Mirio was probably way more anxious about leaving for Ms. Joke's agency than he really should have been.
It would not be like when he went over to Sir's agency.
He asked a lot of questions about what he should expect and any red flags he missed like he had when he was interning.
He would not give his personal number to Ms. Joke, if she needed to contact him, she could call U.A. itself to get in touch with him, or if there was an important mission going on she could give him a pager.
He would only go to her agency when he was scheduled to go, no surprise visits outside of mission critical ones.
And most importantly, Mirio would not allow her to make any choices to how he acted as Lemillion or what his costume looked like, and especially not letting her dictate what he ate.
If any of his boundaries were crossed, he could call back to U.A. with a special pager that Nezu had made for him and all of his friends.
They were meant for if they came across anything to do with Shigaraki, but Mirio did get permission to use it if he felt uncomfortable.
As long as he remembered that removing the battery pack was only during a life-or-death situation, Shigaraki's involvement aside.
However, even with all of these rules in mind and other safety protocols, along with the knowledge that Nezu-San, Deku-Sensei and Haruki-San all thought that she would be a good teacher.
Mirio couldn't square away some deeply unsettled discomfort that nipped at his heels.
Which was why when Miyake offered to come with him to Ms. Joke's agency Mirio, relieved but also a touch ashamed, accepted readily.
The destination was not too far from Gang Orca's agency and if they left a bit earlier than Miyake normally had, Mirio wouldn't have to worry about his friend being late.
Still, Mirio found himself pacing in his normal clothes and a suitcase that was disguised so it couldn't be seen as overly valuable, all of which was normal for students that would be working at underground agencies.
It wouldn't do him well to be recognized by walking to the agency in broad daylight fully in costume.
Heck he wouldn't do that even if he worked at a known agency, not unless he wanted to be mobbed.
Miyake given his unmistakable form would have a harder time of doing that, especially after Gang Orca rose to the number four spot.
Thankfully there was a secret entrance so Miyake wouldn't have to be stopped by the crowd.
"Mirio." Miyake called and Mirio jumped, startled out of his thoughts by the arrival of his friend, holding his own costume case and dressed in 'causal' clothes.
Though the large and colorful Hawaiian shirt would be hard to ignore, especially on such a tall person.
"Hey Miyake, ready to go?" Mirio joked pointing to the path behind him with both thumbs, trying to take away attention from how he was startled.
Miyake started at him for a moment, and just as sweat would have started to form on his neck Miyake nodded flicking his tongue.
Mirio internally sighed and followed his friend down the path towards the main gate.
"Do you have the pager?" Miyake asked.
"Yeppers." Mirio confirmed patting the chest pocket of his shirt.
Miyake gave his classic thrill-like hum and then hacked up his pager before swallowing it again.
Mirio blinked, paused.
Well... that was not where he thought Miyake would keep his pager, his friend wouldn't lose it and it certainly explained why Miyake asked if the pagers would be resistant to acids.
What would holding his pager inside is stomach even feel like?
Wait, could he hold his pager in his stomach too?
Deku-Sensei had thrown out there he could possibly hold things inside his body if he got better with micro-managing his permeability.
Large hands picked him up under his arms, stopping him from crossing the gate boundary.
Right... the gates had been upgraded to not let anyone pass without swiping their I.D. first and inputting a different code each time, including students and staff and would have probably made Mirio lose his clothes when he used his quirk on instinct.
"Ah... thanks Miyake." Mirio muttered as Miyake put him back down.
"It is fine, I had not meant to distract you that much." Miyake informed him before swiping his student I.D. at the accessible point provided for the students.
"Distract me?" Mirio repeated with a blink.
"So, you would not worry about the ride over." Miyake replied motioning to the card swiper.
"Oh," Mirio meekly replied as he looked for his card and swiped it.
*Right... heading to Ms. Joke's agency, for my work study.* Mirio continued in his mind, swallowing dryly.
Miyake thrilled loudly, using his tail to pull Mirio close into a side hug.
"If it does not feel right, you can just leave and stay with me over at Gang Orca's agency, he shall not mind." Miyake reminded him as he typed in the code Nezu gave them.
"Are you sure? I wouldn't want to-" Mirio asked only for Miyake to turn around and gave him a look.
"Gang Orca is a very understanding man, and I will not have to explain to him why you are there." Miyake firmly told him.
"And aside from patrolling I doubt your presence will affect whatever he will teach me for my work-study." Miyake further informed Mirio, causing him to duck his head.
"Okay." Mirio conceded.
Miyake gave him another squeeze before letting his tail fall back to its usual place behind him.
"Now let us go, I would not want for you to be late." Miyake said walking out of the gates.
Mirio took a deep breath and then ran to catch up with Miyake so they could catch their train.
Ms. Joke's agency looking like a regular office building wasn't unexpected.
Underground agencies often bought old office buildings since it was easier to hide both the heroes that worked there and the other employees that worked with or for them.
They could even use any of the old hardware left behind after wiping and isolating them.
However, the face-less office building look that kept it safe also put a stone in Mirio's stomach when he thought of entering it.
It was only the different layout of the buildings around it and its three more floors that kept him from immediately 'nope'ing out of this.
Well, that and Miyake standing right beside him.
Right, he should get this over with and just go inside, talk with Ms. Joke, and just get through today and ask to cancel the contract if he felt that off.
Just need to go in.
Any second now.
...
"Do you want me to pick you up again?" Miyake offered.
"... No." Mirio told him, finally managing to start walking forward.
It was only a step but that was progress.
It also made forcing his legs to take the next step easier.
And before he knew it Mirio was going through the door and into the front lobby.
Soft pop-music made him pause, wondering why there would be anything playing when he noticed and was also noticed by a woman sitting behind a front desk directly across from him.
"Hello sir, how can I help you today?" the lady cheerfully greeted waving him over.
Mirio still a bit startled walked over to desk.
"Um, I have an... appointment I think? Or maybe a meeting with someone that works here." Mirio tried to explain fumbling somewhat since the lobby was... different.
The layout was different because the room's shape naturally but even the air inside wasn't the same despite it having the same stock-image base that Mirio assumed Sir used when decorating, he even knew that the office plants were the same potted-plants that Sir had.
"Okay, can you tell me your name sir?" 'Trisha' as the lady's name tag said, requested.
"Togata Mirio." Mirio told her.
Trisha turning to her computer and typing away at the desktop computer, searching through it for something before smiling back at him.
"Ah, you do have a meeting today, a final interview with Fukukado-San about your internship here." Trisha informed him.
And if Mirio hadn't had his name confirmed he would have wondered if he somehow got the wrong building.
Trisha opened a drawer for a lanyard that she passed over to him.
"Here's a visitor's pass, I'll call Fukukado-San down from her office, just go through the doors over there and make yourself comfortable in one of our waiting rooms chairs." Trisha instructed, pointing over to the door on her right.
Mirio was deeply confused but followed her instructions and went over to the doors she motioned to, and indeed found a waiting room, a couple of people in suits or business casual also there much to his surprise.
He suddenly felt much better about not wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt like he considered originally.
He sat down in one of the chairs and looked at one of the magazines on a nearby coffee table.
It was a new one, and he only knew that because he remembered one of his classmates talking about this issue recently in between classes.
Sir had magazines in the lobby too, but they were all old ones and about heroes and Bubble-Girl was the only one that brought in any celebrity gossip magazines.
The sound of the door opening and Ms. Joke dressed like his dad's manager came over to him.
"Togata-Kun, you're right on time, come on there is a lot we need to discuss." Ms. Joke informed him, with a smile.
"R-right." Mirio nervously replied bowing slightly before getting up and following Ms. Joke through the pair of doors opposite to the one's that led to the lobby.
Once again Mirio found himself surprised when on the other side of the doors was a room of office cubicles.
Multiple people at work inside of them and the active buzz of an office was all around them.
Like it really was an office building and not an underground agency.
The only reason Mirio hadn't begun to question if this really was an office was because of how Ms. Joke held herself changed as soon as the doors closed.
Her shoulders slumped and she even started stretching one of them up and over her head.
"Dang, I hate this monkey suit," Ms. Joke complained before turning to him.
"Welp, you did much better than I thought you would, you even came in some semi-formal clothes an intern would wear." Ms. Joke praised pointing to his clothes.
"You're starting on the right foot Milly!" Ms. Joke told him with a thumbs up and a silly grin as she said what had to be a newly coined nickname.
Mirio with his confusion at its peak made him crack and he had to ask what was going on.
"What do you mean?" Mirio asked.
"Well, most kids, and especially newbies, don't realize that because this is an underground agency that they aren't supposed to just tell people they're looking for a hero or realize that the whole lobby thing is a ruse." Ms. Joke answered, starting to walk through the aisles of cubicles.
Leaving Mirio even more confused, he was quick to follow her though.
"But there wasn't anything like that at Sir's agency?" Mirio told her.
"Well, I can't speak for Sir, but that's probably because his agency is a small independent agency and not a ghost agency like this one." Ms. Joke informed him.
"I thought ghost agencies were just cover names." Mirio said remembering what Nejire told them after interning with Ms. Joke.
"Sometimes, it really depends on the agency. If it was started up by a hero or a group of heroes than yeah the ghost name is just that, but some agencies are started by hero managers, like this one, and ghost agency is more like an invisible agency since it works just like a regular spot-light agency, if a little more paranoid." Ms. Joke patiently explained for him.
Mirio tried to think if they ever covered ghost agencies or manager run agencies before in class but he couldn't recall that at all.
Hopefully it would be further covered once the school starts up in April.
"Okay, are all of them heroes or sidekicks then?" Mirio asked looking around at the people sitting at desks and working at computers.
It would explain why Ms. Joke felt okay to speak freely here.
Ms. Joke stopped right in front of an elevator and snorted.
"Them?" she asked jabbing her thumb back at the cubicles.
"Jeeze I knew Sir's place was small but I didn't think it was that small, nah Milly this is the accountants' floor, all of these guys are the people who handle the books and financial stuff." Ms. Joke told him, pushing the down button.
Mirio's eyes went wide, and he looked back out at the floor.
"All of them?" questioned.
There had to be at least fifty or maybe sixty people that Mirio could see, and that wasn't counting people that weren't sat in their cubicles out of sight.
"E'yep," Ms. Joke confirmed popping the 'P' sound, then held up her hand.
"This place has forty heroes contracted at the moment and that's not counting the sidekicks, the interns or the work-study kids like you, and then there's the support guys, plus the regular office supplies that everyone uses." Ms. Joke listed for him.
"Hence this whole floor of accountants to keep us all in the black." Ms. Joke finished off motioning to the floor with her arms out towards them.
That made a lot of sense actually Mirio thought, he'd done some of his own paperwork at Sir's agency and knew that both Bubble-Girl and Centi had to do way more than he did, and he never had to do the financial paperwork himself since Sir took care of that.
The elevator opened with a ding, and Ms. Joke walked in.
"Come on Milly, I'm going to give you a tour of the rest of the building, starting with the support guys on three." She cheerfully informed him.
"You have an in-house support department too?" Mirio asked with a bit of wonder.
"Oh yeah, we undergrounders are pretty paranoid and stubborn lot. So, it's a lot easier on everyone to have the support techies in-house. Most smaller places can't do it financially but normally if an agency can hire their own support techs they do." Ms. Joke told him.
Looking at the elevator, Mirio saw all of the buttons and wondered if there were actually people on each of the floors, and not empty floors like at Sir's agency.
"Um, what other departments are there?" Mirio cautiously asked.
"Hey, hey, don't be afraid to ask anything Milly. Considering Sir only has a couple sidekicks and like a handful of staff I understand why all of this can be pretty overwhelming right off the bat." Ms. Joke told him, motioning wildly all over with both hands.
Mirio chose not to correct her that Sir did not in fact have anyone working for him other than his two sidekicks.
"Here, we have the accountant floor that we just came from, we're currently on the way to support floor, above ground there's also a hero managers floor, analysis floor, HR and PR departments share a floor-" Ms. Joke said.
"PR? Why would an underground agency need a PR department?" Mirio couldn't help asking.
Ms. Joke laughed and Mirio hunched his shoulders until she pat his shoulder.
"Ha, ha... Yeah that trips most kids up, but PR is actually super important for undergrounders." She answered.
"See where PR usually works with marketing try to promote heroes to the public, for undergrounders they actually cover up our existence in order to make most of us myths and like those spooky stories you tell around the campfire but for criminals." Ms. Joke explained, waggling her fingers.
"I mean, how else do you think they covered up when Eraser decided to use Hawks like his personal jet to make it to the mall attack a couple years ago?" Ms. Joke teasingly asked elbowing him.
"Aizawa-Sensei did what!?" Mirio questioned wide-eyed, completely shocked, no one had ever told him that was how Aizawa-Sensei got there or that was why Hawks was there that day.
Ms. Joke grinned "That," She said tapping his nose to 'boop' him "Is the magic of a properly trained underground PR department." Ms. Joke continued to say with a wink.
"They keep us out of the media, cover up our busts and when needed, help us go undercover." Ms. Joke added with a waggle of her fingers.
The doors of the elevator opened "Ope, this is our floor. Let's get your suit checked out Milly! This way." Ms. Joke exclaimed leaving the elevator, both arms held out and together in the direction she was walking.
Mirio while overwhelmed from the unexpected size of the agency Ms. Joke worked for, felt a weird sort of tepid eagerness as he followed after Ms. Joke and into the support floor.
Mirio *talking with the support techies*
Emi/Mrs. Joke *seeing red-flags being waved already and unable to say anything in front of the nervous/defensive child*
Emi/Mrs. Joke: Nezu better have some f*king answers for me
Mirio: Did you say something?
Emi/Mrs. Joke: Nothing important Milly, tell me more about how you picked your theme lil' buddy