Learning to Trust
"Checkmate is good in chess, but in real life, I prefer stalemate for it often saves relations… as we end with mutual benefits."
-Goldy P. Patel
Chapter 36: Stalemate
Nezu refused to discuss anything until All Might had taken his medications. Currently Eraserhead was working to figure out Recovery Girl's oxygen apparatus while All Might changed out of as much of his wet clothing as he ethically could. It was the first night in months that Chiyo had been able to leave UA at a reasonable time. Honestly that was a good thing. Nezu knew that. Still, as he eyed All Might's shivering form and couldn't help but wish with only a touch of guilt that she were still on campus.
The man looked terrible, and it was obvious that he had once again pushed himself too far.
Nezu sighed as he watched the back of the old hero as he pulled off his soaking wet shirt, dropping it with a dull splat onto the floor. He picked up a thick white towel and began drying his hair and face, then his arms, and finally his back and torso. Bone and sinew were clearly visible through pale skin pulled tightly over his remaining muscle. Spinal bumps stood out between prominent shoulder blades.
How much longer can you continue to fight like this, Toshinori? I'm grateful for everything that you've given us, but I'm afraid you're going to work yourself to death.
All Might turned just then, after he finished drying his body, and had begun rubbing again at his sopping hair.
Even Nezu, who prided himself in his ability to keep his expression impassive, found himself wincing. It was the first time he'd properly seen All Might's injury. It looked like some parasitic flower, a bruised and mottled looking red, pink and purple patchwork spreading over his torso. It was made up of skin pulled tightly over a painfully thin chest, criss-crossed with numerous thinner scars.
And while that scar was by far his worst, it wasn't the only one. His body had been damaged and repaired over and over again, like a well-worn toy that had broken ages ago, but was too loved by its owner to be discarded. But it isn't that way, is it, All Might? he thought sadly. You would be more than happy to discard it, wouldn't you? The only thing stopping you is your sense of duty and your need for a successor. And I thought the only way I was going to be able to protect you was by keeping you here on campus… but now I'm not so certain UA will be able to keep you safe. You seem to be drawn to danger like a magnet, or perhaps you just draw it toward yourself.
Eraserhead began swearing under his breath at the stubborn oxygen apparatus, and All Might came over to help him finish fixing it.
Nezu smiled faintly at that, some of his tension relaxing. Although maybe the added danger is worth it, if only for the support you're finally getting now.
Nezu turned back to Recovery Girl's computer, which he had used to tap into the few campus security cameras that were still functioning on their limited power grid. So it's even more critical that we take care of this villain quickly before anyone else gets hurt. We can't afford to lose Mic and Midnight. Worse, All Might will certainly blame himself for any ill that comes of this.
His sharp black eyes scanned dim monitors for any sign of Shifter, or even Mizutani Tetsu. Still nothing. Hopefully the boy had been intelligent enough to hide as soon as he got back on campus. The fact that none of them had found him since he'd arrived was likely a good sign.
Shifter's absence was the real problem. She was probably hiding in the shadows waiting for them to inevitably surface.
He glanced down at the time stamp on the lower corner of the screen.
It will be dawn soon. She's currently got the advantage because there are no other heroes on campus, but that will end as soon as staff returns for the day. He hummed quietly under his breath, carefully scanning shadows for unusual movement. We're at a stalemate now, but at some point one of us will have to act. If we wait, she will lose her advantage when more heroes arrive, but she must realize that as well. She's going to have to make a move before then, and the longer she waits, the more desperate her move will likely be…
He felt more than heard All Might and Eraserhead come up behind him, their presence suddenly palpable. Nezu's sensitive ears finally picked up the soft wheeze and click of the oxygen machine.
"Nothing yet?" Eraserhead leaned in to study the monitors as well. "I doubt she's going to leave this area. She must realize that we'd have headed for the Medical Building."
Nezu simply nodded, allowing his eyes to skip over to another screen of dark shadows gusting wind.
"And I assume you've locked down our building, so she can't get in."
Nezu snorted softly. "No, Eraserhead. I didn't."
He snapped around to glare at Nezu, eyes wide. "Why? She must know we're here. It's only a matter of time before she comes in!"
Nezu nodded, turning to another screen. "I'm counting on it, Eraserhead."
All Might's deep voice, softer and tired now, responded before Eraserhead could formulate an appropriate response. "You're trying to lure her in?" He slowly dropped to a crouch so he could more properly look Nezu in the eye. "You're using us as bait, hoping she comes here where we have an advantage."
A small, pleased smile crept onto Nezu's face. Good job. "Yes, All Might. That's exactly it. I should have known you'd pick that up. It was, after all, one of Gran Torino's old tactics when you trained under him, wasn't it?"
All Might snorted at that. "Yeah. And I was always the bait."
Nezu turned to All Might, and laughed gently at him. The man looked tired and worn down, but there was now a brightness to his eyes—a smile curling his lips.
"Someone care to explain this asinine plan to me since you both have apparently lost your minds?" Eraserhead growled in irritation.
All Might looked up as Nezu flicked the cameras to show another angle of the Medical Building's exterior.
"We're making this the easiest and most accessible building for her to enter. She has to know we're in here, like you said. One of us is going to have to make a move soon. If we make it obvious that we are in here, and make it just easy enough for her to get in that she thinks we just slipped up, she's likely to make her move now when she is more likely to be thinking rationally, and therefore easier to predict."
Nezu nodded. "She needs to take us out while there are few of us. And we don't know for certain what her final goal is. It has been difficult enough just figuring out as much as we have. We can't risk her leaving to set something new up now. If she knows we're here, she will move on us. When she does, we gain the advantage."
Eraserhead narrowed his eyes, but nodded. "I see. Yes, she's not going to be able to do as much with the weather inside, negating most of Floodgate's power at least. But I'm currently the only one who can fight."
All Might's smile dropped. "I know," he muttered, frustration clearly in his voice. "And I'm sorry about that. It puts a lot of pressure on you, Eraserhead. But if you can erase her quirk, I should be safe to take her down. I know most of the quirks she's recently borrowed. The only one that can neutralize me is the weather quirk and possibly Midnight's sleep gas."
Nezu nodded. "My thoughts exactly. And I've activated the building's silent alarms. If anyone enters, we'll know."
"I don't like it," Eraserhead growled. "We don't know if she still has Mic or Midnight. We still haven't found the Mizutani boy. We don't know for certain who she is or if she's gathered even more quirks." He sent a pointed glare in All Might's direction. "We don't even know if she's in possession of your quirk. There are too many variables—too many ways for this to go wrong."
"I don't like it either," All Might rumbled, stiffly pushing himself back to his feet, "but it's the only plan we have right now. It's either stalemate or checkmate."
Nezu nodded. "Precisely," he chirped. "And I, for one, plan on winning this game."
"I'm not sure in the end that anyone is really going to win, sir," All Might replied softly. "Someone will be hurt no matter what."
Eraserhead didn't reply.
The weather wasn't as bad near the medical building as it had been near the dorm, and it was brighter here. Tetsu peeked around the brick corner of one of the UA office buildings. Maybe better weather means she's farther away, he thought hopefully.
No one seemed to be around, but he scanned the area again, just in case. He clutched the support item tightly under one arm and with his free arm checked his pocket for the tenth time to make sure his silenced phone was still there. No good losing that, especially since he'd added the manual override as an app—one of Power Loader's suggestions. It was pretty impressive how much Power Loader knew about this stuff now that Tetsu was actually asking questions. He'd thought Yagi was a support item genius, but maybe it was just that Yagi was the only one Tetsu had found worth listening to. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to listen to what the other teachers had to say after this—even Present Mic….
Tetsu swallowed hard.
Assuming we all get out of here alive, that is. He took a deep breath, steeling himself. No. You've got this, Mizutani. You can do this. You can face her.
He tightened the strings of his hoodie and darted across the campus to the Medical Building, the rubber soles of his running shoes agonizingly echoing across the open space. His feet slid in areas where the rain had frozen into patches of ice. Multiple times he nearly lost his balance, but he managed to right himself at the last moment. He was almost to the building when he hit a patch of black ice and his feet went out from under him. Instinctively, he wrapped his arms around his device to protect it as he fell, slamming his shoulder and the side of his head into the cement edge of the sidewalk so hard that he saw stars for a moment.
He didn't know how long he lay there in a daze, the wind knocked out of him and red and black throbbing behind his eyelids before his brain was able to scream at his body to get off the sidewalk. It seemed to take an agonizing amount of time for him to pull himself to his feet, dazed. His head pounded and his shoulder throbbed, but the first thing he did when he managed to stagger to his feet was to run his hands over the device in the crook of his elbow.
It felt intact. He sighed with relief, which just caused another flash of pain in his temple. Just what I need—a concussion… Great… He lifted a shaky hand to gently touch the goose egg forming on the side of his head. He felt something warm and sticky.
Head wounds bleed a lot. Mom said it all the time, remember. It's nothing. Just walk it off and get off the sidewalk so you don't fall again. Move!
Reluctantly his sluggish feet moved, dragging him into the lawn. He forced himself to ignore how much his shoulder hurt. No use on focusing on something he couldn't help. Once he got to the medical building maybe he could find an ice pack and some Tylenol or something. How illegal was it to break into the nurse's office to steal ice and cheap painkillers?
Probably no worse than what I'm already doing…
He attempted to move his bad arm enough to tug out his phone and check the time.
It was gone.
Tetsu paled. Oh no. I dropped it! What if it broke? If I don't have control, it might go after All Might again… I have to find it!
Frantically he began looking around in the weak light and deep shadows around the Medical Building. Finally he spotted a flash of light reflecting off of something in the glitter of frosty grass. It seemed too far from the sidewalk, but maybe it had been kicked farther away when he'd fallen than he'd thought.
As quickly as he was able, Tetsu moved toward the shining object. After only a step, he kicked something in the grass.
He looked down to see his phone at his feet.
Tetsu slowly bent to pick it up, trying to ignore the pounding in his head as he did so. The screen was cracked. Shit. He pressed the power button, shielding the screen with his other hand, and to his relief it powered on. He shoved the phone back into his pocket, and turned back toward the building when the shine in the grass a short distance away caught his eye again.
What is that?
He closed the distance as quickly as he could and crouched to pick up what had drawn him here in the first place.
Midnight's glasses? He looked around, squinting a bit to try to focus better in the poor lighting, a cold feeling forming in his stomach. This was not good. There was no way Midnight would have left these here if she could help it. Suddenly he could see torn up dirt and debris in the grass and on the sidewalk around him now that he was looking more closely. There had been a fight here.
I need to keep moving. Now!
UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS.
UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS.
UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS.
The alert kept blinking steadily and calmly across one of Nezu's screens. His phone vibrated in time with the , he silenced it.
Yagi leaned forward, squinting at the screen. "Help me understand this," he asked cautiously. "Entry point is where?"
Nezu was tapping away rapidly at Recovery Girl's computer, zooming in to the grainy image moving in the semi-darkness. He glanced back down at the linked alert on his phone. "It appears to be a main level breach just off the lobby. I'm going to try to clear up the image." He narrowed his dark eyes at the screen, muttering under his breath, "I should never have let Recovery Girl keep this antique computer. This monitor is older than I am."
Aizawa just shook his head and tugged his cell phone out. Still no service. He glanced around the office, his eyes finally landing on the walkie-talkies charging near the wall, almost hidden by the geriatric monitor that Nezu was glaring daggers at. He leaned over and yanked one out, testing it.
It crackled to life.
Yagi's head whipped up, eyes narrowing. "What are you doing, Eraserhead?"
Aizawa didn't answer, instead yanking the second one out of its holster and setting it in front of Yagi, volume on. He lowered his own volume as much as possible and clipped the small unit to his collar under his capture weapon. "Our phones won't work, but these seem to be active. Try not to talk much or you'll give away my position. This is for emergencies only. I'm not even sure what range we'll have with all of the disruptions, but I think it should be able to function within the building."
"Eraserhead, you didn't answer my question." His grip tightened on the edge of the desk he was gripping, knuckles going white.
Aizawa turned to study Yagi for a moment. Disheveled and hooked up to the oxygen. Wrapped in a towel, but still shivering. Yet the man's eyes were like steel, and suddenly Aizawa was reminded that as frail and sick as he may appear, there was an unreasonably stubborn and impressive power radiating under the surface. Even now, Aizawa felt himself go cold for a fraction of a second under the firm, steady stare of All Might.
Aizawa scowled and broke eye contact. "I'm making a move. We can't just sit here trying to make out a grainy image. Nezu is the one linked into the system, so he needs to stay here and monitor things. You need to finish your treatment. Let me just go down and see what we're dealing with. If it's her, then I can try to erase her quirk. It's light enough in here for me to get a visual."
Yagi's voice was flat. "It's too dangerous. Until we know for sure who you're facing—"
Aizawa huffed at that, and turned back toward the door. "We won't know who I'm facing even if we see them on the monitor, Yagi. That's the point, isn't it? She can borrow faces. If it's Mic or Midnight, then I need to actually talk to them to confirm that it's actually them."
"Eraserhead—"
He reached out and rested his hand on the door handle, then paused briefly. "You can call me Aizawa," he responded quietly.
Yagi's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "I—What?"
"Aizawa. You don't have to call me Eraserhead." He flashed a grim smile at Yagi and pulled on his goggles, tapping a button on the side to activate the infrared. "You're not the enemy here. I had no right to treat you like one." He turned his back to the speechless hero then, opening the door. "Wait here. I'll contact you as soon as I have anything to share. If I can neutralize her, I will. You can come down and do your thing."
"And if she neutralizes you?"
Aizawa flashed a grim smile at him. "Lock the door and wait for backup. She can't use my quirk if she can't see you, and the last thing we need is Shifter borrowing Nezu's quirk."
He stepped into the hallway then, letting the door click shut behind him with a cold finality.
Author's note: Thanks to lolo popoki and granny_griffin for betaing and helping with this chapter! Also, thanks to everyone who has read and interacted with this fic. I appreciate you!
Sincerely,
Sirius:)