March arrived at last for the students of Class 1-A, and the weather began to improve. The sun peeked through the clouds more often, and the green things around UA's campus — the grass, trees, bushes, and more — were more vibrant and healthier than ever for it. It had gotten warmer, so the students slowly began to abandon their winter uniforms in favour of the more breathable alternatives. Those in Class 1-A particularly could not believe that they were finally coming up on the end of their first year of high school after all the chaos they'd been through in the first half of the year. A murmur began to spread between the members of the class, concerning the possibility of holding a celebration with 1-B over spring break, which was set to begin in just two weeks after their final exams and graduation were behind them. It was a time of anticipation all around the school, as the current third-years prepared to graduate and head out into the world, and the other students prepared to take the place of their upperclassmen. Excitement spread around 1-A about the chance to welcome new first-years to UA, though the idea was quickly dismissed due to the nature of hero course students being unable to join clubs, so they likely wouldn't interact much with the new first-years when the time came. Nonetheless, the beginning of March was a beginning for them all, and it was a new beginning especially for Izuku Midoriya and Hitoshi Shinso.
The two of them, on a breezy Saturday afternoon, exited UA's campus and began walking toward the city of Musutafu that surrounded the great institution at the bottom of the steep hill that the school sat upon. The two of them behaved casually, even though what they were planning was the furthest thing from casual for two first-year students who did not have the legal authority to do what they had been and were going to continue doing. They had made sure to acquire explicit permission to leave campus, of course, as they weren't fools. All Might had been more than happy to allow two hard-working young heroes-in-training a day off on the town before they entered into the most important exam period they'd ever faced. It helped that, according to Hitoshi, the former number one hero would have given them the go-ahead to do just about anything since it was his precious successor asking. Izuku had not had the ability to confirm nor deny that claim.
They set off into the city in casual, forgettable outfits, Hitoshi wearing the ironic purple jacket he unironically loved and Izuku wearing the plain hoodie that had the word hoodie printed across the front. Hitoshi's hair was a little longer than he had kept it in the past, as it now hung at a very slight angle around his head, rather than sticking up at odd angles like it had since Izuku had known him. Izuku himself had finally gotten a haircut the other day, after the length of his unruly green and white hair — which seemed more white than green nowadays — had impaired his vision during training after all the months he'd been avoiding the idea. He took the chance to tease Hitoshi while they walked about how the taller boy had often done the same to him back when their positions were reversed. It was more than a little satisfying for Izuku to discover that Hitoshi didn't like it very much when his pokes and jabs were pointed back at himself.
Izuku and Hitoshi walked calmly and casually, as if they were simply heading toward the mall, though they took a few turns and ended up walking right through the less respectable side of town. They walked until they came to the building they'd used as a vantage point for their surveillance camera, which they had no way of spotting from the ground considering it was about the size of Izuku's eye, if not a little bit bigger. It was still there, though — he'd checked before leaving that afternoon. The time had come, though, and the two boys couldn't deny it. It was time to investigate the warehouse where the Children and their new friends were meeting up, and where the truckloads of something were being moved to and from daily. They passed the apartment building where they'd placed their camera two weeks ago, and walked a block or two further before arriving at a corner from which they could see their destination. The warehouse looked exactly the same as it always had, a long, single-story building that didn't stand out whatsoever but was ingrained in Izuku and Hitoshi's memories as special regardless of that fact. They observed their destination for a moment, and sent each other a look out of the corners of their eyes. Were they ready for this? Izuku didn't think he could leave now that he was this close to finally getting something of worth out of this investigation, so he nodded, and Hitoshi nodded grimly in return.
"Let's go be heroes," Hitoshi said, with none of his usual humour in his voice or on his face.
The boys quietly entered an alley across the street from the warehouse, at Hitoshi's request. They paused, and Hitoshi pulled something out from under his hoodie. He snaked his capture weapon — which had once been the signature belonging to Aizawa, but which he'd taught Hitoshi how to use over their year at UA — out from where it had been wrapped around his torso underneath his clothes. He tangled it around his neck in a manner that looked haphazard and messy, but which took skill and fine control of the support item to manage. Izuku regretted never getting Aizawa to teach Izuku more than the basics of his techniques so that he could apply it to his Blackwhip, which functioned similarly, but getting half-hearted tips from Hitoshi after their private lessons was good enough for him. Hitoshi finished setting himself up, and Izuku started when he realised that the binding cloth was the only thing he'd brought with him.
"You didn't bring your mask?" Izuku asked.
"Where would I hide it?" Hitoshi asked in return. "The Persona Chords would just draw attention. We're already recognisable enough."
"You have a point," Izuku said, his thoughts going to his hair with the green and white streaks in it. He put his hood up. It felt right, after wearing his costume's cowl so much.
"Of course I do." Hitoshi grinned. "Now let's do this thing."
"Right." Izuku huffed out a breath. He'd never admit that he was disappointed when it didn't create a puff of steam in the air anymore.
Izuku took the lead, since he was by far the more physically powerful one between himself and Hitoshi. If any surprises appeared out of nowhere and tried to overwhelm him, Izuku would not let them. They crept into the gap between the warehouse and the building adjacent to it, which seemed to be an office that had been condemned a number of years ago judging by the brief glimpses the boys got through the windows that hadn't been blocked by dirt and grime. They slowed to a snail's pace and crouched as they tip-toed through the alley, though the crunch of Izuku's favourite red sneakers on the cement still made too much noise for his liking. He wouldn't have even known Hitoshi was still following him if he didn't look back to make sure when he reached the end of the alley. Hitoshi nodded calmly, his face scrunched up in either concentration or nervousness, or both, but his breathing and movements were smooth, measured, perfect. He'd clearly learned more than just the binding cloth from the hero that was more urban myth than civil servant, Eraserhead. The two of them emerged into the back area of the warehouse, preparing their weapons — the binding cloth and One For All respectively — to be used.
The boys emerged into a loading dock. There was a parking bay with a platform raised above the ground for whatever got dropped off to be placed before it was moved inside, likely through the metal shutter that was blocking entrance to the interior of the storage facility. There were no trucks in sight, and there weren't any guards that were immediately visible, so Izuku and Hitoshi decided to get a closer look. They leapt up onto the platform, Izuku using the seventh's Float to briefly ignore gravity while Hitoshi was forced to climb up the flat rectangular block of cement, which was almost as tall as he was. Once they were both up on the dock, they inspected the door. It was a sheet of metal that rolled up and down, like Izuku had seen on the windows of stores late at night to prevent robberies. He leaned down and tried to gently pull the shutter up with his regular strength, but it must have been locked. Hitoshi scanned the area for another door, and frowned.
"Can you get it open with your Quirk?" he whispered. He sighed. "Without making a lot of noise, if you can."
"If I can," Izuku repeated, frowning anxiously.
One For All came to life with a flicker of electricity around Izuku. The power wanted to put as much strength into him as he could withstand, as had become second nature after a year of wielding the Quirk, but Izuku put a stop to that with the barest bit of effort. He brought One For All down to five percent, the power he'd started with back when he'd first learned how to use his power safely. Izuku held on tight to the bottom of the shutter and lifted with his knees, pulling the sheet of metal up and past the breaking point of the lock, causing it to jerk upward suddenly and squeal as metal scraped across metal. The boys winced at how loud the sound was in the silence of the loading dock, and they both froze, Izuku still holding the shutter a quarter of the way up and Hitoshi scanning the area for threats again. After fifteen or twenty seconds had passed, Izuku started to breath again, and while the colour didn't return to Hitoshi's face — one Tsuyu Asui would tell you that he'd never had colour in his face — his heart seemed to be beating, which couldn't have been said based on the look on his face during the brief panic that had overtaken the two of them. Izuku continued pulling the shutter up, and even though it did make noise as it struggled to roll up properly, likely due to age, the rest of the task was much easier than unlocking it in the first place. Once they could be sure that no yakuza thugs or villains would follow them inside for a sneak attack, the boys entered the warehouse to find some answers to the mystery they'd entangled themselves in.
The inside of the storage facility was surprisingly normal-looking — it was most akin to a particularly spacious garage, one that took up a whole floor of a house. The closest thing that Izuku could remember to the dimensions of the warehouse was the bottom floor of Heights Alliance, 1-A's dorm building. A small office took up space at one of the far corners of the warehouse, walled-off so they couldn't properly see inside. Some dust fell from the rafters above, but the boys paid no mind to it. None of the lights inside were working, but enough light was streaming in from the open shutter to make it clear that about half the floorspace inside the warehouse was occupied by rows of boxes with differently coloured tape around the lids. Some boxes had red tape, an equal amount had blue, but about a quarter of the boxes bore yellow tape. Izuku and Hitoshi shared a look, and barely a second passed before they made their decision. They began to carefully remove the tape, Izuku working on one of the red boxes and Hitoshi working on one of the yellow ones. They worked for a few moments, the nearly inaudible ripping sounds causing them to flinch despite the fact that nobody seemed to be around to hear them. It didn't matter to the boys that they didn't see anyone — the knowledge that they would likely be killed if they were to be found there gave them caution in spite of their seeming isolation.
The red box, Izuku discovered, contained a layered storage device that contained rows of red capsules. He brought one of the capsules out, and showed it off to Hitoshi. It was about the size of Izuku's thumb, and a needle that he hadn't seen before emerged from one end. When Izuku noticed the needle, he panicked so hard that he nearly dropped the capsule. He held it in the palm of his hand, and Hitoshi stared at it for just a moment before digging through the box he'd opened. He brought out a black rod the length of his forearm, which had a thin cable hanging from one end. Izuku and Hitoshi met each other's eyes, and understanding passed from one to the other like magic. They needed to get out of there. However, the two of them also knew that they needed proof if they were going to convince Aizawa that their findings were legitimate.
They each took one capsule, Hitoshi stuffed one of the explosives — Izuku did not want to think of it as dynamite — into his hoodie pocket, and they worked together to get one of the blue boxes open in record time. Within, they found the same capsules as the red boxes' contents, only these ones were blue, just like the tape on the box. Izuku wondered if they were the same, or if the colours meant they were different. They took one each, just to be sure. He didn't know what the capsules were or what the explosives were for, but Hitoshi walked him through it in whispers; evidence was everything, even if it was flimsy. If they walked up to Aizawa that night and told him that literally anything in the world had happened during their day out, but they came back with physical evidence that they had found something, then that meant there was just a shred of believability to their story, which was what really mattered.
"That is, of course, assuming that we're gonna tell Aizawa," Hitoshi said.
"I don't think we can keep this a secret anymore," Izuku whispered back.
"I agree."
The sudden voice filled the silence with its booming, raw sound. Izuku and Hitoshi flinched and spun to face the new arrival, only to find that there were two people standing in the doorway. Cursing his lack of foresight in not using Danger Sense to detect any hidden presences, Izuku brought One For All to twenty-three percent. Bright arcs of green lightning flashed around Izuku, and the power of eight previous generations filled him. Hitoshi's hands tangled around strands of his capture weapon, and he crouched down in anticipation. Izuku threw his hands out as the frustration he'd been feeling for months welled up in him at the sight of the men before him. He remembered them from the footage they'd captured of the plague doctor and his friends, those two had been among the entourage that had accompanied the plague doctor every time. The smaller of the two was still taller than either of the boys, a slim man with spiky, ashy hair and pale eyes. The man's mouth was covered by a plague mask, brown and leathery, which was strapped to his face around the sides and up over the top of his head. The other man was one of the two giants associated with the group, who wore a tattered t-shirt and dark pants, and a ripped-up hood fitted with another of those plague masks. His hands were covered in straps of leather, and his knuckles were lined with plates of metal, like the world's cruellest makeshift knuckle-dusters.
Blackwhip rose from within him to meet his anger and frustration and empower itself with those feelings. Izuku normally didn't allow his feelings to influence his power, but it happened so fast that he had to simply let it happen this time. Two strands of Blackwhip shot from his hands and rushed forward to bind the two yakuza thugs who stood about five metres away from them. Hitoshi pulled himself up with his binding cloth into the rafters, and crouched there as the cool colours of his clothes helped him blend slightly into the shadows. At the same time, the muscular man grabbed Blackwhip without hesitation.
!
Izuku was able to register what the warning meant in time to hunker down and ground himself. The giant pulled on his Blackwhip and tried to force Izuku off-balance, but he stood his ground and dismissed the Blackwhip that the behemoth had grabbed onto. He tightened the Blackwhip that was secure around the smaller man, but that simply caused the stranger to retaliate. The man gestured with his hand, and a shimmering yellow bubble appeared around him, growing in size with him in the centre so that it pushed Blackwhip away and snapped it once it was wide enough. That sphere dissipated immediately after, along with the remnants of Blackwhip. Izuku frowned and accepted that Blackwhip likely wouldn't work on them, as they could dodge, block or otherwise deal with it easily. He wasn't going to be avoiding a fight with these people.
"Who are you?" Izuku asked.
"What, you came to our secret stash and got into our stuff, only to ask who we are?" The giant laughed, and turned to his friend. "Get a load of this. They don't know the Rapper!"
"Don't tell them that idiotic nickname, you fool!" the smaller man said.
"Why not? Ah, c'mon! Lighten up, Tengai!" the Rapper shouted. He attempted to pat the man, who was named Tengai according to him, on the back but he was blocked by another pale yellow force-field.
"Don't say my name either! Master never should have taken you out of whatever hole he found you in. What if they talk?" Tengai yelled.
"They're not gonna talk. They're gonna die." The Rapper then turned to Izuku, and tilted his masked head up toward the rafters, where Hitoshi had hidden. "Just wait and see."
The Rapper moved, and Izuku didn't need Danger Sense to push him to action that time. He leapt at the Rapper and met him halfway with a charge of his own. The Rapper attempted to land a right hook, and Izuku grinned as he recognised all the signs of that classic opening move. Katsuki used it less often now that Izuku had pointed it out to him that he was projecting his moves so clearly, but Izuku could still see the windup beginning seconds before the punch was thrown. He could see it clearly in his mind, the way he'd duck under the hook and counterattack with a jab in the ribs. He almost laughed at how obvious the Rapper was making his attack. He had to be self-taught.
!
The giant's punch moved significantly faster than his windup had led Izuku to believe it would. The warning from Danger Sense came in the moment before the Rapper's massive, metal-plated knuckles slammed into Izuku's chest, as per usual, but the sheer speed of the hit allowed it to hit no matter how much warning he had. All the air was forced out of Izuku's lungs in an instant, and he slid back across the floor before staggering to a stop. He breathed raggedly for a few moments, trying to suck air back into his lungs, and stared at the Rapper with wide eyes. That was why his technique wasn't up to par with properly trained fighters. He didn't need technique when he could punch with the speed and force of a bullet. Izuku put his hand to his chest and pressed lightly on the spot where the Rapper had landed his hit, and his faint breath caught in his throat at the deep ache that followed. Shifting his shoulders around and adjusting his posture to a stance that was better for fighting brawlers like the Rapper, Izuku internally marvelled at his luck — none of his bones felt broken. Then again, he'd never really been able to properly gauge his own response to pain. He might've had several broken ribs and it simply hadn't caught up with him yet. It didn't matter either way, since he had to keep fighting no matter what, but he figured he should at least try keeping his promise to Tsu by keeping a closer eye on his own wellbeing for a change.
"Hey, Rapper! You're pretty strong, huh?" Hitoshi called as he leapt from beam to beam up above Izuku and their enemies. His voice echoed in multiple directions at once from up there, as if he were in multiple places at once.
"You bet!" the Rapper replied, flexing the arm he'd used to hit Izuku. He then immediately froze, his arm went limp, and the tension he'd held in his legs vanished in an instant.
"Incapacitate your friend there," Hitoshi said again.
Tengai laughed, and looked up at where he must have thought Hitoshi was. "What a childish attempt to — what are you doing?"
The Rapper turned and swung his fist back, the windup even more obvious than before. His arm turned into a blur, and in the same amount of time it took for a heart to beat, his fist flew toward Tengai. A yellow bubble was erected around Tengai in a flash, and the Rapper's punch was stopped, seemingly without any effort on Tengai's part. The punch connected with the barrier and nothing happened. Izuku's jaw almost dropped, but he kept himself collected. The Rapper's punch was enough to overwhelm him, and Tengai could easily defend against the Rapper's attack, which meant that he'd likely be able to stand up to the amount of One For All that was available to him at that time. Izuku didn't think he and Hitoshi were going to be beating the two men in a fistfight. The Rapper's second attack against Tengai, which was exactly the same power as the first, only proved that point more by putting mere cracks in the barrier. They were much more powerful than common thugs.
Something didn't feel right about the fact that such powerful people weren't on any public villain lists yet, but Izuku ignored that in favour of Hitoshi's attention-catching call from above. While Tengai defended himself from the Rapper's barrage of punches, Hitoshi held his phone at an angle that Izuku could read, and showed him that he was calling Aizawa. Izuku nodded, and turned back to the two villains before him. It was definitely time to tell someone about what they'd found. He just hoped that heroes could arrive in time to help them beat these two.
Izuku took the opportunity to observe both the villains' Quirks in action. It seemed that Tengai's force-field power did require some amount of effort, and it could be broken through. The Rapper cracked the shield after his second hit, and completely shattered it after his third. Tengai then had to reform his barrier, which gave Izuku a good idea of his Quirk's limits. He thought a few good smashes from his twenty-two percent would be able to deal with that shield. After that, Izuku was fast enough to get in close during the second or two it took for Tengai to rebuild his barrier, and then it was just a matter of hitting him once, if his power didn't give his body any inherent increase to durability. Then there was the Rapper's ability, which seemed to not enhance the speed of his punches directly. Looking closely allowed Izuku to notice that the massive force of the Rapper's attacks always started at the shoulder, and his fist simply was forced to move forward quickly because of that. It was his shoulders that were rotating with superhuman speed, and that allowed him to punch with the force of a moving car. As well, it seemed that the Rapper could only use his Quirk in brief bursts, since he was never pushed Tengai during the periods where his shield was reforming. That made Izuku wonder if he had some sort of limit to how much his shoulders could take that remained even while he was brainwashed. The frown on his face vanished, and Izuku thought that that knowledge, and his experience getting hit by one of those attacks, might help him contend with Tengai and the Rapper physically while backup was on its way.
Tengai pushed the Rapper away with a bulging barrier. The larger of the two men staggered backward and hit the back of his head on the wall, which had Izuku wincing and Hitoshi muttering to himself up in the rafters. That was never fun. The Rapper grumbled to himself and stood back up, looking down at his hands as if he had never seen them before.
"Why did I do that?" the Rapper asked.
"It must be the other one's Quirk," Tengai said, glaring up at the rafters. "Don't let it happen again."
"I'll get that brat. But first I've gotta have a little chat with the little guy!" The Rapper slowly began to approach Izuku, his footsteps echoing heavily through the warehouse. "You're the first person to ever survive a direct hit from my Quirk. Congratulations! I've been waiting so long to find someone like you!" He cracked his knuckles and his neck, and looked over at Izuku with a giddiness in his voice that hadn't been there before. "Let's fight for real! A deathmatch! I know you can take it, kid!"
"So you're one of those types of guys," Izuku said, preparing himself for the unreal attack speed the Rapper could achieve. Interestingly, Danger Sense wasn't going off even though the Rapper was declaring his intent to kill Izuku. "You've never hit a limit, have you? So you just go around doing whatever you want because nobody can stop you. Is that it?"
"Basically, yeah!" The Rapper sounded sheepish, which gave Izuku some pause. "But that's enough talking. Come at me with all you've got and I promise to do the same! That's the greatest feeling in the world, right?"
Izuku clenched his fist and huffed out a breath. The Rapper was like Muscular, the villain that Izuku hadn't quite been able to beat at the summer camp way back then. He'd talked a lot about wanting to see Izuku's blood because he lived for fighting and all that. They had similar worldviews. Given that link, Izuku thought he might've been able to understand the Rapper, even if it was just a little bit. That gave Izuku some more confidence in his ability to beat the brute. He wasn't the type to hold back, which meant that he wasn't going to get more powerful out of nowhere. Izuku had a good handle on what he had to do. When the Rapper charged, Izuku got low.
!
The giant came at him with another one of those right hooks. Izuku waited until the last possible second, using his knowledge of the timing of the Rapper's Quirk, and crouched under the hit, which soared over his head and caused his hair to be whipped in every direction due to the wind pressures generated by the attack. The Rapper was so tall, and his stance was so wide, that Izuku could dart through his legs and twist his body in a roll so that he was up on his feet by the time his foe was turning around to face him again. Izuku then brought his power to the very limit he could take, maximising his twenty-two percent of One For All, and drove his fist into the Rapper's stomach. It seemed that the Rapper's Quirk did afford him some superhuman durability, but not nearly enough to stand up to Izuku's power. The hit from Izuku sent him flying back into and through the wall of the warehouse, out into the street. Sunlight poured into the warehouse, momentarily dulling the vision of those inside.
"Hey!" Hitoshi yelled, and suddenly descended from the rafters above Tengai.
Tengai held a lighter in his hand, and was in the process of lighting it when Hitoshi came down on him with a kick aimed at his head. Tengai blocked it with a barrier, and Hitoshi used his momentum to push off of Tengai's force-field and leap away from him, at the same time manipulating his binding cloth so that it reached out for Tengai's hand. This proved just as fruitless, as Tengai produced a barrier once again and blocked Hitoshi's efforts to prevent him from using the lighter for whatever goal he had. Izuku was in the process of turning to help, but the Rapper stepped back inside through the hole Izuku had made with his attack, laughing all the while.
"That's what I'm talking about. Thank you for not holding back!" the Rapper said. Izuku made a sound that could've been irritation or humour. If only this man knew how much Izuku was holding back.
"Rappa, do you believe that you can beat that young man?" Tengai said.
"I have no clue! What a thrill!" the Rapper nearly squealed in anticipation. Izuku guessed that Rappa was the guy's real name. Rappa the Rapper — catchy, if not particularly clever.
"That means we execute Plan B, moron, not pick an avoidable fight," Tengai said. He finally got the lighter to produce a flame. "Get out of here if you wish to survive." That part could have been directed at any of them. It would've been nice if the villain had shown a bit of compassion toward them in the final moments of their confrontation, but Izuku knew that was likely too optimistic of him to hope for.
Tengai threw the lighter, and he threw it away from Izuku and Hitoshi so they could not catch it before it reached its destination. Over the course of the fight, the boys had moved away from the open crates, and as such, Tengai must have positioned himself in such a way as to make this Plan B of his possible in the first place, knowing that they both had capture techniques. They weren't just strong — these villains were smart, too. The lighter, which turned out to be the kind that can maintain a flame by itself, flew into one of the three open crates the boys had opened during their search, the yellow one in particular.
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
All four of the warehouse's occupants moved at the same time. Out of the corner of his eye, Izuku could spot Tengai and Rappa exiting through the rolled-up shutter and then forcing it down behind them, halfway trapping Izuku and Hitoshi inside. Hitoshi reached into his hoodie pocket and threw the stick of dynamite he'd acquired from the yellow box far away from himself. He began running toward the hole in the wall that Izuku had made, and Izuku himself would've been far behind him if it wasn't for one thing. He felt in his own pockets and cursed his luck. The capsule he'd taken had been shattered by Rappa's punch, and probably his own powered-up movements as well. Izuku maintained One For All and rushed up to the open boxes and took two red capsules and one of the blue ones. He took a look inside the yellow box as he passed it on his way out, even though it made Danger Sense scream in his head that he had to get out of there. The lighter had lit the fuses on a couple of the dynamite sticks, which surely were going to detonate the others, which explained why Danger Sense was warning him so strongly. The whole place was going to blow up in a matter of moments, if they were lucky.
Izuku yelled for Hitoshi to run, and used Float to leap up onto one of the boxes and then into the air, where he hung for half a second while he shot Blackwhip out with two hands to hook onto the edges of the hole he'd made in the wall. He then flung himself through the hole like a slingshot and tackled Hitoshi, who had stuck around to make sure he made it, on the way out. The two of them tumbled through the air as heat and force rushed up to their backs, a deafening roar rattling their bones and echoing down the street as blinding sunlight filled their vision. Izuku lost focus when the blast came and he and Hitoshi fell to the ground in the middle of the street as their eyes and ears recovered from the overwhelming waves of light and sound they'd been suddenly exposed to. They laid on the ground for a long while, taking their time in bouncing back from the terrible explosion that they had just barely escaped. When they did stand back up, they got a good look at the devastation that the blast had inflicted upon the area.
The street around them was ruined. Deep gouges in the road where chunks of cement debris had impacted and then shattered, bent and broken streetlights and railings, collapsed walls and caved in buildings immediately next to the warehouse, and a smoking crater at the centre of it all which had once been the thing Izuku had spent months obsessing over. It had all ended in an instant. A thick plume of smoke rose into the sky above the city, originating from the hole that had been punched in the ground, metres deep with a width a dozen times that depth. Izuku and Hitoshi brushed the few bits of soot and dirt that had dirtied their clothes, and looked at each other with grim expressions. They both seemed to realise the same thing at the same moment, and panicked as they searched their pockets. A miracle had occurred — their capsules were still intact. Izuku pushed one of his red capsules into Hitoshi's hands after they scrambled to their feet, insisting that they should have one of each colour, which Hitoshi didn't argue with. They stood still for a moment, wondering what they could possibly do next, before a voice called to them from up above.
"I don't know what you think you're doing, but you're going to explain it to me now or you're going to be expelled on the spot!" Aizawa shouted from the top of a nearby building. He leapt off the roof and spun around one of the few unbent traffic lights using his binding cloth, and landed safely on the ground in front of them. He towered over the two boys, and his eyes shone red as he glared at them with his intense, narrowed eyes. "What happened?"
"So we've been noticing this weird pattern—" Hitoshi said, only to be interrupted by Izuku.
"I started looking into things after what happened during my winter break work study—" Izuku tried to say, only to be cut off himself by Hitoshi.
Thus, the back and forth started.
"Izuku stumbled across this blog."
"It turns out that the villains we fought back then meet up with another group here."
"They might be yakuza."
"Might be. And then we found out that it's actually a storage facility!"
"It was, anyway."
"So we waited until we were sure nobody was around and snuck in."
"But we weren't as good at the sneaking part as we thought."
"These two villains caught us, but we tried our best to fight back and subdue them without damaging any evidence."
"But we managed to save some."
"Yeah, right here!"
Aizawa was silent while Izuku presented his capsules to him. Hitoshi chose not to, for some reason, but Izuku didn't want to step on his toes if he thought it was for the best. He'd proven to be an invaluable partner with this investigation of theirs, and he would treat Hitoshi Shinso with the utmost respect as an investigator in the future. He didn't let other people see it very often, but Hitoshi was the same as Izuku — they both had sharp minds that were fixated on a topic so specific that it was almost useless except for the profession they'd both chosen to pursue. Izuku's chosen passion was Quirks and figuring out how they worked, and Hitoshi had turned out to be an excellent investigator. The stealth training he must have gotten on the side from Aizawa hadn't hurt, either. Aizawa took Izuku's capsules and looked at them closely for a moment, and that was when sirens began to ring in the distance. Emergency responders — police and firefighters, mostly — had to be on their way. After a long while, Aizawa sighed heavily and stared at the two boys with an expression on his face that aged him twenty years.
"You two can't stop yourselves from being problems, can you?" he grumbled. "Expulsion, hero licence termination, and brief jail time is what the law tells me you deserve." The boys startled, but they couldn't begin to voice their objections before Aizawa's eyes flared red once again to silence them. "You're lucky you actually found something. Now you're valuable. Come on."
"Where are we going?" Izuku asked as they began to follow Aizawa as he walked toward the police vehicles that arrived at that moment.
"If you're lucky, hell." Aizawa gave the boys one of those grins that let them know what followed would not at all be enjoyable. "If you're not, well … pray that you're lucky."
Izuku and Hitoshi met each other's eyes as they continued walking. The look on Hitoshi's face, a slight smile suppressed by the embarrassment of getting called out for doing something wrong, was the same that Izuku wore. It was probably not a good thing, like Tsu had been saying when they'd spoken with Izuku a few weeks prior, but Izuku thought that he and Hitoshi were on the same page regarding whatever punishment they were going to be subjected to.
It was worth it. No matter what, this adventure had been worth it.
Author's Note: Fun Fact: This chapter was originally supposed to end a story arc, but I realised that the next string of chapters aren't disconnected enough story-wise to warrant their own arc, so you get the massive behemoth of a story arc spanning from Chapter 95 to 115 that you're reading now! Trust me, now that Izuku and Hitoshi have messed things up in a way the heroes can't miss or ignore anymore, things are going to get really interesting really fast. See ya next time, where their own hubris throws Izuku and Hitoshi into yet another problem in need of resolving!