章 2038: 57
Izuku watched the footage from the dodgeball match for the third time. Uraraka was progressing rapidly, which was impressive, but he still couldn't shake the nagging feeling that there was something off about the entire situation. People's quirks didn't just become ten times more powerful overnight! Quirk development and even quirk mutations were either gradual or in response to trauma and neither case was present here. And then there was what Uraraka had said about giving it back if he hadn't helped her. There was something weird going on and Izuku wasn't sure how he was supposed to give an accurate analysis off of an incomplete, or worse falsified, data set.
Hitoshi didn't knock when he came into Izuku's workroom and Izuku didn't turn to acknowledge him, but he did nod, "Hey Hitoshi, make yourself at home."
"Already done." Hitoshi sat backwards on an extra chair so that his arms were resting on the back and spun around. "Oh, are you watching the dodgeball thing? Ocha did pretty well, don't you think?"
Izuku groaned, "Exactly! She's doing great and I still don't know why! Why did her quirk get so powerful? Why did she have no control over it? It just doesn't make sense!"
HItoshi hummed thoughtfully, "I don't know. Aizawa was asking about her the other night and even referred to it as her new quirk, cause it's just so different from her standard gravity manipulation."
Izuku's brain rebooted, "Say that again."
Hitoshi frowned, "Teleportation is different than gravity manipulation? I thought that was obvious."
"No, before that." Izuku grabbed a notebook and almost broke his pencil from how quickly he grabbed it. "You called it her new quirk."
"Well, Aizawa did." Hitoshi shrugged. "But yeah. So what?"
Izuku grinned, "So what are the problems? All of a sudden, Uraraka can teleport, when she couldn't before. A new quirk would 100% explain that. She had zero control, but has developed it extremely quickly, just like a four year old getting used to their new quirk. And people don't just develop new quirks, which means someone gave it to her, which explains why she would be able to return it. No wonder she's been super vague about it! Obviously something like this is probably a huge secret!"
Hitoshi sat back in shock, "Izuku, this...this isn't...is something like this even possible?"
Izuku's phone buzzed and he checked to see a new message from Nedzu, "I think we're about to find out."
Mineta was tired of diner french fries, but small towns didn't have much to offer in the way of stake out food. All for one had assigned him to look into a few Stain fanboys and determine if any were worth recruiting. He wasn't quite sure what exactly All for One had in mind for the new recruit, and really wasn't sure why he was sending Stain's killer on this mission, especially because Mineta still had homework to do in the afternoons, but it seemed like Sensei had conveniently forgotten about that fact. Seriously, with all he did for the league, he should be the favorite, not the deadbeat gamer with a dandruff problem.
He stuffed another fry in his face and kept an eye on the street his target should be passing though, if Mineta had guessed his route correctly. Most of the others had been a bust. They were either too weak, too wishy-washy in their ideals, or just plain not cut off from society enough to be convinced to leave it all behind and join the league. Mineta wasn't betting any money on this guy being any different. He consistently liked posts about Stain or ones in line with those ideals, but hadn't made any of his own, and he was the classic definition of failure to launch, staying in the same small town after high school despite the almost nonexistent career opportunities here. Mineta might as well just save himself some time, cross Shuichi Iguchi off his list, and go home.
But he'd promised All for One he'd do the stupid mission, so he waited and finally, finally, the guy started walking along the street below him. The street wasn't busy, but there were definatly people around, and their reactions to this Iguchi guy were almost more promising than the guy himself. People stared at him while he passed and Mineta was 100% sure that some of them were whispering slurs as soon as they thought the lizard was out of earshot. A few even passed to the other side of the street to avoid him. It was a classic case of mutant-quirk discrimination, made even worse by the fact that, just like there was only one stop light, there was probably only one mutant in town, so all that prejudice and hatred from all those people got concentrated and projected onto him.
Mineta smiled and started bouncing along the rooftops, keeping in the shadows as he followed behind his target, always keeping him in sight. A guy with strong ideals in line with what Stain had believed and ready, oh so ready, to leave it all behind and screw all the people that had ever shunned him. Iguchi was exactly what All for One was looking for.
He slipped into the window of Iguchi's apartment while the guy himself took the stairs even though Mineta knew full well that he could climb walls. They'd have to get him into the habit of using his quirk more casually then, but that was a problem for later. For now, Mineta just stuck a few balls in the corner of the room and hung out as the lock clicked and Iguchi waked in, "You know, speaking from experience, it would be faster to just climb the wall and come in through the window."
Iguchi squeaked and Mineta almost thought he was going to do that thing where a lizard loses its tail when in a fight or flight situation, but all Iguchi's limbs stayed attached. For now. Iguchi lowered himself into a sloppy fighting stance and stared up at Mineta in a mix of fear and curiosity, "Who are you?! Why are you in my apartment?!"
"You can call me Trapper." Mineta smiled and dropped onto the floor into a couch before standing. "And I'm here to change your life."
Shouto was still figuring this whole homeless thing out. Maybe living on the streets was a better term, because he's already adopted murder alley as his second home long before his father kicked him out permanently. Luckily, he didn't have to worry about things like showers or food because UA had a gym and a lunch room, so he got a shower every morning and at least one meal a day, which wasn't that much less than Endeavor had been giving him anyway, so it wasn't too bad. The weirdest part of living on the streets, however, was definitely Shigaraki.
He was actually fairly normal, when he wasn't killing people, and was apparently a pretty big gamer. He'd brought his laptop and was trying to introduce Shouto to a video game, but Shouto couldn't even figure out how to pause the game, much less what he was supposed to do.
Shigaraki groaned for the fifth time, "Seriously?! It's just point and shoot! How do you mess that up?!"
"Very carefully." Shouto deadpanned.
The computer pinged a few times and a few notifications came up on the screen.
Nice burn
Dusty, you got a new streaming buddy?! poggers
New guy = comedic relief
Shouto frowned, "Um...is that part of the game?"
"What did you do?!" Shigaraki scratched at his neck. "What button did you press?!"
"I don't know!" Shouto panicked. "I...I was just pressing anything! I don't know what I'm doing, you know that!"
Shigaraki stared at him in disbelief, "I can't believe you're so bad at this that you accidentally started streaming!"
The computer pinged again with notifications.
Don't blame him for you being a bad teacher!
Keep the new guy!
An accident?! How?!
"You...you're a streamer?" Shouto blinked. "How do you even have time for that between attacking…"
Shigaraki slammed a hand over his mouth, thankfully with only four fingers, and pressed a button that made a large mute notification flash across the screen, "Ok, first rule: don't ever give out personal information online. This includes you being a hero brat or me being a villain. Got it?"
Shouto nodded nervously and Shigaraki took his hand off his mouth, "And yeah, I'm a streamer. It's...just something I do for me. Sometimes it helps to rage, ok? I'm not popular or anything, but since you're here and people are already watching, we may as well turn this into public humiliation."
"Hey!" Shouto said indignantly. "I'm not...ok, well, maybe I am that bad, but hey!"
"Next rule goes along with number one." Shigaraki didn't even bother to respond to his protests, but he was a villain, so Shouto didn't really expect him to. "Don't use your real name. My tag is Dusty, so use it. What's yours?"
"Uh…" Shouto shrugged. "Shouto?"
The look Shigaraki gave him very clearly stated that that was unacceptable, so Shouto started looking around. His eyes fell on Epurr, who was curled against his left side, which was heated just enough so that she didn't crawl across the keyboard. Again. She was the inspiration for stealing his life and his quirk back from his father, so maybe…
"Icy Cat." Shouto blurted out. "You can call me Icy Cat."
Shigaraki snorted, but unmuted the mic, "Sorry about that, my local idiot somehow managed to mute us both. But yeah, I found a new streaming buddy for everyone to laugh at, so if you don't make him cry, I'll be pissed. Icy Cat here grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth and has never played before, so give him hell, yeah? Ok, now unpause the game and let's get playing again. We've wasted too much time on this side quest already."
Shouto froze, "Uh...how do I do that again?"
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