Thanks to everyone who favorited, followed and reviewed the last chapter! I am really excited by how much response this story has already gotten in just a little over a week! Special thanks to thegrimmangel for such a thoughtful, extensive PM!
I am still looking for help with the MHA side of things, so please let me know if you are interested in helping me keep details straight! I am definitely taking a lot longer just trying to go over things enough times to catch errors, so if I get a few betas, I would probably write faster. lol.
I hope I can live up to the response, and please review! Most of my friends aren't ultra interested in my story, so I can't gush with them over it. hahaha
Also, ultra sorry for accidently posting before adding in the authors note for those who got juked.
UPDATE********
Chapter Two is now available in an audio format! Took forever, but I plan to do this for every chapter! You should be able to find it by looking up Weshney on Youtube!
All scenes with only MHA characters will be written in English, for ease of reading, but the characters are actually speaking Japanese to each other.
"This sentence is in English but shhh." This is for when the scene is from a Japanese character's POV and they don't understand English.
Tuesday, September 4th
2:03 pm
A loose patch of leaves exploded into the air, disrupted by an unseen force. A depression stayed in the pine needles and acorns beneath the oak's molt, clearly still affected by some invisible presence.
The air above the tree litter grunted, as if winded by an impact; then the needles and acorns sprang back up, and two much-smaller divots formed shoulder-width apart.
The forest held its breath, the wildlife silent as the grave.
Nearly a dozen feet above the disturbance, a paranormal force receded into itself. The viridescent haze that had caught in its eddy faded back out of existence and disappeared without a sound.
A tense minute passed, only the worms and insects daring to continue about their daily lives, especially with the sounds of breaking branches and indistinct yelling in the distance.
Tuesday, September 4th
2:35 pm
Dani had searched for her life's purpose for several years after her creation. No matter how welcome she was at the Fenton's, nor how close she had become to Val while training under the woman's Red Huntress pseudonym, a monster with great gaping teeth and gangly clawed limbs had gnawed at her.
Loneliness.
She'd craved a sense of belonging brought on by those in similar circumstances.
Over a year ago, Kitty suggested the halfa visit the Lost Holm, a place the full ghost had been in and out of before she met Johnny. Dani had been dismissive of the idea at first.
Despite her origins, the clone was very well adjusted. So suggesting she needed some kind of support group that seemed entirely too much like Alcoholics Anonymous was kind of insulting. Okay, yeah. So maybe it wasn't all that much like AA, from what she'd heard. But it was the principle of the matter.
The look of melancholy understanding Kitty had given her, coupled with a complete change of subject, had the young teen rethinking her options.
One visit was all it had taken. Her heart was caught as surely as a shade in a patch of Undergrowth's Devil's Snare. Now she played mom to a bunch of misfit, newly-formed ghosts struggling to come to terms with their existence.
It was taxing; and interacting with her "kids" could give her a headache or chip at her patience on the best of days. She also had to give up most of her free time on Earth. But she wouldn't trade it for the world.
Then, five days ago, when her newest charge—no, family member—had started appearing a little fuzzy around the edges, she had been more of a hen mother than a den mother. Flustered and overbearing, the teen had done everything in her power to make sure Luke got better.
But then the much older Jessica had started acting strange. And Caleb. Even the Gardener (who only ever seemed to come to meetings to fawn over some Zone-native variety of flower) was having issues with his flight.
She'd checked for all the signs of a ghost cold. No abnormal temperatures—hot or cold; no bags under the eyes or discolored skin tone. Not even a sniffle in anyone's...okay, so not everyone had a nose. But no sniffles.
What she did notice, however, set her core into overdrive, practically freezing the ectoplasm in the girl's veins and frosting her ice-themed costume for good measure.
Several of her kids had begun to leave smudges of themselves behind, their chosen forms lacking a substantiality normally present. A few of them even had their feet start to...to have an almost liquid quality on occasion.
Dani needed help.
Which was why she was currently forcing herself to sit still through Danny Fenton and Valerie Gray's idle chatter.
She sipped on an admittedly excellent smoothie, the frosty beverage soothing a slowly-tightening throat as she kept her impatience in check.
"—Psychology is a tough major. I'm not surprised she wanted a year off," Valerie responded to something the ghost girl had tuned out.
Danny's concerned blue eyes pierced the younger halfa from across the cafe's table. He must have caught her glazed look. Or maybe had noticed the bags under her eyes.
Dani avoided his stare, zeroing back in on Valerie as the ghost hunter spoke again, "So is taking over Fenton Works still the plan for you?"
That caught Dani's attention; she was more removed from the living world than she thought if her biological father's(?)—er twin's(?) major life choices were surprising. She knew he had been going to the local community college, but the "why" had just kind of slipped away.
"Yep. It made a lot of sense after I saw the family finances. Fenton Works is way more lucrative than I gave it credit for. Once I get infrastructure in place for marketing the patents, I'll have a nice passive income with plenty of time to account for my ghostly duties," Danny answered offhandedly, still watching his family member closely.
Valerie took a bite of ham and cheese panini in the interim, noticed Danny's gaze, and turned sharp, calculating eyes on her old mentee. Dani shifted self-consciously, chair creaking slightly at the movement.
Swallowing, Valerie angled her head towards the older halfa without breaking eye contact with the younger one. "It's a shame you had to give up being an astronaut. I know what a space nerd you are."
Dani was pretty sure the conversation was just an excuse for the two to kill time as they waited for her to admit to obsession-related neurosis.
The other two had listened to the teen's concerns already, making a plan of action on the stroll to the cafe. But even though Danny was set to come to the Lost Holm on Thursday—which, to be fair, made sense since he had the entire day off from class—Dani couldn't shake her growing anxiety.
There was no reason to rush, it wasn't like any of her kids were dying.
But she couldn't stop brooding. What if something happened while she was gone? Yeah, none of the symptoms were all that bad now, but that didn't mean they couldn't get—.
Danny's voice piped up much louder than before, jolting her out of her spiral, "Yeah, it would have been too hard to pass the rigorous medical testing they require at NASA. Besides, I can basically go to space whenever I want now with the Nebula Navigator suit."
Dani took another big sip of pineapple papaya, trying to avoid looking up when nothing further was said.
Knowing the trap to be set, the huntress resumed eating her sandwich. The toasted bread crunched loudly as the youngest at the table fiddled with a ponytail.
The quiet stretched, and Dani risked a glance upward. Not at Danny, who picked away at a salad, but at a minimalist-style carrot painted on the wine-red wall behind him. Gathering her thoughts, Dani's eyes flitted from customer to customer, then to nearly every cheesy vegetable pun stenciled around the room.
If weekly meetings with her kids had taught Dani anything, it was that ignoring spectral tendencies just because they were disquieting was a big no-no.
She took one last survey of the cafe to check for errant ears, then collapsed against the table, arms pillowing her face as a mass of silky black hair spread around her. Taking a fortifying breath from within the self-made shield, she caved all at once, "You win, okay? My obsession is flaring up. I can't hardly sleep or relax because I'm so worried about my kids. I know, logically, that their symptoms aren't all that severe. But every time I close my eyes I picture one of them melting. Jessica sneezed yesterday and I nearly jumped out of my skin."
Danny and Valerie shared a knowing glance that Dani failed to see from inside the circle of her protective limbs. She did, however, feel when the Fenton patted her hair soothingly from his seat adjacent.
"Dani. You know we will find out how to help you," Valerie assured, the steel-spined woman's conviction bleeding into her words.
"I'm sure we'll get your kids better in no time. Not only will we have my parents on board, but we also know a ton of ghosts who I'm sure would love to help," Danny vouched, strengthening the argument.
A seed of worry stayed rooted deep in the clone's heart, ready to grow in the quiet hours of night where only thoughts were company. The presence of the two's confidence provided a temporary comfort, but it would not stay.
"Dani. Look at me." The quiet tone held an almost unnatural air of authority, and Dani lifted her head. "Obsessions are a ghost's greatest weakness. They bind us to desire, and can drive us to do counterintuitive and single-minded things sometimes."
Blue eyes mirrored each other, a reflection of spirit as much as genetics, and the world beyond their table seemed to dull.
"But they are also our greatest strength and are a testament to our passion. Ghosts are beings of energy, of the mind. We are at our best when we focus on what drives us. Right now, you are only looking at one facet of yourself. Your need to protect the people you are closest to, to keep them safe and not lose them." The young man's voice gentled, "But the strong ties you hold mean that you can trust in those you cherish. The support goes both ways. When things get hard, remind yourself that we are here, we love you, and we will be your pillars when you can't stand alone."
The ambient sound sharpened, once again comprehensible as the rest of the room came back into focus.
The seed of nagging unease Dani contained burned up, seared out by a much stronger force.
Faith.
Tuesday September 4th
2:05 pm
Earlier...
Toru Hagakure inspected the forest.
The first thought in the UA student's head had been "villain attack" when the ground beneath her feet had taken on an emerald, toxic hue and dropped her through. It had felt similar to when Kurogiri had transported the whole class during the USJ incident, but was different in that it caused a kind of dull static to cling to the skin.
Toru's back had jarred when she'd hit the ground, but the hero-in-training had still sprung to agile feet, risking a glance several yards above her head. The gateway that imitated a shy maiden sensed the attention and promptly disappeared.
Squelching dismay, she focused on a plethora of crashes and exclamations audible in the distance. A few minutes passed and the sounds dampened as if traveling across a snow-covered landscape. Ears strained for the tiniest sounds, Hagakure waited on high alert.
Eventually when silence descended and the awkward posture cramped a calf, the teen began to question whether or not there was immediate danger.
Birdsong resumed and her stance loosened incrementally; then dropped completely when nothing sprang from the underbrush with extreme speed or warped, horrific anatomy.
Toru took a calming breath to still the panic that had set her brain alight and flushed her muscles with adrenaline. The inhale brought with it a wave of exhaustion, pulling at weary bones and making her body leaden.
Taking stock of the situation with newfound levelheadedness, the invisible girl was surprised to find herself shaking faintly in the dappled sun that filtered from above.
It should have been a couple more weeks before any true cold snap. But this forest was already starting to take on the beautiful colors indicative of Autumn and the temperature had to be close to 15 degrees Celsius.
Judging the position of the sun through ruby and gold tinged leaves, the displaced girl came to another unsettling conclusion. It was the hottest part of the day.
A new dread pooled into Toru's stomach as she peered down at a body she could not see. One that was as naked as the day it was born.
Tuesday September 4th,
2:16 pm
"Everyone, that's it. Class is over. Head back to the locker rooms to change," a timeworn voice called out into a cavernous structure filled with pillars and formations of cement.
A strand of what looked like ribbon flew out and stuck to a space some twelve feet above the ragged man's tired posture. Erasure Head didn't flinch as a student in a black, white and yellow skin-tight suit came flying toward him, one enlarged elbow dragging the kid forward with immense force.
Concurrently, an individual in mechanized armor skidded to a stop on the racetrack boarding the room. The fairly tall teen waved his arms wildly and directed toward the door as he yelled "Come on, everyone. We must hurry, or we'll be late for our next class! Punctuality is also a sign of heroism!"
"Yeah, yeah. We get it, Emergency Exit," the first kid teased and landed with a rip of the tape.
The class' signature ice user came next, sliding in from the back of the room on a ramp made of frozen water. Midoriya was soon to follow, small bolts of electricity dancing along the fabric of his costume.
"Oi, Bakugo! C'mon!" a buff, topless redhead in gear-like sleeves shouted upward at a cliff where several booms still echoed.
"Shut it, crap-hair!" came back at him, vague in its location from around an outcropping of cement. A spot soon turned red, and a four foot hole burned through the fake mountainside. Katsuki Bakugo shot out of the newly made cavity, exploding down to the makeshift gathering with rather more emotion than was warranted.
The rest of the class made their way to the front entrance, much less flashy in nature. Except for a single boy, who had literal sparkles adorning the air around his knight's armor and blue cape.
Two teens brought up the rear from a ways away. Having to walk from the farthest corner of the training center had made them lag behind.
With eyes set in a face that seemed to be an amalgamation of a dinosaur, an axolotl and a cliff side, Koji Koda looked around Gym Gamma.
The petting hero's throat hurt from screaming at pigeons for the past hour. Swallowing instinctively, he tried to wet his parched tongue, then turned to address the tall boy with six wing-like arms walking next to him, "Sh-Shoji-kun?"
"Hm?" The reply that should have come from beneath a blue face mask instead came from a small mouth at the tip of one of the quiet teen's arms.
"Did you happen to hear if Hagakure-chan came back yet?" The fully-in-costume invisible girl had left a little over ten minutes ago. She was supposed to be grabbing drinks for the three of them, but had yet to return.
Koda's throat scratched again, but he ignored it in favor of concern. The vending machines were just outside the door, their position a midway point between the PE field (where they had first tested the boundaries of their quirks) and Gym Gamma.
"I am unsure. I heard something a moment ago that may have been her footsteps, but I was busy focusing on duplicating my eyes today. I apologize for not being more help," Shoji confessed, calm but sincere as he glanced at his friend before refixating back on the pair's destination.
"Oh. Okay. Thanks anyway," Koji responded.
The rest of the class came into view, and he noticed a large bag at Aizawa's feet. Next to the practical teacher, Ken Ishiyama, better known as Cementoss, was pulling water bottles from it and passing them to everyone in 1A.
Seeing the drinks being handed around, Koda's furrowed brow relaxed.
Tuesday September 4th,
2:20 pm
A locker room door opened and a flood of girls strolled in. Two of the teens headed left while the other three diverged right, mimicking a forked river. They split again as each magnetized to their own metal cubby, idle chatter a near constant.
"—I just can't seem to get my body to keep bright colors, kero." Tsuyu Asui, or Tsu, as she was always insisting her friends call her, ended the comment with a signature croak.
"Uuhm. You could try practicing back at the dorms with just your hands or something. Maybe smaller body parts would be easier to keep bright. At least until you got the hang of it!" Ochako encouraged, happy to help her friend brainstorm.
The mostly pink-outfitted girl pulled off her visor. A strip of chestnut hair under where the headband had fallen and the strands over her ears remained indented, even with the plexiglass face covering removed.
Everyone else was making short work of switching to their gym uniforms. Kyoka had already even changed into the school's mandatory tracksuit, the letters "U" and "A" hiding in the white lines across the blue cloth.
First Aid Training was starting soon, and it was rare that Recovery Girl led a class, so everyone was in a rush.
"What about you, Momo-chan? How's making two different kinds of items at the same time coming along?" Ashido asked curiously, interested in all of her classmates' lives despite the minor hurry.
"With dedication and practice, I believe it's possible. Currently, it is proving troublesome to split my attention between the molecular differences of two items simultaneously. But I did manage to make a red and a blue ball at nearly the same time today. Color was the only difference, but it's a start." Yaoyarozu aligned the two sides of her dark navy jacket and zipped the metal tab up, covering her white undershirt beneath cotton-nylon blended fabric.
"I'm just impressed you can do it at all, kero," the amphibian girl complimented from across the aisle and raised a finger to the corner of her lips. The everything hero blushed in response, then turned away from the praise.
Ochako slid on a pair of the same fancy sweatpants everyone else was wearing and pivoted toward the door, fully dressed and ready to go.
Ashido followed the gravity-altering girl's motion and mused aloud, "Toru-chan sure is late. I wonder what's keeping her? I wanted to ask if she managed to up the brightness on Warp Refraction."
"Are you sure she's late? She might have just got here before us and is already at sixth period," Kyoka hypothesized.
"Yeah, maybe," Ashido acquiesced, but couldn't quite shake a feeling of unease.
Tuesday September 4th,
2:23 pm
1A converged on their next location. A large space nearly identical to their homeroom class with one major difference. There were no desks lined up in rows. No tight aisles to circumvent or navigate when crossing the classroom. Only a big open space ringed by standardized blue computer chairs, a single seat missing to give access to the circle.
Waiting patiently like a sun ready to pull planets to orbit, a vertically challenged grandma stood leaning on a giant syringe-shaped cane. Her doctor's outfit draped far past her feet, indicating an extreme loss of height in recent years.
The children finished populating the seats, and a single chair stood empty. Wizened eyes peered about the room, crows feet pulling at their edges as Chiyo Shuzenji took in her students.
Her attention passed over several perturbed faces, but her own facade kept a pleasant and professionally-disarming passivity.
Several of the kids were obviously anxious. Like Kyoka, whose tense muscles and deep frown were a dead giveaway. It didn't help that the rocker kept glancing at the barren seat, whispering to a purse-lipped Tsuyu; and, even though Chiyo's older ears heard only indistinct mumbles, the "youthful" heroine could guess the conversation's topic.
The concern of a few other, more restrained students, would have been difficult to see if she hadn't served years in the medical field. Patients that insisted everyone else with minor injuries be treated first while they bled out internally taught her to look for the little things. Like the two clenched fists in their hiding spot beneath multiple appendages and flaps of bat-like skin.
Mezo Shoji's expression stayed reserved even as he made direct eye contact with the instructor, then pointedly looked at the missing person's spot.
Next to him, the equally quiet boy, Koda, appeared quite pale and twiddled furiously with his thumbs. His mouth even opened and closed slightly like he wanted to say something.
Recovery Girl angled her body around to take in more of her audience. Keeping her eyes occupied by watching the class rep's openly aghast expression, she ran through a list of students in her head. Ah yes, the invisible one. That was why it had been hard to immediately place the face of the missing child. Besides, the girl hardly ever got hurt, so Chiyo had spent little time with her.
By the time Tenya Iida had started yelling for her attention, robotic arms swinging, she already knew who the grievance would be about.
"Yes, Iida-kun?" the grandma acknowledged, willing to let him explain the predicament himself.
"Sensei, Hagakure-san is late for class!" the boy belted, standing ramrod straight with arms to his sides, hands flattened like they were about to cover a rock in a game of Janken.
Multiple exclamations came from the girls at once.
"We didn't see her in the locker room and thought she went on ahead, kero."
"What if she got hurt during training and nobody noticed?!"
"What if she was kidnapped..." Pops like a firecracker punctuated the words from a place opposite the last speaker, and the very air suddenly felt strained.
From within the noise, a deep voice came from the beak of an Asian Koel, unique in its pacific nature, "We should not jump to conclusions just because something is amiss. Recovery Girl is staying calm, as should we all. We are heroes in training and should act as such." Sheepish expressions crossed some of Fumikage Tokoyami's more distressed classmates, but Bakugo stayed rigid, teeth grit and jaw muscle twitching. "It would be best to respond logically, by contacting the other faculty and determining if there is not some mundane reason for her absence."
"Excellent suggestion, Tokoyami-kun," Chiyo praised, voice just as steady and unhurried as ever as she fished in her oversized pocket for her cell. She drew it out, and ten key-clicks later the phone was ringing.
[Moshi-mosh.]
Glancing at Shoji and Kyoka to make sure she didn't spot any extra ears or plugged in jacks, the healer responded, "Hello, Shota-kun? I was wondering if I could expect Miss Hagakure-chan for today's class, or has she been pulled away on an errand?"
The next part came through the line in a hushed tone, [Hagakure is missing. The other faculty are already combing inside Gym Gamma, in case she has been rendered unconscious in an accident. Do not inform the other students until we find out more.] Aizawa was as to-the-point as ever.
Chiyo wanted to ask questions. To demand answers and insist on standing by if the girl really was injured. Instead, she let her features stay kind, lifting up her mouth in a practiced smile as if hearing reassuring news. "Thank you, Shota-kun. Then I will continue class as normal," she answered, looking the epitome of unbothered.
Ending the call, she addressed her students, "Aizawa-sensei has informed me that Hagakure-chan will not be joining us for today's lesson for personal reasons, but to go ahead and start."
The atmosphere around the class shifted, a general feeling of placation blanketing those present. But as Recovery Girl turned in a full circle, ready to start the lesson, she noticed a few who remained suspicious.
Midoriya, Yaororozu, and Bakugo's unease went unnoticed by virtually everyone else, but Chiyo picked up on subtle differences of posture and negative micro-expressions.
Only a single person besides herself noticed anything out of place. The bubbly brunette that always hung around Midoriya paid close attention to the boy's face as if trying to unlock his mind while he typed a quick text.
Chiyo pretended not to see the phone held close to his thigh.
Yaoyorozu kept her typical composure, but the reassuring smile she turned to a classmate seemed a little tight around the edges.
Unlike the other two, Bakugo showed major emotion. The boy's fuming, however, was so typical of his nature no one thought twice about what it masked.
"Today we are going to learn about the difference between treating a compound fracture and a regular one. I want you to be able to assess and secure both kinds safely. Can anyone tell me what you absolutely should not do when faced with a fracture?"
Several hands shot up around the room.
Tuesday September 4th,
2:43 pm
Toru couldn't believe her luck. Climbing no less than two trees hadn't given the lostling any new information about her surroundings; but wandering around the woods for, like, a half hour, max, had allowed her to miraculously find a paved running trail.
It was a good thing, too, because walking through ferns, brambles and bushes had been savage on her bare skin and feet. One stinging line (which the girl was sure would have been red were it visible) stretched from a hip to the lower edge of her scapula.
Not to mention that she didn't have any form of GPS.
Quirk Training was often bad for an electronic's health and all devices were forbidden in class; but it had been horrible to remember her phone was safely tucked away in her gym locker. She might not have been able to use it if there wasn't service here (she was somewhere in nature, after all), but she could have at least tried to send a text. Or even just checked the time.
Sighing, she squared goosefleshed shoulders and kept walking, the pavement under her feet sapping the tiny amount of warmth the exercise created. Hugging arms around her waist tightly didn't stop the shivering, but did allow for a modicum of heat to be retained. The air was cold.
She thought about the circumstances that surrounded her kidnapping as she plodded along. Coming here had been terrifying at first, so some arrival details were lost to the initial panic that had swamped her mind; but the teen did know three things for certain. One, that she had fallen through some kind of green portal; two, someone had been fighting nearby; and three, she had to get clothes.
Having a very pressing survival goal had allowed her to push down any anxiety. She needed to get out of this forest and to do that she had to keep moving. So the invisible girl had picked a direction away from where she'd last heard the battle, and started a manageable, but muscle-warming, hike.
If all the villain attacks on the student's school had taught her anything, it was that freezing up was the worst thing you could do. In a bad situation, it was easier to take things one step at a time. Focus on what could be done now to better the situation.
She had briefly considered going toward the crashing sounds, but had chucked the idea like a hot potato. She didn't know anything about the scuffle she'd heard, nor whether the participants were villains. Even if they weren't, who knows if they would have helped her. Hagakure could have revealed herself only to lose her one real advantage in dealing with this situation. Stealth.
Ten more minutes of miserably ambling down the paved foot path had Toru spotting a wooden stake set into the ground. Two arrow-shaped boards adorned the top, rusted nails affixing them in place. One side pointed in the direction she had come, the other, where she was going.
Dread crept up the teen's spine as she spied something truly unnerving.
English letters.
A visceral reaction set her to sweating as the sign swam in her vision. Then, a mundanely inappropriate memory surfaced, warding the feeling off.
"Honey! Look! Toru-chan tied her shoes!" an empty business suit called across a small apartment from the living room. Next to the unseen man sat a miniature Toru, decked out in tiny clothes. A single shoe had a floppy knot of strings on top that somewhat resembled a bow. The other had yet to be defiled by tiny, invisible hands.
Equally bland clothes leaned out from behind the kitchen wall at the prompting, hugging the curves of a middle aged body. "You bet she did! She's named Toru for a reason!" The tan blouse fist pumped, the motion a dichotomy to the reserved nature of the outfit. "Nothing can stop my girl; she'll never be a quitter!"
The businessman leaned closer to his daughter, pulled the child into a goofy hug, and swung her around. "Hear that, Tora? Mommy thinks you're a fighter; go show her your claws!"
"Raaaaaawwwwr," the knee-high t-shirt and shorts roared, racing toward the kitchen. Up until the untied shoe reminded the girl of its existence as a tripping hazard. Down she went.
But not for long.
The smile on Toru's face as she jerked back to the present was unbidden.
The memory had reminded the hero-in-training of something very important.
She was a Toru. Persistent was her very name. The first challenge of finding a possible way out of the woods had already been cleared. She could read a sign. Even if it required remembering things from one of the girl's worst subjects.
Brow drawn in concentration, she stared hard at the arrow pointing behind her. Suu. Puu. Kiii. Tsu. Re. Ii. Ru. It meant nothing. She tried again, this time sounding the words out aloud. "Su-pu-ki tsu-re-i-ru." Not fast enough. "Spu-ki tu-re-iru." She concentrated on changing the "R" to an "L" at the end. Spooky Trail.
The first word was foreign, but a nagging at the back of the mind made her concentrate on the second. Trail….trail…..trail….was it…..shippo? No….that didn't feel quite right. Unless the path was talking about squirrels.
Wait!
That was it!
It wasn't tureiru. It was TO-reiru, the synonym for michi!
"Trail" was the English word for path!
A sense of accomplishment filled her as she tried to read the second sign. "A-mi-ti Pa-ru-ku".
Toru puzzled over the first word's meaning for a minute more, before the chill got the better of her and she had to give up. At least the second word, park, gave some reassurance. If there was a car lot in that direction, she could find a real road, and maybe a town!
Either way, the teen had to start moving again before she froze.
Semi-confident in her previous heading, she started to jog, back warming slightly. The cleared path was a boon, keeping the trees at bay enough to let rays of sun through. After a few minutes Toru began to breathe hard. After twelve, she used blurry eyes to make sure numb and scratched feet were still there and moving.
Lost in focus, she startled when the trees just...ended, the path curving out into a field.
In front of the girl stood a massive billboard that proudly proclaimed "Amity Park: A nice place to live", its feet obscured and encroached on by overgrown grass. The only thing immediately recognizable for Toru was the phrase "Amity Park" from the trail.
Beyond, a glorious road led straight into a city.
Tuesday September 4th,
2:43 pm
A bipedal mouse crossed a large lot, eyes drawn to the white lines of chalk marking the compacted dirt. The professionally clothed mammal took a breath, line of sight raising as he appraised several teachers stationed in the field outside Gym Gamma.
The gaunt face of Yagi Toshinori was not among them. The man had wanted to be here, but was in charge of 1A's final class of the day, forcing the instructor to get ready. Still, a decent number of UA's faculty made up the huddle.
One of which was a dino helmeted man, the mecha headwear covering much of his facial features. In his red-tipped fingers was a massive metal detector-esque device. The main difference between the support item and something normally reserved for finding lost jewelry or coins was a giant display screen stationed near the handle. As Power Loader walked forward to meet the principal, the read-out's numbers jumped erratically.
"Kocho-sensei!"
Nezu Kocho locked gazes with the head of the support department, acknowledging the man to continue. Before Higari Maijima could, though, he was cut off by a massive man next to him who jumped forward, landing on hands and feet in front of the mouse.
Black striped arms splaying wide in something halfway between a bow and a push up, the bestial teacher yelled "Nezu-san! I lost—rrawrr—scent! Got—aaarraahraa—the dooorrrr—arrrraaghraaa aahhhhh raaa roooaaaoooooo!" the passionate man ended the report in a soul-torn howl, saliva spilling from a mouth no longer capable of human speech.
The scar over Nezu's right eye tugged at a white-furred cheek as his lips drew down in a grimace. Tucking small arms behind his back, he subconsciously reverted to submissive posture. "Thank you, Inui-san. I understand how upset you must be. Failing my students to such a degree is making me question my own competence as a principal."
"Kocho-san! Don't say that! No school is equipped to handle such extreme situations," a voice whose origin could have been a meat grinder sounded from the side. The lean but excessively tall hero dropped to a trenchcoat-covered knee, bringing his own height much closer to that of the rodent's. His head, which was so dark blue it bordered black, bowed. Sharp yellow accent lines caught the light as he went on "If anything, we have failed you."
Not impressed with the pity party, a new person spoke up from the back, "We have uncovered very little. But we do know for a fact that Hagakure-san is nowhere inside Training Dining Land. We are hoping your quirk will offer more insight." The man who could have starred in an apocalyptic wild west film gestured for everyone to follow. Without waiting to see if they did, he immediately started trekking toward the large building with its rounded top.
The group filed in behind, the final party member picking up the principal. Vlad King positioned the small creature on his shoulder before striding after.
"Even if I am unable to determine anything, Tsukauchi-san and Tamakawa-san are on their way. They should also be bringing two heroes with them that may be able to help." Nezu sounded somewhat hopeful. The police department had been integral in rescuing young Bakugo.
"If only Ragdoll hadn't lost her quirk…." Power Loader's tone was the opposite of his boss', and the silence hit like a side hook.
Trying to pull the topic away from the reminder of the Wild Wild Pussycat, Vlad reported the faculty's findings in a steady voice, "As Ryo was saying, he lost Hagakure-san's scent just outside the gym. He's incredibly frustrated." The male built just as massively as his close friend raised a red-clad arm, patting the hunting hero apologetically with a silver-backed hand. "Apparently it just vanished. But there was a new smell there—"
"Hospitaaaaaarrrrrrooo!"
The blood hero just nodded, unconcerned by Hound Dog's interruption. "I myself was unable to find anything useful, but Higari-kun took readings at the site where she vanished." The group was almost across the field, only fifteen feet away from the aforementioned location.
"There are trace amounts of energy, but I'm having a hard time pinning down what kind. The radiation is decaying at a rapid rate and interfering with my equipment. Its half life seems to be about every eighteen minutes, so if Hagakure-san has been missing an hour we only have about thirteen percent of the radioactive isotopes left to test at this very moment. Unfortunately, the data I'm collecting is unreliable, so without incredibly specialized equipment arriving here in the next thirty hours, we have hit a wall on my front," Power Loader supplied, then rubbed the bridge of his nose in exasperation, tilting his headgear back for better access. "My guess is that a quirk rather than a support item generated it. Probably a portal user."
"Just because we have been faced with two portal generating quirks recently does not mean we should rule out other possibilities preemptively. A multitude of quirks could be responsible, and are statistically more likely. Teleportation, flight, and permeation to name a few," Nezu admonished gently, small black eyes watching as the petite mechanic stopped in front of two vending machines.
Ectoplasm hicc-urped as he closed the gap between himself and the support department head, an indistinct mist escaping his mouth. Ignoring the minor indigestion he'd been experiencing lately, the clone-generator watched Nezu and Vlad advance toward him.
Then outright stared when the principal started shaking in a way he hadn't seen since their first introduction.
"Are you okay, Kocho-san?" Vlad asked, instinctively putting a supportive hand on the small male's side, worried the mammal might fall off his perch.
"Y-yes. I-I'm f-f-fine. D-d-don't wor-r-ry," Nezu assured through chattering teeth.
Snipe raised an eyebrow skeptically from where he casually leaned against one of the drink dispensers. With crossed arms partially covered by a rusty red fabric, the gunslinger examined his boss.
"J-just s-some in-s-stincts," the principal responded, already slowing his heartbeat with mental exercises. "I-I'll b-be fine in a s-second."
The rodent shook his head as if to clear it, then took a steadying breath before hopping to the floor. Hound Dog and Vlad shared a furtive glance as Nezu circled and inspected a very specific spot on the ground without being told.
Ignoring his staff, the head of UA continued gravely, "W-we need to proceed very c-carefully. Whatever or whoever took Hagakure-san activated my fight or flight response with nothing more than residual power."
Chapter Notes:
-Yes, I absolutely threw in a Harry Potter reference with Devil's Snare.
-Yes, Hagakure fell through during the first chapter.
-Supposedly Hagakure's parents are both invisible
-I am sorry if I got the radiation reference stuff wrong. But I did spend like 10+ minutes looking up information of radioactive isotopes just for that one paragraph. lol