captured Mic and Crawler (who was still sulking a bit while Spinner fussed over him) to help with planning. "What about that Lee guy?" she asked as she scribbled out a card for Ojiro. "From what you guys said, he sounded... uh, pretty upset, too."

"An understatement," Shouji murmured, flexing one of his arms. Likely the one that got cut off yesterday by one of Monoma's Quirks. "Will he sit by when he's so close to Hijack?"

"Knowing him? Doubtful." Ran begrudgingly slid Ojiro's card to the 'extraction team' group, and pursed her lips at the collection. "Okay, this is way too many people for a stealth operation."

"Do we need all the jumpers there?" Kendo asked. "I mean, that would help cut down numbers, right?"

"I want to see Midoriya," Todoroki declared bluntly, Kaminari bobbing his head in agreement.

"Yeah! I haven't seen him since the autograph signing, I want to make sure he's still alright!"

"You realize I haven't seen him at all, right?" Jirou deadpanned, before sighing. "Just take us off extraction. Go with the most essential people."

"Thank you for being reasonable," Ran said and slid all of the jumpers sans Hagakure to the side, to be placed in other, logical groups.

"Still a lot of people," Kendo murmured, tapping her pen against her chin as she gazed at the leftover group.

"Not sure Looking Glass can make them all invisible, even with that Kaitou guy," Aiba added as she peered at it. "Someone's gonna have to be left behind. Can they even fit in one car?"

"Hey Crawler, can you drive a van or bus?" Kendo called.

"Do you even have a van?" he groaned mournfully, apparently resigned to his role as getaway driver.

"Momocchi can get one!" Hatsume declared, making Crawler jolt hard enough to nearly knock his chair over if not for Spinner catching it.

"Oh sweet merciful All Might, please don't bring the other one here," he pleaded as his chair tilted at a precarious angle in Spinner's grip. "There's something seriously wrong with her!"

"Is she really that different in this world?" Uraraka asked doubtfully.

"We infected her with Hatsume syndrome," Kaminari said gravely, and the brunette paused before shuddering.

"Never mind, I forgot about that."

"Anyways, we're getting off-track," Kendo said. "Crawler, can you drive a van or bus?"

"A van, maybe," he said with a frown. "Bus, not so confident."

"Same," Spinner piped up.

"I thought you didn't have a license," Jirou said while side-eying him.

"I don't. But I've played video games with driving!"

"Does that really qualify you to be a getaway driver!?"

While they argued Ran took the chance to slip towards the back and enter a former karaoke box, heaving a large sigh once she was alone. A lot had happened today even with just recapping everything; she needed time to process it all. She had words for Kuroe for having her use her Quirk on Gentle Criminal without telling her. No way he had no idea of his identity.

That would have to wait until later though. She pulled out her phone, the screen the only light in the windowless room as she opened the app connected to her Quirk. The plan was actually coming together at last, and that meant she had to make sure she had all the information they could get.

Seeing Midoriya's vitals were fine, she took the chance to swap a single ear. "Midoriya?" she whispered when she heard silence on the other end.

"Oh thank All Might," he breathed in obvious relief.

"Did something happen?"

"No—wait. Seiko? Are you there?" A pause, before he pushed on, "Guess not. No, nothing happened. I've just been alone all day and run out of stuff to do, s-so..."

Ah. He was bored then. Ran could relate all too well. "So guessing there's no major news on your end?"

"No, just that the Alliance is busy with... something. Some rival group attacked someone yesterday, I think. No one's been by since breakfast, so I think they're mostly all out."

"That's actually good to know," she mused. "Could give us an opening of some kind."

She heard the rustle of fabric in one ear as he abruptly shifted. "Wait. Does that mean—? Y-you guys are—?" He stopped short of saying his thoughts out loud, as if afraid voicing it would somehow break the reality.

Ran had no such restraints though. "Yeah, we're finally prepping for the rescue," she confirmed. "We're still hashing out the finer details, but we've got probably around twenty people involved. I just need to get some final details from you and fill you in on our end."

"Of course!" he replied instantly. "Anything you—"

He stopped suddenly, followed by a thump and then silence.

"Midoriya?" she asked after a moment, feeling her heartbeat start to spike. His vitals still looked perfectly fine on her phone, showing no signs of distress or injury, so why did he suddenly stop talking? "Midoriya? Midoriya!" She called again and again, but got no response.

Nothing but silence and an ever-growing sense of foreboding.

A light knock sounded on the door behind her. "Anjou?" Jirou asked, pushing it half-open to peer inside. "What's going on?"

"I don't know," Ran said quietly, feeling utterly lost as she stared at her phone.

Meanwhile, Izuku had slumped over on the bed, eyes shut as static filled his mind.

No question for next time. Just another reminder to take care of yourselves, and I'll see you in two weeks!