Chapter One Hundred and Six
Mina was not having a good night.
Well, let's be real, no one was having a good night, but, but she'd held it together.
They'd run into Kendo, her hands covered with YaoMomo's foam, only Sparky had been the one to create the foam, which… which meant he wasn't holding back anymore, not that she really blamed him, but… she'd seen what he'd done to the guy that killed, the guy that killed Komori, and hearing he'd done it to other Villains, she'd expected it, but it was still hard to hear.
Finding out they'd killed Sato, and Sero… okay.
And, before they'd made it back to camp, she'd killed some people, no, killed some Villains too. She'd tried to just take them down, until one had almost killed Yanagi, the crazy schoolgirl villain slicing the pale girl's throat with a knife, and stabbing Mina with some kind of syringe, though the pink-skinned girl was immune to poisons so it didn't do anything, the blonde Villain leaping away and disappearing into the forest as a tiger woman pounced for the wounded telekinetic, claws set to rip the grievously injured girl apart.
So Mina had filled the Tiger Villain's lungs with acid.
Once they were clear, the girl with the crazy smile not coming back, Kendo had known first aid, and had talked Mina through using her weakest acid, hardened up, to staunch the bleeding until it had clotted enough that pressure alone was okay, the pink-haired girl's control making sure Yanagi didn't breathe the substance in.
And then, after that, Mina had stopped holding back.
Kendo took care of her classmate, letting the telekinetic do her own thing, and they'd only run into a half-dozen more Villains before they'd gotten back to camp.
None of them had survived.
Getting there, getting to safety, she rushed inside, seeing Mr. Aizawa, who, she only realized after her Defense pinged, tried to erase her Quirk, except, of course, because of Sparky's stuff, it didn't do anything. The man did that kind of 'exhale-through-the-nose' laugh he did, nodded, and looked past her to the others, eyes widening and calling for Tiger, pointing for the more injured girls, the large man hurrying over to them.
Spotting YaoMomo, she… she was in bad shape, cut up and burned, tiredly shoving a food bar in her mouth, medical supplies coming out of her back, which Shoji grabbed and moved onto a table, the boy's many-armed movements almost robotic.
Moving to Creati's side, waiting the moment for her to finish her current set, Mina gently called, "YaoMomo?"
Sighing wearily, her black-haired friend looked up, eyes unfocused, before she blinked, and only then seemed to see the acidic teen. "M-Mina?" she questioned, as if not believing what she was seeing.
Moving forward to hug the girl, the pink-skinned teen held her tight, Momo taking a moment before holding onto her just as hard. "Yeah, it's me. I-I'm glad you're okay, well, not okay," Mina corrected, with an awkward laugh, "but still alive, not like…"
The creationist stiffened, asking, voice small, "Denki?"
"No, no he's fine, er, I hope he is," Mina corrected, pulling back long enough to look at the other girl. "He went and saved Kendo, and, and I'm sure he's still out here. You know Sparky, he doesn't do things by half-measures, that guy," she tried to smile. "Probably out saving people, while we barely made it back ourselves."
"You're wounded?" her friend asked, eyes going to the pink girl's side, which was soaked with blood. "We need to get you seen!"
"Others are worse," Mina tried to defer, but didn't fight too hard, as YaoMomo regained a bit of fire in her eyes and moved the horned girl to the 'medic' area, taking a cot next to a sleeping Asui, the froggy teen shivering, pale, dark veins visible around her mouth, but, well, everyone else wasn't worried, so Mina wouldn't be either.
Getting bandaged up by her friend, Mr. Aizawa stopped by, asking about Sparky, she told him what happened, hesitating, before telling them how he'd taken out the tooth-guy, after he'd killed Komori, and gone off after others.
"And, if he hadn't, then Kendo-" she started to argue, haltingly, but Eraserhead held up a hand, and it was only then that she realized he was wearing Denki's gloves.
"He did the right thing, Ashido," the man, who looked even more tired than usual, interrupted. "How is his state of mind?"
She blinked. "Um… not good? But, like, that's not his fault?"
"Not what I'm asking. If he ran into heroes out there…" the dark haired man trailed off.
It took her a moment. "Oh, no! Sparky's not, like, rawr," she tried to explain. "If anything he was… cold. You can talk to Kendo, she met him later."
"She said he was calm," Mr. Aizawa replied. "He should not be calm."
"Not calm, cold," Mina disagreed. "And his Quirks-" she froze, tired, but that was no excuse for letting that sli-"
"We're aware of what his actual Quirk is," the teacher nodded.
"Actual Quirk?" Momo questioned, confused, looking to Pinky, "And did you say Quirks? Plural?"
The acid-creator winced. "Uh, yeah, he's a power copier, but the opposite of Monoma. He copies powers, but really really weak and builds them up. He's got his dad's, but not his mom's, and mine, and, uh, yours, YaoMomo, but he can only make a little bit of stuff, and only started picking up others a few days ago."
"Also All-Might's," Eraserhead questioned, though he said it as a statement, Mina hesitating, before nodding.
"Yeah, and also that Nomu guy's healing," she agreed, not sure if she should share this, but she was sitting off to the side of their camp, so only YaoMomo and Mr. Aizawa could hear them, and Sparky had told Kendo, so Yanagi knew too, so maybe this was okay? "All of them start really weak, but he can build them up, like the person who originally had them does."
The Pro looked at her for a long moment, then sighed. "Which is why All-for-One is after him."
"Who?" the dark haired girl beside Mina asked. "Wait, that name, that was the same person that the ferrokinetic Villain said approached him on I-Island. The same one that's after All Might?"
Mr. Aizawa nodded. "Kaminari came to us after the smoking Gate-Quirked Villain stopped by his house. He-"
There was a crackle to the side, the radio that YaoMomo likely created crackling to life, voices coming from it.
"Later," Eraserhead told them, hurrying off to operate the equipment.
Beside her, Mina's friend processed that. "Did, did Kaminari become my friend for my Quirk?" she wondered aloud.
"What? Oh, Honey, No!" the pink-skinned girl gasped, turning to look at her friend. "Sparky likes you 'cause you're awesome, YaoMomo! The copying thing, uh, he was going to do that to everyone, just by being in the same class. I, I didn't mention it before, but he's also got Toru's, and Mandalay's, and Pixie-Bob's, and picked up Todoroki's, like, an hour before this all started!"
The dark-haired girl frowned. "Why them? If it's proximity, he should have picked up Jiro's and Kirishima's first. Maybe not Jiro, due to her heteromorphic nature, but certainly not the Pussycat's."
To that, Mina shrugged. "He doesn't know how it works, just that it does. But, YaoMomo, he's your friend 'cause you're nice, and hot, and smart, and hot, and a good person!"
Blinking, then blushing a little, Creati pointed out, "You said hot twice, Mina."
"Well, you're really hot," acidic teen nodded confidently, giving the other girl an obvious once over. "Even like this!"
"But, I'm a mess," Yaoyorozu tried to argue.
"A hot mess," the dark-eyed girl leered comically, getting a laugh from her friend, who just shook her head.
Sighing, turning to lean against the horny girl, YaoMomo was quiet for a long moment, finally remarking. "Having multiple Quirks… I suppose I could see why one of All Might's enemies would notice him. Though the fact that All Might's enemies are still out there is… unexpected."
"Everyone thought he was dead," Mina offered. "And, like, unless you just stop training, for, like, years, then you'll always be better with your Quirk then he'll be. Like, he gets it when you first did. I melt rock, but he makes vinegar."
"That… that helps, actually," the other girl remarked gratefully. "I must admit, hearing that… I suppose that's why he didn't tell me."
No, that'd be all the other things going on with him, the 'Self-Captured' girl thought, but there was no way to explain that, so she just stayed silent, sitting and waiting for Sparky to come home.
Instead, Todoroki and Uraraka's team showed up, with everyone still alive on their team, though the anti-gravity girl and the double-hit kid were both hurt, the Creationist manufacturing sterile bandages and antibiotic creams for both, Midoriya's team arriving shortly after, with only minor injuries, the green-haired boy rushing to the bedside of his two girls, trying to be there for them, which was as adorable as it was hard to watch, because, more than anything else, Mina wanted her Sparky to come and hold her like that, not because she needed it, she was still good to go, but because she needed to know he was okay to do so.
But there was still no sign of Sparky.
Bradley came strolling out of the woods, seemingly unbothered, an hour later, whistling to himself, somehow managing to pick up a katana, a long electric-blue knife that crackled with electricity, and a black leather jacket, his clothing blood-soaked, but the guy was barely injured, smiling, until he heard about the, the ones they lost, letting out a sigh of relief when Kurioro was pointed out to him, the black boy unconscious and with an IV to help with blood loss, which made the eyepatched kid seem less like a freakin' psycho, but… having seen actual Villains, while the guy was giving off kinda-similar vibes, it wasn't the same.
And then, as dawn started to break, there was still no sign of him, the forest silent, as it had been for an hour, and Mina didn't understand why Sparky hadn't come back.
She wanted to go out and try and find him, to help him, but she didn't even know where to start, and she knew that staying here was the smart thing to do but that didn't make her feel any better!
Not even the JSDF arriving, the military flying in with helicopters, the softening guy messing with the ground to get rid of the sticky minefield that Mineta had set up and let them land, soldiers rushing out with Heroes, with guns drawn, and it was only then that Mina realized that Momo had passed out, leaning against her, Mr. Aizawa giving reports and sending Ida, Asui, Kurioro and Koda on the first trip back to civilization.
Listening, Mina heard the Pro warn the new arrivals about Sparky being out there, as well as Pixie-Bob, Bondo, Manga, Shishida, and Tokoyami, but not Aoyama, Kamakiri, or Kodai, despite them also missing which meant…
Oh no.
But there was nothing she could do.
And she hated that feeling.
More and more people were airlifted out, more Heroes arriving, Hawks flying in, and coming back carrying a giant glue-ball that had to have Bondo inside, but still there was no sign of her Sparky.
Finally, it was YaoMomo's turn to head out, the guys in uniform loading her onto a stretcher, and wanting to know if Mina would come with, as her friend was looking worried, and the pink-haired girl knew Creati would feel better with her there, but…
"I'm waiting for my boyf- my friend, Denki, Denki Kaminari. He hasn't come back yet," she told them, glancing out to the tree line, as if he'd come struttuing out at any moment.
The camouflage-wearing soldiers shared a look. "Ma'am, if-"
"No!" she disagreed, knowing what they were going to say. "No, he can heal. He, even if he's hurt, even if he's missing an arm or something, he can regrow it."
"Ashido," Mr. Aizawa said from behind her, making her turn. "Kaminari would want you out of danger. Please go with Yaoyorozu."
"But, but," she started to reply, tears welling up as her throat tightened, the worry, the stress, the everything almost too much, before faintly, she felt the same 'Defense activating' feeling Sparky had described, which helped, a little.
"He might've gone through one of their portals," the Pro said.
"… Portals?" she questioned, confused. "You, you mean like the USJ?"
Eraserhead nodded. "It's how they got here. Ragdoll got taken through one. Would Kaminari go through one, to go after the Villains?"
Thinking about it… yes, yes he would.
Which meant… he could be anywhere.
He might even be waiting for her, back in civilization, having come out at their base, fought his way out to get help, but was without anyway to call her, unable to tell her he was alright!
"Mina?" YaoMomo asked, sounding exhausted, and vulnerable, and…
"Okay," the acidic student agreed, walking beside her friend, as they got on the helicopter with Kirishima, Tetsutetsu on another stretcher, long lines of silverish metal, like huge claw marks, peeking out from bandages on his chest.
Looking out through the windows of the copter, Mina just had to stare, as the forest was wrecked, portions burned, crushed, long trails of destruction everywhere like geographical scars.
Then she saw the battleground.
Dozens upon dozens of dead bodies were strewn about, most of the corpses torn apart, the grass stained red with blood and viscera.
And she knew, though she didn't know how, Sparky did this.
She thought she did a good job, handling a dozen Villains, but her lover had looked on a small army of Villains, like Mr. Aizawa did, back during the USJ attack, and thought, like their teacher, 'Bet. I can take them.'
Only, while Eraserhead had gone for takedowns, her boyfriend had gone for the kill.
Staring down at it desperately, trying to spot any sign of her Sparky, she couldn't see him, which either meant he was dead, and no, no he wasn't, or, looking at the dead, and how the trail of bodies extended in one direction before just stopping, he'd done exactly what Mr. Aizawa suggested, and gone after them.
While she couldn't.
Because she'd been too weak.
Mina… Mina wasn't sure what had happened to her Sparky, where he was, but she just had to trust in him that he was okay, and get better herself, because, the next time something crazy happened, and with him something crazy was totally going to happen, and he jumped headfirst into danger to try and protect people?
She was going with him.
MHA
I sat in my cage, waiting, healing, trying to get a handle on just how badly I'd fucked up.
I… I hadn't expected Toga. I doubly hadn't expected Toga to have gotten to Mina, and didn't that thought make my blood run cold, until my Mind Defense pinged, keeping my head in the game and stopping me from spiraling too far, as I just had to hope that, like when Uraraka first met the Yandere Vampire, Mina was okay too.
And if she wasn't?
Toga Would Die. SCREAMING.
But… but that was something for future Denki, as current Denki still had to figure out how to get out of this fucking cage.
Thankfully, my regen was independent of any kind of 'fuel' source, the ragged holes in my chest, while still painfully tender, were slowly filling in, by how deeply I could put a finger in, the changes so gradual as to not be visibly apparent, the bleeding having stopped.
About the time I wondered what I was going to do with this large pool of blood, the forcefield effect dropped, grates in the floor draining the clotting fluid, a gentle shower having sprayed for a few minutes from unseen nozzles hidden in the ceiling, clearing it all out, ruining escape plan A, which was to get enough blood and general matter to make a bridge through the double-doored grate, assuming I even could, then transform fully, run my ephemeral body along it, exit, deal with the ensuing seizure, and then do my damndest to kill every motherfucker I met on my way out.
Unfortunately, I currently didn't have a plan B.
The room I was in was… bare, though, having worked with Mei, I knew that meant jack shit, as, even with my ability to bend light to get a better look at my surroundings, able to clearly observe the shadowed sections the overhead lights didn't illuminate, there were easily a dozen ways to hide cameras, and my main trump-cards were my multiple Quirks, so, if I were to use them, I'd have to use them as part of my escape.
Thankfully, I knew how to make explosives, so, plan W was to just throw enough of them at one corner of the cage to overpower not only the forcefield generators, but whatever effect had strengthened the metal I was in, and try and survive the blast as I turned myself into a living bomb. Because something was making the relatively thin wires of this cage obscenely strong, as I'd taken the opportunity when everything had 'drained' to at first try and follow the water through the Faraday cage I was trapped in, to no avail, then to bash my way out, but even then the metal hadn't budged under forces that should shatter steel.
Which could either mean it was made from a Support grade neomaterial or there could be any number of hidden Support-grade items built into the structure that took the damage I was giving out, assuming there wasn't just a Quirk involved, but without more details I couldn't know if whatever was keeping me in worked on an threshold, where anything above a certain amount of damage would get through, if I could overload it with a strong enough hit and then use weaker ones to take it down, or if it worked on sacrificial anodes that repeated low amounts of damage could work their way through, each possible system required a different approach to disable.
Now, if I was as strong as All Might I could just go 'Don't Care, Got Powah', not that was how he usually operated, but I wasn't even sure, even if I identified the correct method of my cage's function, that I could overwhelm it.
Which left me plan Y.
Wait it out, then fucking leave.
Because, thankfully, I'd remembered myself at the end of my… rampage, and started stamping every female Villain I could, though some I still killed some merely because I needed to make an opening that Stamping wouldn't provide. I'd unfolded the tattered remains of my shirt and jacket and they were enough to cover my head, along with a bit of extra of Hagakure's photokinesis to further darken things, that I'd been able to summon my Phone, to check it.
No service, of course, but the functions that went along with my Stamp were still operating, somehow, telling me that, of the twenty-seven I'd Stamped, eighteen had died of their wounds, for which I'd receive no points, which seemed like a lot, but, of the nine left, I only needed one.
And then I'd get my Sweet Home, my own personal seven-hundred and fifty-ish square mile pocket dimension that I could just open a portal to, and leave.
And, from there?
The Multiverse was available to me.
But that was still about sixty-one hours away, when I got the last two points, and holy shit was I kicking myself for not just finding a random Villain before, the timer telling me I'd been here for eleven hours, and that it was about nine am. I was tired, exhausted really, and while I still didn't need as much sleep, I would have to in the next three days, which, well, doing that in enemy territory was something that I'd really rather avoid.
Though I may not have a choice.
Hence why it was plan Y.
But… but I honestly had nothing else.
Because I was an idiot.
Because I thought I was hot shit.
Because I'd thought I'd improved the Canon Timeline, when… when I didn't remember it ever getting close to this bad, at least in what I saw.
And, the best part, the worst part, was that I had a fucking way out.
Plan Z.
The Catalog.
I had ninety-eight points.
A single purchase, a single slave, and I'd be free.
Hell, they'd even be a powerful combatant, on par with fucking Endeavor.
Or, I could just literally get Gender-Swapped Endeavor.
(Image)
If I wanted a guaranteed out, I could grab female Kurogiri for only twenty points, have her open a portal, and we could literally waltz out of here.
But… but then I'd be buying a person.
And, yes, I sold them, and, yes, if I bought a Villainess I could have them do good instead, but… but I could feel myself slipping, wanting to do whatever it took to survive, morals be damned. I'd 'make it up' later, and… and it was stupid, I was stupid, but, but there was the line in the sand, one that read 'If not here, when?', where the ends would always justify the means, where I'd always find a reason where what I did, this one time, would be okay, and the limit would always keep creeping, more and more, until I could no longer recognize myself.
Not in the mirror, I already couldn't, to a degree, and wasn't that something to get used to, but in, well, in my soul, the person I'd become ultimately someone that would disgust the person I was, the person I still believed myself to be right now.
The killing, I could deal with. The selling of murderous monsters to 'The Company', whoever the fuck they were, was distasteful, but was a literal life sentence, and I could live with that. But, even though, even if I was selling, there, by definition, had to be a buyer… that wasn't going to be me.
Was it a slight difference? Practically academic?
Yes.
But I was hanging on to my morals by my fucking fingertips here, having thought that what I was doing before was making things better, that my actions somehow counterbalanced my current situation, and, well, we all certainly saw how THAT fucking turned out, DIDN'T WE!?
And a Defense pinged, the 'immune to all degenerative effects' part working even on my own home-grown ones, even when they were fucking deserved, and while some self-destructive part of me wanted to drop that mental wall, because it was what I should get for fucking up this bad… no.
Escape Villains first, fall apart later.
Preferably with Mina nearby.
God seventy-two hours was a long fucking time.
So… so I could buy someone and just jet, but… but that was a step too far, and one I would, quite literally, die before I took. And… and that would leave Mina alone, without me, but she had Momo, and… and the person I'd become if I did give in, he wouldn't be worthy of her, which on one hand, even in my own head, sounded like some weak cringy simp bullshit, but, but I was trying to be A HERO.
And, no matter how I tried to spin it, that wouldn't be what a Hero would do.
"What Are You In The Dark, indeed?" I questioned the ironically well-lit room, having thought that, yeah, of course I'd do the right thing, if given the choice, but…
But I didn't want to die.
If this were a single momentary situation, a literal do or die scenario, my first instinct would be to go 'Fuck it, I'll do the right thing!', but we were long past my first, second, or even third instincts, eleven fucking hours in, with time for the fears, the doubts, the guessing to leave 'second' long, long behind, and that was a lot fucking harder to deal with.
Because I didn't just have to make my choice, and walk away, I had to keep making it, over and over, every moment another opportunity to give in, to have a moment of weakness, to find some excuse, like 'If I just buy them, use them to escape, and sell them, that doesn't count, right?', to try and get around my morals, when the point of morals was that you didn't get around them.
Anyone that thought differently didn't have morals, they had rules, like the monsters of fiction, like Devils, the Eldritch, and, worst of all, the fucking Fey, who didn't even have rules, they had 'rules only if you call them out on them', which were to actual rules what rules were to morals.
But, again, I didn't want to die.
Things were… things were finally starting to get better, for the first time in my life, in a way that felt honest, Denki's memories letting me realize how bad things had been before, and… I had Mina, and I didn't want to lose her.
But, again, if I crossed this hard, hard line of mine, how 'hard' would any other of mine be?
So…. I was stuck, trying to figure out an out, dealing with a temptation that I'd never expected.
And thus, I trained.
Photokinesis was only visible to the outside if I didn't normalize outputs, so taking light and twisting it about to exit in the same location as it would've ended up in meant I could work on it without it being noticeable, and, similarly, bouncing back and forth with Todoroki's Quirk, only enough to create a bit of ice or flame in the space between my clasped hands, each one undoing the other, would be invisible unless they had thermal cameras on me, and, even if they did, his Quirk wasn't going to be the one to get me out of this.
While there was dirt around me, I had no idea where it, or I was, and thus couldn't meaningfully give it orders, which is why Pixie-Bob needed her cameras to coordinate. I'd tented my torn shirt a little, to let my wounds breathe, so creating a bit of Mina's Acid and running it around in circles over my skin trained my control of it, while also cleaning me off, even if it likely did nothing for its potency, but considering I'd likely need it to make ablative armor during my escape, that was exactly what I was looking for.
The only issue was that I'd gotten all of this down to the point where it was nigh-subconscious on hour seven, which left me alone.
With my thoughts.
Of how I really didn't want to die.
It was a relief when the door finally opened, revealing…
"Sup, Shiggy!" I greeted, the big bad below the biggest bad of AfO spinning the hatch open, and stepping inside, carrying a tray of food, which he was struggling with a little, the disintegrator didn't respond. "I'd lend you a hand, but you've got more than enough, and I've seen what you did with your old one."
The light-blue haired man, still wearing those weird mannequin hands of his, glared at me, slowly walking over to the double-gated section of my cage, and placed the tray on top of the extended bit that jutted outwards, so on my side the gate was flush with the rest of the wall, as I noticed the plastic rested above the wires by a couple millimeters.
Shit.
"You think you're a funny guy, don't you?" the Villain questioned raspily, angered, his now free hand scratching at his neck. "Well where did that get you?"
I blinked, looking around. "Uh, here?" I replied casually. "I'd say brush the hair out of your eyes, but I don't think it'd help."
Holy shit, the boy actually growled. Like, not intimidatingly, but like a fussy child, mad without an outlet. "What makes you so special?" he demanded instead.
"I mean, a lot," I shrugged, the banter, oddly, centering, as I verbally sparred with the Villain instead of struggling with my own baser desires. "My intelligence, my powers, my shockingly good looks," I quipped. "If you're more specific about whatever you're referring to, I could narrow it down."
"… You hurt me!" the Villain accused.
"You were about to kill my classmate," I shrugged, glancing down at the tiny exit from my cell. "Tell you what, open up the gate, and I'll shake your hand. I bet your pathetic Quirk is so weak that it won't do anything to me, even without Eraserhead's ability possibly being active for you to hide behind."
I wasn't sure if the gate could open fully, but I didn't see anything mechanically that meant it couldn't.
Narrowing his eyes, Shigaraki stated, "You're trying to trick me."
Rolling my own, I replied, "Of course I am, but I'm also certain I can take your Quirk and keep on trucking, so if I'm wrong about that, hey, at the very least you'll be able to take my arm in the process."
"You're not better than me!" the man-child accused, out of nowhere.
"What?" I questioned, confused. "Context. I can't read your mind, so you need to tell me what you're referring to, Shiggy."
"YOU'RE NOT BETTER THAN ME!" he just repeated, shrieking.
I, meanwhile, just sighed. "Has anyone ever told you the definition of insanity?" I quipped, trying to whip him up, because, as I was right now, they had me dead to rights, but Shigaraki, while he wasn't exactly dumb, he was certainly unwise, and if I could push him into disintegrating my cage, even with my wounds still healing, I was going to kill the fuck out of him, and then slaughter my way out.
"I'M BETTER THAN YOU!" he screeched, in a full on tantrum.
"Oh yeah?" I smirked. "Clap."
With an inarticulate scream of rage, he slammed his remaining hand, fingers splayed out, in prime disintegration configuration, against the cage, and… nothing happened.
…Shit, the outside is fully shielded too, not just the gate. Possibly to stop this exact thing from happening.
"I'M HIS FAVORITE, NOT YOU!" Shiggy continued, which, actually, wait.
Shigaraki had managed the original camp attack, trying to recruit Bakugo, when, had he done more research than just watching the UA Sports Festival, he'd know that wouldn't work, but, thinking about it, the man-child viewed the world in gaming terms, in heroic terms, where specialized units fought specialized units.
That… wasn't what this attack had been, unless Shiggy suddenly gained a love of RTSs.
"Are you?" I questioned. "From how I cut through your men, are you sure you still are?"
Which, oddly seemed to calm him down, as the Villain went back to scratching his neck raw, though he was breathing hard.
"Yes, yes, that, that wasn't my fault, it was Inugami's!" the insane man told himself, nodding frantically. "Yes, yes, Master will see, it isn't my fault." He glanced up. "It's yours!"
"What, that I didn't fucking die?" I replied sarcastically, even as I tried to regain the initiative, but manipulating the insane wasn't easy, shocker. "Oh, how rude of me. So, you wanna take your shot, or you wanna puss out like a bitch?"
But, no, Shigaraki calmed even further, staring at me. "What makes you so special?" he questioned again.
"To whom?" I questioned in return. "The prime minister, your mom, Santa Claus?"
"To Master," the blue-haired asshat informed me. "He was the one who wanted you, or the other boy, the one who won the festival. Why you? Why him?"
Oh.
Oh fuck.
I wasn't here because Shiggy wanted revenge, I was caught by fucking All-for-One.
Here's to hoping he lets me 'marinate' for another sixty-five hours.
"Because, Shiggy, do you mind if I call you Shiggy?" I questioned.
"I do," the Villain sneered.
"Well, Shiggy, it's because I am, by pretty much every metric, actually better than you," I informed him scornfully. "Got an invitation to train under Mr. One, and everything, but I decided not to. Villains are just so last century, you see. He… apparently didn't take that well. Honestly, probably should've seen that coming," I continued, letting my mouth run while I tried to figure this out, but… okay, AfO probably didn't want me dead, which was good, and I had the Defenses to no-sell most powers he could bring to bear, with One-for-All giving me resistance to everything else, and All Might, even if it'd cost him all but the faintest embers of One-for-All himself, had put Quirk Satan down, so… so I could work with this.
Maybe.
Probably.
Hopefully.
"You… You what?" the handsy asshat demanded.
"Oh, yeah," I informed him. "Kurogiri dropped it off personally. I was flattered, but, well, Villainy isn't really my thing, Heroism is. Mostly because I'm not weak, like you."
"N-No, no you're lying!" the blue-haired bitch accused, turning and running away. "You're LYING!"
Aaaand then he was gone.
And I was still in the cage.
And presumably my breakfast was sitting out of reach.
But he had left the door open, though all I could see was a concrete wall.
Okay, let's do this, I thought, mentally reaching out, trying to grasp some of the light in the hall, to twist it to let me see what was going on, and….
My new max range was only about a foot away from my body.
Fuck.
Stretching out a hand, pretending to just stretch normally, and while my max was pushed forward, or, more, no, my max stayed the same but my starting point was further, and given that what I needed was a good fifteen feet away, I was very much shit outta luck.
Leaning back in my cage, not having bothered to stand, I got back to my practices, only for, about twenty minutes later, if I had to guess, as my cell didn't have a clock, Kurogiri to step through the door with what looked like a change of clothes in hand.
The amorphous, well-dressed man paused, looking at the gate, and the food sitting on top of it, then shook his head. "That boy," he muttered, walking over to the gate, toggling it open, removing the winch, and putting the tray of food inside. "Please remove this, so I can provide you a change of clothes," he directed, closing the outer gate and pulling open the inner one.
Standing with a sigh, I walked over. "Shiggy's kinda petty, isn't he?" I questioned, reaching into the gate, and, turning my hand to lightning, reaching past it to press against the entire chamber, slamming electric fingers into the back, but my fingers just met smooth forcefield. Retracting it, I grabbed the tray, noting it was a hamburger and fries, Denki's favorite food, with a plastic bottle of some kind of sports drink.
Suuuubtle.
"The Young Master has a good deal to learn," the Villain remarked, toggling the gates once more, and placing clothing that, yes, looked like it came from my closet.
"Okay, three things, first of all, are these clothes my clothes?" I questioned. "Like, from my house?"
The sharply-dressed man shook his head, "No, merely in the same style. Your other questions?"
"Who's Inugami?" I asked.
Kurogiri considered his answer. "An old associate of the Master's. After the Young Master's… injury, it was decided he needed a… manager, and not merely a minder, and he was awoken."
Awoken? I thought, but, from the context, I could get the jist, which was… not good.
"Three," I waved around the cell. "where's the bathroom?"
"Pick a corner. Once you are done, it will be washed away," the faceless being informed me.
I blinked. "Oh. Lovely."
"You are considered a flight risk. I will be back in an hour to remove your tray," the butler-looking Villain remarked, leaving.
Turning to my meal, I grabbed a fry, still idly working my photokinesis, dipping the potato wedge into the gravy that covered the bun-less patty, as they'd given me a Japanese Hamburger instead of an American one, like Denki actually preferred, and taking a bite… yep, it pinged my Defenses, so it was poisoned, drugged, or otherwise tampered with, not that their doing so meant anything to me.
That said, the slight mistake… held possibilities.
Of course, with what All Might had said, AfO might have intentionally made that mistake, but it was such a tiny thing, in the middle of what was supposed to be a flex, that it undercut it completely the second I noticed.
So, one hand, if it was just a several layers deep manipulation, past the point I could predict what was real and what was artifice, well, I was fucked no matter what.
But on the other?
If he'd used his assumptions, or that of his underlings, of me to overlook something like that?
Then what else had All-for-One overlooked?
It wasn't much, but it was something.
Now… how to turn this to my advantage?
Music:
Mina? – Jiko Bunseki – MHA S2 OST
I sat in my cage, waiting, healing, trying to get a handle on just how badly I'd fucked up. – Shuhan – MHA S2 OST
Sup, Shiggy - "Special Quirk" - MHA S4 OST
AN: Almost finished getting a new place to live, so posting speed should increase soon! To see the exciting conclusion to the Captured Arc, you can see them all up on and Subscribestar!