Well, Happy New Year readers. Kept you waiting a bit, let's not waste any more time.


Izuku scrolled through Highlights on his phone, current and ongoing news stories flashing across his feed, headlines vying for his attention. Idly, Midoriya took note that there was a big expo going on at I-Island. His interest in heroes lead to a natural interest in support gear and considering David Shield – practically the poster boy of I-Island – was a close associate of All Might…

He wondered if the Symbol of Peace had an invite to the expo.

"Did you see," Tooru's voice chimed in from across the outside table, "That new pop group La Ment is starting their tour of Japan in two weeks. They're gonna set up their first show in Naruhata."

On his own end of the circular cafe table, Minoru practically glared down the rather frou-frou coffee – of which Hagakure had a duplicate – resting in front of him. The seeming air of caution he held towards the drink was understandable considering how their morning had gone.

"They're holding it in the same district where those vigilantes were active, huh?" Minetta's tone was still rather lethargic, the tiny teen flicking his finger through the abundance of sprinkle dotted whipped cream topping his brew.

Tooru slurped up a drag of her drink, a streak of floating cream vanishing as she, apparently, licked it off her upper lip. "Yep! Little tribute to that talent group that performed there a few years back. One of the Naruhata Vigilantes was a part of it, remember?"

Taking a quick sip of his own cup, Minetta allowed his own cream stache to stay as he lowered it, nodding sagely at the invisible girl's words. "Pop Step had the most bangin' ass."

Izuku paused in his scrolling, inhaling sharply at the blunt expression of lust.

Hagakure's unseen finger snatched a dollop of cream and slurped it into her mouth. She let it loose with a wet pop, "Yeah, that booty had some bounce."

Minetta sputtered into his drink, splattering foam across the table. Midoriya groaned, crossing his arms before plopping them and then his forehead down onto the flat top. Tooru burst into laughter, rubbing a clear palm over the greenette's curly lockes.

"Aww, did Midori get embarrassed?"

The hero hopeful swiped at his friend's invasive hand. She quickly parried, giving his scalp a light chop which turned into a bit of a skirmish. Hagakure's giggles and Izuku's sad whines punctuated the entire battle, pedestrians giving them some queer looks as they passed.

Ikaruga, seated across from the ongoing conflict, stared them down with a quirked brow. Next to her, Minoru pumped his fists into his own gut, coughing through his self-Heimlich maneuver. On the other side, Kisuke continued to use his coffee as a dunking source for the plate of donuts he'd ordered.

Maybe she should rescind her offer to work together on this?

"So," Uzuma puffed through cheeks full of pastry, "I think we need to get back on track, y'know?" Kurogane blinked at her neighbor, still mystified at the prospect of a responsible Kisuke.

Minetta chose this moment to rise in revolt, pushing through his final coughs to climb onto the table. With a triumphant lunge, he caught and then slammed one of Hagakure's hands down onto the table top. The girl froze at the sudden strike, allowing Izuku to capture and hammer down her other limb.

With both hands restrained, the invisible girl remained very still for a few seconds. Then her shoulders turned, very slowly, towards Minetta. "Traitor," she accused in a raspy whisper.

Izuku, still holding his vanquished foe's arm in pace, deliberated towards Kisuke, "Our situation is that, right over there." The greenette nodded at the walled in structure down a ways and across the avenue. The contrast between the vibrant red bricking and the stark white molding of the doors, windows, and around the edge of the roof gave an oddly… wintery feel.

The rather quaint middle school did have a proper name, one that was displayed quite boldly – if in rather plain text – on signage facing towards Izuku and company. But between its simple outside aesthetic and the infamous coloration of the students' uniforms, Taiyuki Middle School was almost universally known by another name.

"Yep, that's the North Pole," Minetta commented, his body still perched on Hagakure's hand. As he was talking, a pair of boys in the school's tell tale red and green uniforms were passing through. One who had a short, golden beak in place of a mouth and was playing with a rubber band shot a look at the grape head. Then he quickly shot the rubber band into the back of Minoru's head, pitching the teen off of his perch and nearly off the table. Tooru snatched up the back of his blazer with her now freed limb, keeping him from rolling off.

The younger boys cackled at the display. Hagakure fixed them with a particularly nasty – though wholly ineffective – glare. At least, it was ineffective until her sharpened orbs flared with a vicious yellow glow. The middle schoolers balked at the sudden flash, completely missing when Ikaruga unfurled one of her spider legs and tripped the pair into an adjacent table. The duo knocked into the furniture, scrambling over each other before taking off in a shrieking panic.

Tooru's luminous death glare followed them right around the nearby corner.

Kisuke spat out an enthused, "Nice," as he raised a palm to the spider girl. She presented her own hand, quickly clapping it against her classmate's. Hagakure dragged Minetta back onto the table, wrenching her other hand free of the distracted Midoriya and moving for her drink again.

"Punk kids," Minoru stated, taking care to speak in a hushed manner as throngs of "Santa's Little Helpers" were exiting the school and milling about the area.

Ikaruga, much less concerned with any potential retaliation, spoke more plainly, "I'd heard that North Pole students tended to be the… troubled sort." Her sharp eyes flitted about the passing groups, catching a gaggle of Taiyuki girls giving her the stink eye. They looked away pretty quickly when they saw how undaunted Kurogane was, her dead stare piercing their souls.

The spider girl concluded, "Makes sense that Mr. Senki's nephew goes here, all things considered."

Midoriya nodded to his classmate's point, his emerald orbs scanning the adjacent crowds. He rapidly tapped his digit against the tabletop, searching the street for something in particular. "Be nice if we could find someone on their own to question," he mentioned softly.

"Yeah, I don't know if these kids are gonna be too forthcoming," Uzuma drifted, dunking the remaining half of a donut before chomping it into oblivion. "Maybe," he spoke through stuffed cheeks, "we'd have more luck talking to a teacher?"

Ikaruga slid her chair away, avoiding the sloppy spray of spit laden crumbs flying from Kisuke's mouth.

Minetta answered the cone haired boy with a scoff, "You might wanna rethink that." The tiny teen pointed towards the main gate of the middle school where a short, rotund, middle aged man had posted himself. The suit clad instructor loosened his tie as he swiped a waiting cig from his front pocket. He then drew a lighter in a practiced flash of movement, lighting up with out a care and taking an immediate drag.

"Yo Mr. Sato," a slick looking boy walking with his girlfriend offered the smoker a wave, "hope you have a good day!"

The teacher blew out a plume of smoke, angling it just over the departing pair. The dark haired girl swept away the acrid cloud as Mr. Sato declared, "Day will be a lot better once you guys are all gone."

A little huff of laughter escaped the boy as he wrapped his arm around his girlfriend. She looked ready to spit on the instructor but Mr. Sato had already dismissed their existence, happily puffing away.

A shockingly visible sweat drop appeared over Tooru's brow. "Alright, appealing to the staff is a no go… Maybe I could just sneak in and go through files?"

Izuku turned on her, "One: I'm pretty sure that's illegal. Twice over even, so double illegal. Two: I think someone would notice the floating school uniform that-doesn't-belong-to-their-school wandering around."

"I mean, I wouldn't be wearing the uniform when I sneak in."

Midoriya had to take a breath before continuing. Minetta had his vision laser focused on Hagakure, a good degree of liveliness having returned to his features. More surprising was the way Kurogane quirked a brow, her interest on clear display.

"That," Izuku huffed, "would make it thrice illegal. Public nudity s a crime." Tooru responded to her friend's wisdom with a dismissive roll of the wrist. Minoru leaned out over the table, staring across Tooru and giving the greenette a "seriously bro" expression.

Ikaruga piped up, "Entertaining as Hagakure's plan would be…" At that, Minetta turned to the spider girl with a look of respect. "I have to agree with Midoriya. Something that blatant would be detrimental to the average civilian's future, let alone prospective hero students."

Izuku nodded along with his classmate's words though he was a little put off by how… self serving her arguments were. The weight of rationality was too much for Tooru, the invisible girl pitching her brow into the table whilst issuing a disappointed groan. But something caught Minoru's attention through all this.

"Uzuma, what are you looking at?"

The others at the table paused, turning to regard the cone haired young man. Kisuke was staring off to the side, drawing a coffee dunked donut up towards his mouth. His lack of aim had the teen slapping the soggy treat against his chin and cheek before taking a bite out of the ring. Still gazing off, Uzuma swung his arm out, pointing his chomped donut towards his point of interest.

"Ugggghhhh, seriouslyhe's so di-fi-cult."

The girl talking to herself was standing nearby, leaning against the edge of an adjacent table. Her light brown eyes were focused intently on her bedazzle-ridden smartphone. She sniped away at the touchscreen with a speed and precision utterly at odds with the sluggish, halting way in which she talked.

Her uniform marked her as a Taiyuki student. She had a soft, youthful face with freckled cheeks that spanned across her button nose. With a fairly tanned complexion and hair that could literally be called platinum blonde – pulled into bushy pigtails that bounced atop her shoulders – she was a picture perfect gyaru.

One thing Minetta noticed had his eyes bulging, the boy backing into Hagakure as though in fear. "How the fuck does her top contain her!?"

Though he was the only one to voice it, all the high schoolers present were wondering the same. Each of those fatty sacks, on their own, were bigger than the girl's head. This was exaggerated by the fact that, for a middle schooler, she was… lacking somewhat in height.

"Huh, a short stack," was the casual observation of one Tooru Hagakure. Minoru, still leaning against her, nodded sagely, his expression frozen in awe. Midoriya considered scooting his chair away from them.

The table of teens continued watching the tanned junior. She worked her jaw in powerful motions as she texted, stopping her chews to blow a sizable lime green bubble.

Ikaruga turned back to Kisuke, "So aside from having big jugs, why were you watching this girl?" Minetta shot the spider girl a look of utter confusion at the very nature of the inquiry. Her status as a fellow "connoisseur" was officially in question.

Rather than a finger, Kisuke brought his last bit of donut to his lips in a shushing motion. At the same time, the Taiyuki girl's bubblegum popped.

"Gaaaaaauuugghh… come on Jamie, stop being all pouty…" The mini gyaru kept tapping away at her phone screen with the same dexterity. It was a steep contrast to her slow, awkward efforts to slurp the sticky mess off her face and back into her mouth.

At the name that she'd uttered, Uzuma perked up, slapping Kurogane's shoulder and repeatedly jabbing a finger towards the middle schooler. The violet haired teen looked rather miffed by the exchange, particularly because the guy was smacking her with his mostly eaten donut.

Then a sharpness entered her dark eyes, causing Izuku to blink as he noticed. After a second, the hero fanatic and the adjacent Hagakure both jumped in a small eureka moment, the invisible girl swiftly reaching for her phone.

The jostling knocked Minetta from his perch, sending the small boy towards the concrete. Without looking, Tooru's free arm caught him, dragging the tiny teen into her middle. He ended up with his nose poking her belly button.

"Yeah," Hagakure mumbled as she scrolled, "I think that name 'Jamie' is listed as a person of interest. You know, from Mr. Senki's message." She took little notice as her other arm continued to squeeze Minetta like some kind of security plush.

"Jamie Boyd: fifteen years old," Midoriya began, "transferred from America three years ago. Held himself back for one school year to acclimate to life in a different country. Susceptible to emotional outbursts – particularly anger, maintains an overall muted air to combat this. Primary subject Daichi Senki associates with him in order to push his buttons. Quirk allows him to rewind inanimate objects to a prior state, typically used to fix things broken during a tantrum. Method of powering the process and extent of time rewindable inconclusive."

Izuku finished by drawing his fist away from his lips, clapping his free hand over his knuckles and sending a flat stare towards Hagakure. Her uniform's sleeve was raised, the cuff poised over Midoriya's head. The two teens stayed in a sort of deadlock before the invisible girl slowly lowered her arm.

While a part of her was glad the boy was learning, she was rather disappointed at the missed chance to practice her "technique." A long whine from Minoru reminded her that she still had the boy in a tightening hold, loosing her grip a bit to allow him to breathe. The orb-hawked teen was happy to have air again, but a part of him was disappointed not being absolutely smooshed in girl flesh.

As Uzuma made a show of applause – clapping his pointer against a freshly claimed donut, the tapping scattering sweet powder across the table – Ikaruga made an observation, "Milk Jugs is leaving."

The girl in question was moving now, striding in the direction of their table. Midoriya made a little show of ducking down, nursing his simple drink. Kurogane swiftly mirrored him, the spider girl retrieving her ever faithful cell phone. Hagakure slouched back but, due to obvious circumstances, could blatantly track the middle schooler's path with her eyes.

Kisuke shifted his quirked-brow gaze across his classmates, chewing the remains of his previous donut as he reached for the last one on his plate. His lack of awareness was further highlighted when the sudden impact against the back of his chair caused him to gut-check the table. Kisuke fumbled his treat and instantly started to choke on the mush he was in the midst of swallowing, Ikaruga dragging the boy into the Heimlich Maneuver.

Izuku and Tooru, having observed the "crash," avoided the worst of the shoved table and their resulting drink spillage. Hagakure in particular jumped back, hauling Minetta away from their spilled beverages. Izuku couldn't quite dodge the mess, the bottoms of his pants getting splashed, but the greenette hardly noticed it. He was far more focused on the source of the minor catastrophe.

The girl had been absorbed in her phone screen as she approached. So much so that she hadn't even tried to deviate around Kisuke's chair, walking almost directly into it. Now, this gal was maybe half Kisuke's size and not paying a lick of attention. Really, the impact should have put her flat on her ass from physics alone.

Instead, Midoriya low key marveled as a pink colored aura flared over the girl as she knocked into his classmate's seat. While Kisuke crashed into the edge of the table, the middle schooler hardly stumbled in passing, not even looking up from her screen.

"Quirk appears to be a form of force negation with a sort of 'reflective' element to it. The effect seems to be carried through an energy field that manifests over the body as opposed to through the skin. Unknown at this point if ability is constantly active, activates upon impact as a reflex, or requires conscious use."

Again, Izuku paused his own diatribe. Again, he sent a sideways glance at the Minetta-toting Tooru. She hadn't even moved towards him yet but Midoriya could almost feel the invisible eyes on his back. And again, Hagakure felt both proud and disappointed by her new friend's growth.

Then Kurogane got a particularly potent pull on Uzuma's gut, the spike haired teen hacking up his chewed mess right onto his emptied plate. Izuku and Tooru recoiled from the sight with a pair of long "Eeeew"s, the see through girl once more tightening her hold on Minetta and the grape head smiling pleasantly against her belly.

Things just kind of lingered for a minute as the group recovered, Kisuke in particular fighting to get his coughing fit under control, Ikaruga slapping his upper back with a fair degree of concern.

The girl who caused all this had just kept walking, making it two shops down the street before coming to a stop. Midoriya watched as she turned around, as though suddenly startled by something. Her somewhat peaked sights settled on their table, her lightly painted lips forming into a soft "o" of surprise. With lax movements, she "pocketed" her phone (in her cleavage, Tooru ensuring Minoru would not get a visual), slapped her palms against her knees, and tipped forward in a full bow.

Her bejeweled phone didn't so much as shift, her "feminine compartment" holding strong against gravity.

"Sor-ry y'all. Didn't mean to knock into you. My bad.~" As before, her speech was very sluggish. She held her bowed stance a moment longer before straightening out. Her slightly questioning gaze settled on the group of high schoolers as a period of silence dragged out.

Stuttering awkwardly, Izuku piped up, "I-I-It's fine. W-We're g-g-good." To be fair, not many young men could reply evenly to a girl who had unintentionally given them a prime view of her tanned globes.

The Taiyuki girl perked up, offering a brief smile as she withdrew her phone (the sudden yank made her boobs rock, Hagakure still smothering the unknowing Minetta). She turned on one heel, right leg raised in preparation to march, eyes once more glued to her phone. And then she was off again, stepping right on down the sidewalk.

The gang from Aozora watched her go, Tooru moving back to the table and sitting Minetta down on a clean section of it. He was still in his rather "zen" state, having spent a glorious period of time crushed against the invisible girl, as he casually commented, "That was the most textbook definition of 'slow minded' I have ever listened to."

They all nodded at that, even if they felt a little iffy on that particular wording. Then Ikaruga added, "Prolly wouldn't be too difficult to tail her."

After a beat of silence, everyone pushed their chairs in. They power walked in pursuit without exchanging so much as a word, unified in their intentions. As they departed, Tooru noted the deep sigh of a server as they laid eyes on their former table. She didn't break stride. Leaving the mess for the staff would just have to be a necessary evil.


Lloyd Collins again took the small hand of the flower shop owner in both of his much larger mitts, doing his best to assure her that talking to them was the right decision. The senior officer knew that he was far from the most comforting figure with his strong, intimidating frame, but he couldn't just brush the woman off. Through his rounded shades, he watched as the owner of Four Leaf entreated him with a warming smile.

But Sgt. Collins could see that the expression did not reach her eyes. He wouldn't let the disappointment show on his own face, all smiles as he backed up next to one of his fellow, plainly clothed police officers. Discretely as he could, Collins tapped his fingers thrice against his muscular colleague's hip. 'Dubious witness, possibly hostile. Maintain a visual.'

His wheat haired cohort, Sgt. Tanaka, nodded towards Granny Kiriko. In reality, she was acknowledging Collins' assessment as the collection of law enforcers made their way towards a side door the old lady had unlocked. The band of cops made an immediate right down a tight passage towards a half turn staircase.

But Tanaka hung back by the door, propping herself against the wall beside the frame. The door back to the shop did have a small window set high on it, but it was inconsequential to the policewoman. Tanaka's body shivered, a visible blur shifting off of her form. Sgt. Tanaka's quirk was a mild form of astral projection, only enough for her to sort of "lean" outside of her body. Nothing too impressive… but useful when you needed to peek through a wall and keep tabs on someone.

Collins led the two remaining officers up to the first landing. Setting a sedate pace, the sergeant checked over his stun gun. At the back of the stack, Ofc. Suma half cocked the pump on his shotgun, partially opening the slide and showing the blue case of the loaded beanbag round. This had been the seventh time already that he'd checked to be certain.

It was understandable. They were apprehending children after all, they couldn't afford any "excessive mistakes." Not for the first time, Lloyd mutely lamented the circumstances that had inevitably led him to this point, cementing his loyalty to Rino. He shook his skull lightly, tossing the intrusive thoughts away.

They bypassed the second floor entirely, Granny Kiriko's residence being the only point of interest there. The floral scent was impossibly strong, hurrying the cops in their ascent. Suma especially was affected by the powerful scent, as expected of his mutation. Collins stroked his dense beard as they turned towards the third floor.

Unlike the previous level which was well lit and lived in, the hallway beyond the stairwell here was shrouded in shadows. A window sat at the far end of the corridor, veiled by a dirty looking curtain that allowed the barest amount of sunlight to filter through.

Collins paused only long enough for Ofc. Suma to push past. The shotgun holder swept his head in a smooth scan of the space ahead, his peachy skull structured similar to that of a hammerhead shark. Suma's eyes resting on opposite ends of his head gave the man a superb peripheral awareness. And to compensate for a lack of forward visuals, the man possessed a sort of front focused radar, combining a superb sense of smell and a sensitivity to movement into a fine scouting ability.

Given the scenario, Suma was the optimal point man. It was unfortunate that he couldn't finely perceive the presence of tiny, nonliving objects, Suma and the other cops failing to notice the trip wire situated a step into the hallway. The lead man's boot snapped the taut wire with hardly a snag, pushing forward with complete unawareness.

The final ascent to roof access was, strangely enough, separate from the main staircase. Instead it was its own independent flight located more towards the center of the third floor. They'd gone over the building's schematics during their brief transit to it, the foreknowledge allowing them some level of confidence as they pressed onward.

It did strike them as a little weird that their person of interest was living on the roof when there was an entire, empty floor of the building that they could be set up in. The view Collins got of the main space of the third floor showed an area just as large as Kiriko's apartment below. Some boxes and containers showed it served as some kind of storage, but the amount of unutilized space was staggering.

Sgt. Collins did what he usually did with "unimportant" details and swiftly pushed them out of his mind. Thinking too much was one of the reasons he'd been effectively exiled from his home country. It was better to just keep on task, stay in the moment.

Ofc. Suma climbed the straight fight to the access door, his shotgun half raised as he stood on the hinges side of the portal. Lloyd saddled up along the old railing on the knob side of the door, raising his stun gun in one hand and grasping the handle in the other.

He paused, releasing a silent breath. Turning his attention to his two fellow officers in succession, he received a curt nod from each of them. The sergeant gave the knob a swift twist and a forceful shove, Suma rapidly pressing through the threshold.


Ryuken froze as the projector screen flickered violently, as though glitching out. His cup of tea, halfway to his lips, was flung over his shoulder as the older man sat up. Ranko perked up at the jerky movement, drawing Daichi's focus onto the rooftop dweller. Almost the instant his sight settled on Ryuken, the boy's Egress gave a swift snap to the back of his mind.

Jamie merely glanced up for a moment. Then he was dragged back to his phone screen, the speed of incoming messages outpacing his capacity to read them by a severe degree. The high schooler gave little reaction even as Ryuken hopped to his feet and advanced on the lounging teen. Taro's levels of nervousness quickly built back to his standard neurotic state.

"Slide off," Ryuken commanded, snatching at the prone boy's shoulder and side as he sunk down in front of the couch. Taro almost immediately bounded off of Jamie's belly, hurrying towards Daichi and Ranko. Once the hamster was clear and Jamie had lifted his remaining food trays out of the way, only then did the yankee allow himself to be rolled off the fuzzy cushions.

He may have dropped his phone mid-spin, mostly to ignore the ongoing storm of texts.

Jamie had managed to right himself into a proper kneel when the roof access door was bashed open. Beside him, Ryuken's fingers tensed as they gripped the bottom edge of the couch.


It was a little surprising that, out of all the Aozora band, Kisuke was, by far, the most enthused by the prospect of tailing someone. His initial excitement was practically a physical force, Ikaruga having to both keep her distance and shield her eyes from the metaphorical glow. If they had been following almost anyone else, they would have been made in seconds.

Thankfully, their target was oblivious to a superhuman degree. They could have started a marching band behind her and the middle schooler likely wouldn't have noticed until an hour later. The nonexistent difficulty of the task took the wind right out of Uzuma's sails.

The yet named gyaru girl pressed forth in her journey with all the grace of a drugged rhinoceros. Her frankly lumbering trek took her right through pedestrians – singular and in bunches – in meandering, haphazard motions. She had her focus directed to her phone, holding it in front and allowing the device to "lead" her like a metal detector. At the same time, she tapped out messages at a blinding rate, the extreme dexterity of her digits at complete odds with her careless efforts at walking.

That quirk of hers was pulling in some serious overtime, compensating for the obliviousness of its user. The pigtailed teen barreled through people with hardly a glance, bodies bouncing off of her with various levels of severity. One particular older male walked almost full tilt into her, likely because his gaze was tethered to the prime view of the gal's cleavage. He got rebounded into a light pole, spun around and then toppled into a half full garbage can.

His object of interest barely reacted, only hoisting her cell momentarily out of the path of collision. She didn't even break stride as her "admirer" fell over, Tooru suppressing a snort as the tanned girl kept walking.

Each of the high schoolers' features stiffened as the collapsed man burst up from his embarrassing position. His expression and mannerisms screamed of aggression, his heated glare beaming towards the middle schooler's back. He yelled out at the departing teen, the girl, of course, paying him zero mind.

Then he was moving, the irate man closing in on her in a few short steps. Minoru, having taken up his post on Izuku's shoulder, had a hand clamped down on one of his orbs, ready to pluck. The hem of Kurogane's shirt rippled as her spider limbs began to emerge.

But, to their collective astonishment, the gyaru fucking reacted. As her aggressor pitched a palm down towards the girl's shoulder, making to force a confrontation, his tanned target's arm swung upwards in a fast arc. With a surprising display of force she slapped the invading limb forward and away from her.

The aggravated man actually skipped ahead from the sudden deflection, utterly flabbergasted. His pigtailed opponent then seized the opening as he stumbled next to her, pausing a moment to cock her hips one way before throwing them back towards him. Her quirk flared up and there was an audible "repulsion," the man having an instant to regret his life choices before he went airborne.

His flight was brief. Mostly because it was interrupted by the brick wall of a building. The BAM of impact was dull and meaty, the "unfortunate victim" left a groaning mess on the sidewalk. To her credit, the blonde gal dd hold position for a moment or two. Whether that was out of concern for the situation or because she needed a second to regain her balance, who could say.

She was back to hoofing it pretty quick, her pace as casual as before, phone leading the way.

Hagakure stared at the retreating girl's back. Her sight then shifted onto the still proned man. An officer had already approached, crouching over the fallen dude and trying to rouse a response beyond pained grunts. It looked like the cop had no idea what had happened, not even glancing at the pigtailed girl as she departed the area.

"Should," Uzuma began, pointing between the bewildered policeman and the middle schooler they were following, "should we tell him-"

"We should stay on her," Ikaruga broached quickly, stepping forward with purpose. Kisuke did a double take at the sudden motion, then dashed forth to keep in step, his question dismissed outright. The spider girl marched past the scene with the downed man and the confused cop without sparing a glance.

At last, Tooru turned her hidden sights on Midoriya and Minetta. The diminutive teen was silently kicking against his mount's upper arm, like a cowboy trying to urge his horse forwards. Izuku was entirely unreceptive, mumbling out ponderings as to whether conscious use of the girl's power caused her aura to flare or if it denoted a stronger use of force.

Tooru to the rescue, she grabbed the greenette's hand and started after her classmates. Minoru did not top spurring Izuku's arm and the boy only mildly slowed his verbal stream. Neither of them spared a thought to the hand holding, even though it persisted for the next three blocks.

When Midoriya came out of his own head, the first thing he registered was the name Four Leaf. It belonged to a flower shop that the tanned teen they were tailing was milling outside of, waving her cell about. There was a single white SUV parked outside the building with a rather stern looking man resting in the driver's seat. His severe gaze was tracking the gyaru girl.

Izuku almost registered the fact that he was holding Hagakure's hand, something that was admittedly harder to notice, when he was hit by a sudden burst of deja vu. Specifically when the building's rooftop erupted with smoke and noise.


So right from the top, we get a bit of a name drop with David Shield and I-Island. So unlike canon where the expo takes place further into the semester (I think it's supposed to be at least after the Sports Festival) here it's going on just days after school starts. That's the first hint that the movie's plot is gonna play out much differently in this universe. I do have plans specifically concerning the Shields… but that's future stuff. For now, just know that the world is moving beyond the scope of our main cast.

Same thing with the Naruhata Vigilantes. Not really sure what I want to do with them but do want to establish that they very much exist here. And that Minetta and Hagakure are fans of Pop Step's rear. People of culture, truly.

Daichi and friends' school, Taiyuki, gets a name drop. Though most know it as "The North Pole," thanks to the blatant coloration of their uniforms. They tend to house "troubled" students, if our middle school band wasn't already evidence enough. And the staff aren't the most jolly individuals. Really, the theme might be a tad ironic… just maybe.

The yet named Taiyuki student our hero hopefuls are pursuing is… something. It tends to be a theme of Hero Academia that powers compliment personalities, so what could be a better pairing than an utterly oblivious oaf and an aura that grants near invulnerability? I've been kind of mulling over the specifics of this character for a while, the most definite thing being that I wanted her to relate more closely to Jamie than anyone else. Think of it as: what Ranko is to Daichi, this girl is to the American, in terms of being "partners in crime," at least. Occurred to me pretty late in writing that with me modeling Jamie a bit after Dexter, this gal ended up taking a few ques from Deedee, what with the blonde pigtails, pink color of her quirk, and… "lacking" intelligence. Sometimes characters just write themselves.

Not expecting anyone to remember Lloyd, he doesn't get name dropped in his first "appearance," after all. Sgt. Collins and his crew are first seen during Det. Ikezawa's introduction at the police precinct, he group heading out to "fix" whatever fuck up has Rino so on edge. They're basically her clean-up men, just the kind of thing an Upstanding(?) police chief needs.

I decided literally as I was writing this to make Collins a foreigner. I went with "Lloyd Collins" as his name as a bit of a joke because there are so many "L's" in his name and that letter doesn't really exist/translate over to the Japanese language. It makes him feel really out of place which leads into what little we get of his backstory thus far. Plan for him to be a bit more of an involved character, at least as far as a tertiary cast member is concerned.

Some of his fellow officers get a bit of focus, mostly highlighting their quirks. Tanaka can do some limited remote viewing and Suma has a sort of "shark sense" dedicated to his direct front. Relatively low level powers that, while useful in some situations, aren't quite "hero worthy." There's a reason they're "only" police officers, at the end of the day.

Of course, they shouldn't really be using their quirks at all as per the rules of Hero Academia's setting. Then again, this isn't the most authorized task they're undertaking.

But, as we've kind of established previously, Ryuken can be a rather paranoid individual. And he's certainly got some "failsafes" in the event of gaining uninvited guests. Another day, another rooftop explosion.

Our casts are just about in the same area. Time for a scramble!

Catch it next time…