Chapter 38: A Familiar Voice
A howl of pain erupted into the night air.
"Oh my. You weren't this loud after I broke your wrist."
After some heavy panting and gasps of air, the restrained man's synthetic voice responded with, "Cause this time...was my entire arm, you bastard."
"Well, I'm not letting this chance slip away. You've been a pain in our side for years." The hulking man then adjusted his hand to cover his captive's mouth as well. "Now that I've thought about it, I'm cashing you in for the bonus of a lifetime. I bet I could retire after this score." A few rogue sparks then started to erupt from the electric villain's jawline.
"Halt, evildoers!"
The duo looked over to see a figure beside the smashed car.
The rock villain cackled before asking, "What are you a high schooler?"
"Not quite. I am an esteemed student of U.A. and am in full right to stop this," Ida explained as he flashed his provisional hero license as he approached.
"So still on your training wheels. Cute." The man's sarcastic demeanor changed to a monotonous voice as he stated, "Get lost kid. This is way beyond you."
"Be it as it may I still cannot stand by and let this happen."
The villain grunted before raising his free hand. The rock in the side of the damaged car dislodged itself and began spinning towards 1A's class president.
"Behind you Ida-san!"
Tenya sidestepped the projectile to the right after hearing the message from his earpiece. The sudden burst of speed had blown off the part of his pants that covered his engine. The rock itself came to a halt just shy of the hulking man's face and then floated gently onto his shoulder.
"Well, well, we got a speedster. Not bad." The villain then raised his victim higher into the air as he stated, "So you can dodge my attacks, but what about dealing with this one. Let alone being able to take me down."
Ida got in position as if he was able to sprint, "You'll soon find out."
An excited voice then came from beside the hulking man, "By me!"
"What the-?"
"Say cheese!"
A blinding light erupted from Tooru's position. The villain faltered, and Tenya took the time to jolt forward and kick the man's arm, letting go of his victim. The class president caught him and rushed him back to the others hiding behind the car.
"Careful there," the injured man stated as he was set down on the grass. His voice was even more distorted than before, with a lot of static distorting his words.
"Good job out there. Now continue distracting him while I interrogate this one," Aizawa stated.
Ida returned to the battle while Midoriya, Ojiro, and Uraraka followed.
Izuku recalled the plan in his head while they all took their positions.
"Our first plan of action is to separate these two. Ida-san, I need you to provide the initial distraction while Hagakure-san gets into position to use her Light Refraction."
Midoriya gulped, "W-Wait doesn't that mean-"
"Not now Izuku, just listen to sensei. And everyone turn around, please."
"Thank you, Hagakure-san. Anyways, I'll get details about the rock villain from the injured one while a few of you keep him busy. I'll make the call of who once we learn what he can do. I'll join in once I acquire enough intel."
Uraraka then asked, "Can we guarantee we can get info out of him?"
Eraserhead gave a wide grin as he responded with, "Oh, you can count on it."
The sound of the man's screams from his arm breaking ended the planning talk. Yaoyorozu made and gave everyone communicators before Ida stepped out to confront the two. Once Aizawa saw the rock telekinesis, he stated the four he wanted to engage once phase two of the distraction began.
The villain shouted, "Just how many of you are there!?"
"Enough to take you down," Ojiro stated as he took a defensive stance.
"We'll see about that." Rocks of various sizes launched themselves off his body towards Ochako and Izuku from the street. Tenya quickly picked up the former, and the latter dodged to bring himself closer. Midoriya then pumped up from 8% to 20% to try and get a kick in. He figured the villain's rock-like skin had to be quite tough so he couldn't hold back. But just before the boy could jump to make the attack, he heard Aizawa over the communicator.
"Stop!"
Izuku instead put his momentum into a kick to the ground, causing a flurry of dust to erupt from the cracked concrete. He then made his retreat as the villain coughed. "What's the problem?"
"Turns out Landslide is pretty durable. Our friend here dropped a building on him in the past to no effect. You might have broken your arm if I hadn't stopped you."
Midoriya thought, well, he worked fast. He wondered how his teacher got the injured villain to spill the beans so quickly.
Ojiro's voice spoke up, saying, "Landslide? That's his name?"
"Yes. And another tidbit, once launched, he can't use those rocks for a short while."
Ida then stated, "Then let's take advantage of that and see how durable he is to himself."
As the dust settled, Ochako could be seen with three rocks floating around her. Tenya then gave each a firm kick to each. Just before hitting their target, she yelled, "Release!"
Landslide laughed as they harmlessly bounced off.
"Well, it was worth the try," Mashirao stated with a sigh.
The rocks then floated back onto Landslide's torso. "Nice one. No one's tried that against me in a long time. However, it remains the same as before. You can't hurt me." He then used both his arms to pound the ground, and large boulders rose from the road. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to complete my objective first before I deal with you all." He then brought his right hand forward towards a bank on the left side of the street. However, they only traveled a few meters before crashing into the sidewalk in front of the building. The rocks on Landside's body also fell to the ground.
Aizawa stood up from behind the wrecked car and slowly began to approach Landslide. Over the communicator, he said in a quiet tone, "Ida-san. Fall back to Yaoyorozu-san, she has a plan that needs your assistance. Everyone else besides Hagakure-san, come to my position."
As the students ran over to their teacher, Landside shouted, "Eraserhead?! How did you get here?"
"Looks like my disguise from earlier worked quite well," Shota stated.
Landslide, however, sighed in relief upon hearing this. "Ah, so you were with the kids."
"An odd response considering your predicament."
"It just means my secret weapon is still in effect."
Another smirk came from Aizawa's face as he stated, "Oh, that? That will be taken care of momentarily."
As Landslide gave a puzzled look, Midoriya asked, "What do you need us to do sensei?"
"For you? Smash those boulders he used earlier to bits. At the moment, they aren't invulnerable as they would be under his Geomancy quirk."
"Yes, sir." Izuku figured he was doing this to prevent them from being used later if Eraserhead couldn't hold his gaze on Landslide at a later point. But it made him wonder what Tooru was doing at the moment, what separate plan was she a part of?
Mashirao then asked, "And us?"
"Just follow my lead."
Midoriya then made quick work of the boulders at 20%. Only dust and pebbles remained. He looked over to see how the others were holding up. They were currently fighting Landside with hand-to-hand combat. They had pushed him beyond his fallen rock armor. Ida was presently hunched over them, placing some sort of devices on it.
Izuku then started to run over to the fight but halted once he saw his teacher get hit in the face with a jab. The man's hair went down as he tried to regain his composure.
"Finally." Landslide raised his arms at his old armor. Tenya was nowhere to be found. As it returned to its master, Ochako and Mashirao had moved out of the way not to be hit.
Aizawa's voice then came through the communicator, "Checkmate. Do it, Yaoyorozu-san."
Just as Landslide summoned a boulder more massive than anything he had used before, a clear colorless gas surrounded him. He tried to cover his mouth, but he soon became sluggish. "Why...is it...so...sw...eet." He then fell onto his back, cracking the concrete where he landed.
Tenya then quickly appeared holding Momo and a backpack. After being let down, she then approached Landslide while pulling back her clothing on her arm. A large fan sprouted out of the exposed skin and began spinning, dissipating the gas.
Mashirao asked, "The hell was that?"
"Sevoflurane. Usually, a medical anesthetic, but I developed a way to use it as a knockout gas. Though this is the first time I've ever used it on anyone."
Izuku arrived and said, "So that's what Ida-kun was doing earlier."
"Yep, and once I saw sensei get punched, I got out of there. We only had one shot at this, so I couldn't be seen fiddling with his armor."
"I can't believe we did it," Ochako stated as she wiped her forehead.
"That went flawlessly because of sensei," Momo stated with praise.
"Indeed." Eraserhead had just approached with a hand on his chin. His lip was bleeding, and his left cheek was already beginning to become swollen.
Ida then asked, "You okay, sensei?"
"I'm fine; it was part of the plan to take the hit. Landslide would have been suspicious if I dropped Erasure on my own." He then held out his hand. "The backpack, please."
"Right, sir."
Once Aizawa had it, he rummaged inside it for a few moments, pulled out two handcuffs, one larger than the other.
Midoriya then said, "Quirk suppression cuffs."
Uraraka then asked, "Wait, doesn't that backpack belong to the injured villain?"
"He was more than willing to relinquish it to us." Eraserhead then walked on over to Landslide and cuffed him. After turning them on, he turned around and said, "Well, that's one problem dealt with." He then placed a hand on his earpiece before asking, "Hagakure-san, did you find the other target."
"More than that, sir! I already have him subdued."
"The device?"
"No more!"
"Location?"
"A bit back on the road. I'm on the right side of the street we came in on."
"I'm sending help, stay put." Shota then turned to Izuku and stated, "I need you to cuff her target." He then handed over the smaller set of handcuffs. "Oh, and before you meet up with her, would you mind going by the car and retrieving her clothes? I'm sure she would appreciate that."
Midoriya gave a nod, and as he left, he heard Aizawa say, "Ojiro-san, I need your phone."
"What? Why mine? And besides, they were not working before."
"Not to worry, I guarantee they work now. So, hand it over."
Izuku was curious to hear the rest of the conversation. However, his wonder of what Tooru was up to outweighed that inquiry. After grabbing her pile of clothes, which, thankfully to him, had no unmentionables showing, he made his way to the other side of the street. While the left side had a bunch of business buildings, including the bank Landslide tried to attack, the right was just foliage. After walking past a few trees and bushes, he heard a voice to his left.
"Over here, Izuku!"
The sight Midoriya approached was quite odd. There was a small man face down in the grass. He was dressed quite drab, in worn-down clothes with mixes of brown. There was an indention on his back and a floating device no bigger than a phone above it.
"Who is that?"
"No idea, but the, uh, injured guy did call out for Landslide before fainting." The device was tossed to the side, and Midoriya felt the clothes in his hand be taken away. "Take care of him while I dress."
Midoriya nodded before walking over and kneeling to cuff the unconscious man. After turning the cuffs on, he flipped him over. There wasn't anything special to note about his appearance. Save for a bruise on his cheek and a bloodied nose. Without looking back, Izuku asked, "You punched him?"
"More like took him by surprise by taking that doo-hickey outta his hands and smashed his face with it."
Well, that explains why it's broken, Midoriya thought. He then reached over and grabbed the device. Its screen was broken, and one of its knobs had popped out. It was only slightly bigger than his phone and was mostly silver. It also had a short antenna coming out from the top.
The perplexed Izuku then asked, "Any idea what this is?"
"Signal jammer. It's why our phones had no signal earlier."
"Ah, so that heroes or the authorities couldn't be contacted as they committed whatever they had planned." Midoriya was still surprised, though. This was quite small for a jammer this powerful. He thought such things were supposed to be bigger.
Hagakure was then by her boyfriend's side and asked, "Mind carrying him back? I want to try and warm up."
As Izuku lifted the knocked-out man over his right shoulder, he said, "You sure do change clothes fast."
"Considering my quirk, it helps to be quick with it." Tooru then grabbed his free side and hugged tightly. "Still, not having my suit sucks. It's way too cold to be nude outdoors right now. I can't believe I used to tolerate it."
"Yeah, I can't imagine I'd be able to last that long," Midoriya replied with a chuckle.
"Besides sleeping during the warmer months, I wouldn't recommend it. Anyways, I'm guessing Landslide was taken down?"
"Yeah, all thanks to Aizawa-sensei's plan." He then explained what Hagakure missed as they walked back. She had been told to find the man with the signal jammer almost immediately after she returned from blinding Landslide, so she was out of the loop about everything else. The explanation was finished by the time they made it back.
Everyone but Eraserhead was by the totaled car. Ojiro and Uraraka were sitting on the curb by the injured man. He was lying in the grass on his back. The class reps were currently tending to his wounds. Yaoyorozu had made a splint for the broken arm, and Ida was wrapping the man's opposing wrist. Landslide was lying on his side by the car, still unconscious. Aizawa was currently speaking into Ojiro's phone and was in front of the bank.
Hagakure then said, "Uh, isn't he still going to be a problem if he wakes up? He looks wicked jacked."
Ida answered with, "No need to worry. While not as potent to emitter and transformation quirks, these suppression devices still greatly hinder mutant quirks. We should easily restrain him if he tries anything funny."
"He would have been easier to take down if he had just one. Even without the use of those rocks, his skin is still like punching steel," Ojiro complained while rubbing his fists. They were slightly bruised.
Uraraka shrugged, "Would it have mattered? He was too quick for us to get a good blow on him anyways."
As Yaoyorozu stood up, she stated, "That extra armor the rocks provided must have weighed him down. It gave a false sense that he would be easy to fight once Aizawa-sensei activated his quirk."
Ochako sighed before saying, "Yeah, sorry, we couldn't execute plan A and required you to do something uncomfortable."
Tooru then asked, "Plan A?"
As Izuku brought his captive beside Landslide, Momo explained, "The original plan was for Uraraka-chan to render him useless with Zero Gravity. But his speed was too much for anyone to get her in range. So my Sevoflurane was plan B if they weren't able to subdue him."
Mashirao then said, "Recipro Slingshot would have been helpful in this situation."
Uraraka cleared her throat before saying, "The Gravipult is hard to pull off without our gear. And besides, Tenya was busy placing the gas dispensers on Landslide's fallen rock armor." Ida squinted at the super move name but said nothing on the matter.
Midoriya looked down at the black-clad villain before asking, "Is he okay?"
Ojiro shrugged before saying, "He's still conscious but hasn't said a peep since Aizawa-sensei joined the fight, according to Momo."
Yaoyorozu looked back at her teacher and then Hagakure before saying, "The voice modulation device under his mask seems to have broken. He sounded normal when he explained Landslide's abilities to Aizawa-sensei."
Mashirao then looked beside him as he said, "You've already been incapacitated. Not talking isn't going to improve your situation."
The man just grunted and looked in the other direction.
"Suit yourself." Mashirao then looked at his girlfriend as he asked, "Catch a name?"
Momo shook her head. "He immediately was cooperative with Aizawa-sensei, so every exchange between them was straight to the point and offered no further information on who he is."
"He doesn't have one," Aizawa stated as he appeared alongside the group. "Not that it matters." He then tossed the phone he was holding to Ojiro.
Ida then asked, "I'm guessing you have contacted the proper authorities?"
Aizawa paused for a moment and looked down at Landslide and his partner before replying, "In a sense." He then looked up at Hagakure and stated, "Good job getting the other target. He's the real prize here."
"Uh, thanks?"
Midoriya then asked, "Sensei, what exactly is going on here? You seem to be much more in the know despite how random an encounter this was." He couldn't take the lack of explanation any longer.
As Eraserhead removed his capturing weapon from his neck, he answered, "I do, but I'm not obliged to say more until the detective assigned to these three arrives."
Mashirao then asked, "And who's that?"
"The one I just called. Your father."
Mr. Ojiro pointed to the car to his side as he said, "Alright, you four, let's get you back home."
"But it's only like a ten-minute walk away from here," his son argued.
"It's best we listen to the detective," Momo stated as she placed a hand on her boyfriend's shoulder. "It's late enough as it is."
After a sigh, Mashirao looked back at his dad before saying, "Can we at least talk about this during New Year's Eve?"
"You know, that would be a perfect time to do so. Sorry I can't say much tonight."
Mr. Ojiro arrived with two vehicles about half an hour ago. One was a standard pursuit police car, the other a truck with a cell chamber in the back. Most of the time, the detective spent talking to Aizawa, the injured man, the detective he brought along, and eventually Landslide once he woke up. The latter was surprisingly cooperative. Either way, it was only in the last few minutes that Mr. Ojiro approached the students and spoke with them. After apologizing that they had to get wrapped up in this, and thanking them for their assistance, he asked them all to keep their involvement a secret. Mashirao questioned what was going on, but got no answer.
As Uraraka opened the door to the back seats of the car, she asked, "Couldn't you have rolled up your leggings, so you didn't ruin your pants?"
"I didn't want to give any indication of what my quirk would be to Landslide. Besides, I have a plethora of pants back at home. I'll be fine," Ida argued.
Ochako sighed. "So wasteful."
The two then climbed into the back seats, followed by Momo. Mashirao took the front passenger seat.
Mr. Ojiro then approached the driver and said, "Thanks again for the assistance at such short notice, Tanuma-san. I needed someone I could trust, and Tsukauchi-san is busy on the other side of the city tonight." Tanuma was a short man with dark hair with a receding hairline and a thin beard. Unlike the other detectives, he wore a darker-colored suit.
"Always a pleasure, sir. Good luck with the catch tonight. This is the big break you've been waiting for!"
The detective nodded and then looked at the kids in the car and said, "Straight to bed all of you. You need the rest."
The car then left, and Mr. Ojiro looked back at the two remaining students.
Hagakure then asked, "How much longer are we going to have to wait for the other car to get here, sir?" There wasn't enough room for everyone to fit in the patrol vehicle, so another one had been asked to come not long ago.
"Shouldn't be that long. Now, if you two wouldn't mind, follow me."
The two did as told and were soon behind the truck. Currently, the back doors were open. Landslide was sitting on the floor, with his feet handing out the back of the truck. His partner was still unconscious and was lying in the cell. Aizawa was sitting on the curb just beside the vehicle. On his side, the injured man was still lying in the grass.
"Come on, Sparky, you could at least tell me how you figured us out," Landslide said with exhaustion in his tone.
"Sparky" stayed silent, though, which further irritated the villain.
"You can go ahead and speak, the others are gone," Ojiro stated before coughing.
The injured man gave a distinct look at the detective. Well, as much as he could through his mask.
"I'm serious. Landslide might as well know since he's going to be cooperating with us going forward."
After a sigh, the silence was finally broken as he said, "Security cameras. I've linked up a wide network throughout the city over the years using back door programs they would never be able to detect. You and your partner like to scout the area together beforehand. It was easy to run a program that identified seeing two of the same person in a shot."
Midoriya was in shock about this. Well, not the explanation. The man's voice. He recognized it pretty quickly.
Hagakure noticed the look on her boyfriend's face and whispered, "Give it a minute before you start asking questions."
Landslide then stood up and proclaimed, "But how were you able to do that?! Someone would have noticed. Even then, that doesn't explain how you knew about Mr. Switcheroo. Most of the villains I work with don't even know he exists!"
"All will be answered in good time. Now, if you please." Ojiro motioned for the villain to step back inside the cell. Aizawa then got up, and both shut the cell doors behind him.
Tooru then looked down at the injured man and said, "I don't even know where to begin with you."
"Yeah, sorry about tonight and everything that you're probably going through right now." He then turned his head towards Izuku and said, "Both of you."
"Honestly, Inoue-san, I'm still really lost at what's going on," Midoriya stated while rubbing the back of his neck. He was still trying to fathom how his girlfriend's disabled family friend was here right now.
Hagakure then asked, "So were your legs ever broken?"
"Like a decade ago."
"And you're a villain?"
"Vigilante."
"That's not what the media says!"
"Well, let's be honest, that's more Ojiro-san's fault than mine."
The detective shrugged as he stated, "It was for the best that they ran with that story than the truth. He was already drawing a lot of attention to himself as is."
Tooru took a deep breath before asking, "Does my dad know?"
Gou shook his head as he responded, "No, but he's sorta helped me on the side, not knowing my true intention, of course."
"Helping you bypass security to install your programs onto the cameras," Izuku said.
Inoue nodded before saying, "I had him point out the flaws that I could exploit under the guise that I was going to fix them. He was always a better white hat than I was."
Hagakure paused before asking, "What's a white hat?"
"Think of them as a hacker who uses their abilities for good. It's usually a hobby, but some people do it as a career," Midoriya explained.
"And your father was more of the former. It was something we both did our younger years," Gou said.
"Back when you both had the same job?"
"Pretty much, but I think he did it even before that. Like in high school."
Tooru then sat beside Eraserhead, to his left. "Can this other car come already and pick us up? I'm ready to go to bed."
Gou chuckled before saying, "Harsh."
"It's a lot to process, okay?" Hagakure then huffed.
Midoriya turned to Ojiro and asked, "Did you want Tooru and me here to learn this?"
The detective nodded before explaining, "Inoue-san told me of his connection to Hagakure-san, and I figured she should know considering everything that happened."
"And me?"
"Well, your mentor did intend for you to meet one of the vigilantes that worked under me eventually. So I took the chance."
Izuku tugged at his jacket's collar as he figured that All Might probably didn't want it to happen like this. It did also make him wonder if Mr. Ojiro had contacted the former pro hero. Midoriya wanted to ask, but considering the detective called All Might as "mentor," it stood to reason Inoue was not in the know.
Tooru asked, "So, you don't even have a name for your vigilante persona?"
"There's no need. I never intended to seek recognition doing this, just to help people."
Eraserhead then asked, "So what was that about earlier with Sparky?"
"It's something he called me to be annoying. We did run into one another enough that he felt the need to give me a title. Which is still idiotic considering my quirk has nothing to do with making a bunch of visible electricity."
Midoriya then stated, "About your quirk."
"Heh, here we go," Hagakure said.
"You misunderstand. I want to thank you. That was you who stopped the car that was tossed at us." It just had to be him, thought Izuku, considering the circumstance that Gou was actually a good vigilante.
"Yeah, broke my wrist in the process," Gou answered with a groan. "It allows me to move or levitate any metal object I have sent my static electricity through. I would give you a demonstration but you know. Broken bones and all."
Tooru then said, "Well it's definitely a lot cooler than your lie of only being able to produce static electricity at any time."
"Well, that's what I thought it was for the longest time, but that's a story for another day," Gou said as the sound of an approaching car could be heard.
Ojiro then walked over to it as it stopped.
Midoriya was confused, though. This was the same car that his friends left in.
The detective then opened the passenger door to reveal Recovery Girl in a sleeping gown and looking not very pleased. "Thank you so much for coming on such short notice, Shuzenji-san." Tanuma then parked the car in front of the truck as the two approached the group.
The school nurse yawned and looked over to the others before saying, "If it weren't for that man on the ground, I would have figured I was called here to heal you, Midoriya-san."
"Oh come on, you haven't healed me since the summer," Izuku stated after a sigh.
"You visited me more in that span of time than some students at U.A. in their entire three years."
This got both Inoue and Ojiro to laugh, with only a grunt from Aizawa.
Recovery Girl then gave a quick inspection before saying, "This should be easy. Just give me a few minutes."
Tooru then asked, "Even with broken bones? Izuku needed surgery when you healed him during the Sports Festival."
The woman started to carefully unwrap the bandage on Inoue's broken wrist as she stated, "That is because the boy's bones experienced about every type of fracture there is. This gentleman just has displaced obliques and only three of them. Not over multitudes like Midoriya-san had."
Izuku shivered at the thought of the memory. Only his injuries during the summer hurt more, but perhaps because of the emotional side of things as well.
Gou then asked, "Quite the crazy one aren't you, kid?"
Midoirya crossed his arms as he proclaimed, "I've improved my quirk a lot since then!"
"Seems so."
"Let's give them some space," Aizawa stated as he motioned his students to the other side of the vehicle.
After they followed, Izuku asked, "So is Inoue-san one of your better agents?"
"The best and my first. We really did stumble on one another all those years ago. It's from him that I molded the Vigilante Task Force. Tonight's capture will help further its goal."
Tooru then asked, "Even though we did most of the work?" Eraserhead smirked at his student's comment. She continued after turning to her boyfriend and saying, "Seems like your trip with All Might-sensei last month was quite productive."
Before Midoriya could respond, Ojiro spoke up and said, "That's on me, Hagakure-san. I asked him to keep it under wraps."
"It's fine. He's always been a bundle of secrets."
Izuku then felt a playful jab to his side.
Tooru then stated, "This does sound important, though."
"Quite. This will be a major blow to the organization those two belong to."
Midoriya asked, "Organization?"
"Classified, I am afraid."
"Of course it is," Hagakure said with disappointment.
"Well considering you helped capture these two, I can at least give you more information about them. It's not like they are going anywhere. I can't go into detail, but let's just say they are part of a special kind of underground mercenary contractor. And Landslide was their top agent in Tokyo, and Mr. Switcheroo one of their key assets."
"And Mr. Switcheroo is Landslide's partner?"
"Funny name."
Detective Ojiro cleared his throat before explaining, "It's what they call him, not me. I don't even know his real name. Anyways, his quirk is like an illusion. He can make people look like himself or swap appearances. The latter can only be done one at a time, and in either case, he has to be in relative proximity with the target. Because of the nature of his quirk, it took many years to figure out he even existed. From there, Inoue-san's security trick eventually led us to notice he was being used alongside Landslide."
Midoriya was taken aback upon hearing this. The villain truly was the prize catch of the night.
"You're being awfully quiet, Aizawa-sensei," Hagakure said.
"This nightmare is over. There's not much to say. I just want to go home and have the first night of true rest in months," Eraserhead stated, keeping his eyes closed. He was currently leaning on the side of the vehicle.
"Nightmare?" Tooru didn't know what else to say, but the statement did start to turn gears inside Izuku's head.
"You deserve that peace, Aizawa-san." The detective bowed as he said, "Sorry that I couldn't help in your plight."
"It's fine. You couldn't let yourself be known to be involved with this mess or run the risk for your task force."
Midoriya then slowed, said, "So, the government was hounding you for information on Inoue-san?"
Aizawa's face scowled as he said, "Of course, All Might couldn't keep that to himself."
"We were worried about you sensei, and so was he," Hagakure argued.
"You should listen to your student Eraserhead," Inoue stated as he rounded the corner. Not only was he no longer bandaged, but he was also no longer wearing his mask. It was odd seeing him without glasses. "Don't want to push away those that care about you. You don't seem like the type to have many friends."
Tooru was quick to leap into his arms but was stopped as Recovery Girl shouted, "Hold it! His arms still need time to recover. They may no longer be broken, but they are still in pain. Being tackled and hugged will not be pleasant."
"Sorry, a force of habit."
Izuku knew this all too well. He then said, "So both have met each other before. That's why you were so cooperative with sensei."
Gou shrugged, "It's been a decade, but yeah. I was going to need all the help I could get considering my injuries. Even if it was by a teacher I barely knew personally and his students."
Shota stood up and said, "In the end, we all got what we wanted from this, and that's that." He pointed to the patrol car before asking, "Can we call it a night now? I don't want my other students to start to worry about these two if they decide to stay up."
Ojiro nodded as he said, "Considering he's all healed up. I can't see why not." He then turned to Inoue and said, "Join up with Tanuma-san in the truck while I take these four back to their school."
The vigilante nodded and turned to Hagakure to say, "Be sure not to tell your dad, and especially not your mom. She'd never let me hear the end of it. We'll talk more about this later, okay?"
"Yeah yeah, more secrets. However, I expect you to tell me lots next time we have a chat."
"Of course!" Gou then got into the truck. The look on his face gave the impression he wasn't looking forward to that.
The detective then said, "I just need a few minutes with Aizawa-san before we send you all home."
Tooru took Izuku's hand and said under her breath, "Tonight feels like it's never going to end." She led him to the car and leaned on its side while crossing her arms."
After a few moments of silence, Midoriya asked, "So do you want to know how my meeting with Ojiro-san went?"
"Not now. It can wait. I am just done with tonight's shenanigans."
"It's been pretty eventful."
"Being attacked. Having to run around nude in the cold and knock a guy out. Finding out my dad's friend isn't disabled, has a usable quirk, is a vigilante, and knows Aizawa-sensei. Then my friend's dad is also like a super spy detective or something? Should I go on?"
"So...you're not angry...about me keeping the stuff with Ojiro-san from you?"
"No. Not at all about that. That's the least of my worries. I'm exhausted more than anything. Mostly mentally."
Izuku took one of his girlfriend's hands and asked, "Wanna talk about it?"
Tooru leaned more into Izuku before saying, "I feel bad about Uraraka-san is all. This was supposed to be her night. I mean yeah, we did everything we wanted to do, but that's not the way to end a birthday."
"She seemed pretty pumped we were able to defeat Landslide though. It's a night she won't forget."
"Perhaps."
There had to be more to this, Midoriya pondered. After a minute of silence, he finally figured it out and asked, "You really wanted to do that sleepover, huh?"
"...Yeah, there's that too. The last one was so much fun, and that felt like forever ago."
"What was that present you wanted to give Uraraka-san anyways?"
Izuku felt a few pats on his head as Tooru answered, "The present should stay between her and me. No need to pry."
Considering that, he didn't want to ask any further questions on that matter. Instead, Midoriya said, "Guess we have a few more days to hang out until the internship starts."
"And we're going to make the most of it," Hagakure stated in a sly tone.
"L-Lucky me, I guess." Her forwardness about this was still unnerving to Izuku.
"Lucky for us both, you mean."
Crawls out from the darkness.
Oh, hi there! Finally published a new chapter!
Before I get into the chapter, I want to say that I do plan to pump-out chapter 39 pretty quickly. Spring Break plus the whole Coronavirus debacle means I have a lot less work these next two weeks (half the schools for next week have already canceled), so I know I can work hard to get it out on the first of April to get things back on schedule.
The long wait can be attributed to the first scene, mainly the battle, as it went through many rewrites. Eventually, I left it behind to work on the rest as it was a much less stressful endeavor. I still spent about a week after finishing the chapter solely to rework it, which is insane considering it's only 1.5k words. The struggle was making sure everyone had a part in said battle and that it wasn't too bloated (as the initial idea had a lot of the latter). The rest of the chapter had some significant changes also, but they were quickly dealt with compared to the battle. At the start, the plan was for everyone to learn what was going on from Mr. Ojiro. This would have had the gang met up at Inoue's house as they were filled in. The logistics of doing it, however, were both bloated and illogical once I started to write it out, so instead, I just focused on Izuku and Tooru being in the know. The chapter is too much of an info dump as is.
From the very beginning of writing this fanfic, I wanted the main group to encounter a villain while hanging out/dating. Initially, it was to be used as a catalyst for them wanting to become a team, and I even considered doing it as early as chapter four during the double date. But I threw that out cause I wanted everyone to be there, not four of the six. So the idea instead evolved into including the Vigilante plot, something that began all the back in chapter nine. This is in no way concluded and will be a driving force in Izuku's vision of a future hero society going forward.
Inoue, Landslide, and Mr. Switcheroo all went through different processes when created. Inoue was something I figured out early on; only his name was left up in the air until he was introduced in chapter 36. The name of Gou Inoue, like Momo's butler/maids of Momo's, is from a Japanese voice actor. Some examples of his talent include voicing Stain in MHA and Madara Uchiha in Naruto. His quirk initially was going to have him being able to travel through any object that had a circuit. But its battle potential was pretty limited, so I switched to the electro-telekinesis pretty quickly. Landslide was just "rock villain" in my head for the longest time; it wasn't until earlier this year that I worked out his details. Mr. Switcheroo was someone I came up with much later in the story, but his quirk was set in stone the moment I thought him up. I figured Landslide would need a partner, but it wasn't until I started planning out how he carried out his job did Mr. Switcheroo's quirk come to mind. Oh and if you didn't recognize him, Tanuma is from the Vigilante spin-off. There will be more from that series coming into this fic as we go forward.
I have three commissions in the work atm, two of which will be done by 39's release. The final one, for Ojiro's birthday, will be later in April. I also have decided on what to do for Cubicity's 3rd anniversary. It will be a two-pager and focus more on the ships this time, than milestones like what I did for the 2nd anniversary. It will also have a little something special for Tooru. I will also create something for the new cover page, but that's still up in the air on what I want to do.
Night Foliage has finished editing chapter 26, with 112 corrections made. :0
So 39 will cover Izuku's time at the Endeavor agency as well as the first week of the third term. From there, I expect 4-6 chapters dedicated to this term, but that is subject to change depending on how the war arc goes. But as of now, I can't see myself covering the current manga arc until the mid/late 40's.
