Chapter Text
Kurogiri is not one of those villains that seek the spotlight. He actively avoids it if he can. Notoriety is all well and good, but the brighter you shine, the more the cops look your way. The cops can’t target you if they don’t know you exist, and he’s been careful about there being nothing to link the villain Kurogiri to his more mundane identity.
That’s why it's a very unwelcome surprise when he gets an email, and it’s not from All for One. He doesn’t know who its from, the names are not familiar and probably fake in any case.
And they definitely know who he is. They want to hire him and his quirk for a mission. They apparently want him to rescue this little girl from a high security facility. (Which he knows basically means they want to kidnap someone’s daughter/niece/little-sister to use as leverage.) They even have the exact coordinates he needs for his quirk, a list of the best times for him to find her alone, the promise that he will never have to worry that the cops will bust his bar (which he doesn’t believe), along with the assurance that it will only take about five minutes and he won’t have to listen to Shigaraki rant about how the latest boss in his game is a cheapass little bitch.
It’s likely a trap, is probably far more than it appears, and is definitely a bad idea.
His eyes darted over to where Shigaraki is parked in front of the TV, a game controller in his hand, swearing and cursing at the characters on the screen.
But goddamnit did they make a persuasive argument.
---
For Eri, hope is black mist and a dark portal opening up in her room.
---
There’s two fourteen year old girls waiting for him when he gets to the meeting place. (A fenced off construction site.) One of them greets Eri by name, introduces herself as Ochako, then gives her a blanket and a candy apple before leading her off somewhere. Obviously she was chosen someone non-threatening to keep the girl from freaking out and making a scene. The other girl, a small thing with what appears to be audio-jacks dangling from her earlobes couldn’t quite be explained off in the same way.
She, to Kurogiri’s surprise, produced a wad of bills. “Here’s your payment as promised.”
Kurogiri quickly counted the money, everything he had been promised indeed. Well except… “How do you propose to make it so I will never have to worry about the cops raiding my bar?”
“Oh that’s easy, now that we’ve wiped out the League of Villains there’s nothing to really draw attention to your place. Don’t worry,” she added. “We made sure Shigaraki had left your bar before we thrashed him.”
… What? …
It was at that moment the earth shook. Kurogiri first thought it was an earthquake, then he saw the pillar of fire mushrooming into the sky in the vague direction of Yokohama.
The girl nodded grimly. “You can never be too careful with All for One. Overkill is usually the best policy. If that doesn’t finish him off we’ll have to send in Midoriya.”
---
It’s not often the home phone in the Todoroki house rings, and the callers can usually be divided neatly up into three categories, people looking to reach either Endevor of Fuyumi for work reasons, telemarketers, and fans of Endevor who somehow got their hands on their phone number. So Fuyumi has no reason to expect anything different when the phone rings and she goes to answer it.
“Hello?”
“Hello.” The caller on the other end is a woman, though Fuyumi doesn’t recognize the voice. “Is this the Todoroki household?”
Probably not a fan then. Something for work? “Yes this is the Todoroki residence.”
“Am I speaking to Shoto’s mom?”
What? “Ah, no, I’m Shoto’s big sister.”
“Oh… can I speak to your mother then?”
The only people who would ask about their mother are people who already know she can’t be reached here. “She’s ummm, not living with us right now. She’s been er… sick for a while.”
“OH! I’m sorry! Can I speak to your father then?”
Does this woman not know who their father is? “He’s also not here. He ummm, had an accident and is in the hospital right now.” An accident that involved lots of ice, fire and falling down a flight of punches.
“Ahh… well… maybe you can still help me. Have you noticed your little brother undergo any kind of strange or sudden change in personality lately? Like within the last year or so?”
Well he suddenly snapped and sent our father to the hospital after giving him frostbite and breaking every bone in his body. But we all figured that was…
“What about new friends? Is he suddenly best friends with people who had been complete strangers a month ago?”
“Well… Shoto has never really had any friends…” Father wouldn’t let him. Except… there had been that Uraraka girl stopping by after Shoto put their father in the hospital. She had said she was an online friend of Shoto’s. Shoto had also mentioned he was meeting up with someone named Midoriya whom she had never heard before…
“Is he suddenly busy with some kind of project or plan and gets evasive when you ask him what he’s doing?”
“No. Well… except…”
It had been the middle of the night, she had woken up needing to use the bathroom. Shoto had been half out of the window, dressed all in black, a sword sheathed at his hip and a bandoleer of what looked like grenades strapped across his chest.
“There’s a raccoon in the garbage.” Had been his explanation.
“Look, you’re not the only one who's had something like this happen to someone they love. A group of us are going to be meeting this friday to talk about it. You’re welcome to join us.”
“Well…”
“We’ve rented a room at the Mustafu community center. Just ask for Midoriya's group. We’ll have cookies.”
---
“Right, so that’s Stain, Overhaul, that woman with the tentacles, Kill Smasher, those Neo Stain guys, that mailman with the razor-paper quirk, and of course the near-entirety of the League of Villains.” Izuku looked up from his notebook. “I think that’s everyone now.”
Preemptive total annihilation was not considered a practical crime prevention method. (Or even a sane one for that matter.) But if that’s what it took to have a normal school year, than that’s what they were going to do. Plus Kurogiri’s bar made a good place to meet up away from the prying eyes of parents, teachers, police officers, and intelligence agents who all asked stupid questions. Kurogiri for his part just gave them a key to the back door, let them use one of the upstairs rooms, and told them he didn’t want to know what they were up to, just don’t break anything.
“Right,” Izuku continued. “Now that they’re all taken care of we can move onto more important things. Any ideas on what we want to do for the cultural festival this loop?”
---
There really was cookies. Fuyumi nibbled on a gingersnap shaped like All Might, as she listened to Kirishima’s dad speak.
“And then one day he dyes his hair red, and before the dye has even dried there’s this kid I have never seen before in my life knocking on the door saying he’s Eijiro’s friend, and Eijiro is greets him like they’ve been buddies for years.”
“And after that,” Kirishima’s father added. “He starts coming home in the middle of the night smelling like smoke and suddenly knows how to pick locks.” He ran a hand through his black hair. “Its not manly to dump our problems onto strangers, but we have no idea what to do here.”
“Don’t worry. We’re all going through the same thing,” Midoriya’s mother said, patting Kirishima’s dad on the arm. “We’re all in this together.”
---
It’s not that Izuku dislikes Mei. She’s a very skilled support technician, and her devices are usually extremely useful. But she also a bit of a loose cannon with no regard for personal boundaries.
But she also doesn’t ask stupid questions. Like, ‘why do you need twenty sets of motorized climbing equipment and a microwave receiver?’
“Ummm… excuse me. You’re Hatsume Mei right?”
“Sorry,” Mei said, brushing past him. “I don’t have time to talk. I have work to do.”
“WAIT! We want to commission some things from you. Form T2 things!”
Mei froze in mid-step. There was this awed kind of manic gleam in her eyes as she turned towards Izuku.
“I always knew time travelers would come looking for my services! What do you need?”
—
“Those class 1-A bastards are up to something.”
It had only been a week, and already Class 1-B had collectively learned to tune out most of what Monoma said if it involved Class 1-A, the government, organized religion, and the overuse of turnips in the cafeteria lunch menu.
But he also kind of had a point this time.
Class 1-A was definitely up to something. They had all started wearing dark glasses and small ear-sets. They had also started started standing around either watching people, or pointing strange instruments with microphones at the windows of various classrooms.
“They’re watching us right now too,” Ibara added, gesturing to a table in the far corner of the cafeteria. Everyone turned to the direction she indicated.
Five sets of newspapers snapped up to cover faces. Which did nothing to encourage the kids of Class 1-B.
They could all see the eye holes cut into them after all.
—
“And then he starts showing me all these outfits for little girls, and asking what I thought of them.” Present Mic explained. “They were all hideous of course, but when I asked him why he needed to know, he said his niece was staying with him and she was going to need new clothes. He doesn’t even have siblings, let alone a niece! I mean, I don’t think it's anything nefarious, he’s done stuff like this before when he got jobs from Witness Protection. But, there’s so many other things going on. He’s seemingly ignoring his class, not that they need it, they’re acing all their other classes, and he’s doing his other classes like normal, but its very out of character for him. I mean, I can sort of see Eri taking up some of his time, he already doesn’t get enough sleep…”
“Wait,” Inko interrupted. “Is Eri about six years old, has stark white hair and a single bronze horn poking out of her forehead about here?” She gestured to the side of her head.
“Yeah, that’s exactly her,” Mic exclaimed. “You know her?”
“Well, not exactly,” Inko explained. “I got home early one day and Izuku was in the kitchen with this little girl showing her how to make candy apples. He said her name was Eri and he was doing a Big Brothers and Sisters program through the school.”
“We had something similar happen,” Jirou’s mom added. “Our daughter brought home this little girl one day and started teaching her how to play guitar. When we asked she said she was a little sister of one of her classmates. None of your have a little girl like that right?”
Everyone in the room shook their head.
---
It had been a normal for class 1-B. Then Jirou fell through the ceiling.
Vlad King had nearly attacked her until he realized who she was. He almost did, even then. Jirou wasn’t wearing her school uniform. Instead she had on a plain black suit, along with the dark glasses and ear-pieces Class 1-A had taken to wearing. She was also surrounded by bits of ceiling tile and, where those listening devices?
Jirou climbed to her feet, brushed pieces of ceiling tile off her clothes, then grabbed the listening device.
“Your pipes need fixing.”
Then she just left.
---
“We’re worried about Class 1-A.”
Nedzu looked up from his paperwork at the teachers assembled in front of his desk. “What brought this on?”
“They’re up to something. They’re not even trying to hide it. They’re even baiting everyone about it.” Vald King said. “Monoma is literally frothing at the mouth trying to figure out what it is.”
“Not to mention that I have a major suspicion none of them are doing any schoolwork. And Aizawa is letting them get away with it.” Midnight added.
“They’re passing the tests.” Nedzu pointed out. “And getting all their assignments done.”
“And they shouldn’t be.They’re treating every assignment they get like they already know the perfect solution ahead of time. I would suspect cheating except I cheating to this degree would involve far more resources and time than any group of persons in this entire school have.”
“Well time travelers like them have no shortage of time,” Nedzu mussed. “But I think this case is more a matter of continued repetition and practice rather than any attempt to subvert the system. Unavoidable really.”
He took in the teachers gobsmacked looks.
“Right. Keep forgetting that’s not obvious to most people.”
—
“So when Katsuki gets home he immediately heads to the fridge, and eats the last of the yogurt.” Bakugou Masaru explained. “Then Mitsuki comes in and they get into an argument about consideration for other people in the house, eating food before it goes bad, and putting labels on things. While they are arguing, Katsuki’s friends rush into the house, up the stairs, and begin hauling things out of Katsuki’s room. I counted at least three large crates, a potted plant, a steel table, and a large rolled up carpet. Not to mention several duffle bags they kept bringing back in and reloading. They just finish hauling the last item out when Katsuki yells ‘FINE I WON’T TOUCH THE FUCKING YOGURT!’ and storms out of the door after them.”
“That little shit,” Mitsuki muttered.
---
It had been a whim. Gentle would admit that. Breaking into a highschool cultural festival was hardly the sort of feat that would burn his name into the annals of history. But a part of him had always wanted to see the inside of the UA campus for himself. Plus their media ratings had been on a downward trend lately. They could do another video of them robbing a convenience store, or they could mix it up a little.
La Brava had hacked into UA’s network and made them both fake guest passes. Those had gotten them through the gate. Once that was done, everyone apparently assumed that if they were there, then they must have clearance. Gentle suspected that as long as he didn’t draw too much attention to himself, like say, by going up to one of the many famous heroes around and asking for an interview, they would probably leave him alone.
Besides, this was actually turning out to be kind of fun.
“I can’t believe they don’t have candy apples here.” La Brava complained, panning the camera around to show more of the festival.
“Most disgraceful,” Gentle agreed. “What should we attend to next?”
“Well, Class 1-A has got a booth nearby,” La Brava replied, pointing to a small map tacked to a post. “Apparently it’s some kind of fortune… telling… booth.”
The trio of black vans parked in the spot did not look like a fortune-teller booth. They looked like a shady government stakeout. An image not helped by the array of antennas and radio dishes bolted to the roof of one of them, or the students standing around in black suits and sunglasses casting suspicious looks at everyone. Blocky white letters on the side of one van just said “Fortunes.”
“It’s spy themed apparently.” Gentle remarked.
---
“So you 1-A Bastards think your so great just because you fit fluorescent lights and a two-way mirror into a van?” Monoma sneered.
On the other side of the steel table, Ashido remained silent. She just held out her hand and accepted the folder Iida handed to her.
“You think your so high and mighty with your listening devices and secret code words. But we’re on to you! You won’t get the better of us.”
“Did you say that when you wet the bed during that overnight class-trip when you were seven?”
Monoma’s mouth snapped shut.
“What about when you put that baseball through Old Lady Tokomori’s window? You never did tell your parents about that did you?”
“How did you know…?”
Mina smiled. “We know everything about you Neito Monoma.”
---
Izuku had to give Yaoyorozu credit, she had done an excellent job on Eri’s little suit and dark glasses. Eri wasn’t in on the joke of course, but she had been happy enough to copy what her adopted older siblings were doing, and more importantly she was having fun.
At the moment they were sitting at a picnic table and Eri was nibbling on the candy apple he had brought for her. The booth was turning out to be surprisingly popular, and there was even a line. Actually, now that he looked, that line hadn’t moved in fifteen minutes.
What was Mina doing in there?
---
“We knew what you were doing from the moment you started doing it.” Mina said. “The only difference is whether or not you’ll confess or not. Believe me, you will regret it if you make things difficult for us.”
“I confess!” Monoma shrieked, huddling in his uncomfortable steel chair. He had absolutely no idea what he was confessing to.
Neither did Mina.
---
“Well, the festival was apparently a success,” Sero said as they all sat down at the lunch table. “At least two-thirds of the school is now jittery in our presence, and at least half are convinced we actually do work for a secret world conspiracy.”
Now that the festival was over, they had ditched the dark glasses and the whole charade of pretending they hadn’t already gathered all the information they needed two whole loops ago. It was back to being normal students for them.
For some reason that just made people even more uneasy.
“So what do you guys have planned for the rest of the school year. I was just planning of laying back and relaxing for…”
A great primeval roar suddenly erupted from the direction of the ocean with enough force to make the entire building shake.
“Fucking Mother of Monsters,” Bakugou growled.
“I knew we forgot someone,” Izuku groaned.
---
“Hi Mom!” Izuku burst into the house and raced up the stairs to him room, not even bothering to wait for his mom’s reply.
Mother of Monsters, of all the villain groups they had forgotten to wipe up before the school year started, it had to be the nutbar terrorists who were trying to distinguish themselves by raising gigantic sea-life with powerful and unusual quirks. In their defence they had only really had to deal with Mother of Monsters twice before. Usually the group was stomped down by larger and more powerful groups like the Eight Precepts or the League of Villains. Or was busted by the cops in the wake of the increased security put in place by escalating villain attacks.
Regardless, they were still a dangerous group to deal with, especially when they got the chance to raise one of their monsters to full adulthood. No taking chances.
Izuku stuffed two bandoliers of syringe darts into his bag, along with an extra large bottle of monsters tranqs. That was immediately followed by the first aid kit, the emergency surgery kit, and the ‘we’ll sew you back together later’ kit. There was also the rocket-propelled grenades, the bundle of flower crowns, and the cage full of mice.
He also grabbed The Leveler from its spot on his dresser and flicked it on. Red warning lights lit up along its length, the clear tube in the middle started to glow green, and it let out an ominous humming sound. Hopefully they wouldn’t have to demonstrate to Mei that it was aptly named.
He raced back down the stairs. His mom was sitting in the living room with Kacchan’s parents, as well as Kirishima’s dads, Mina’s mom, Kouta’s ma and pop, and… the parents or guardians of everyone in his class. Even Present Mic was seating in one of the living room’s more comfortable chairs.
“What’s going on?”
“Oh the community center is closed for renovations,” his mom explained. “So we’re having our parent support group here instead.”
Parent support group?
He was just about to ask with another primeval roar reverberated across the city.
“Sorry mom, have to run. School business! Bye!”
He could ask after they’d dealt with the attack of the twenty meter sea-cucumber.