Chương 2061: 80
Shigaraki didn't waste any time getting to the point, "I want house arrest and witness protection."
The cat on his shoulder meowed in agreement, following that up with a threatening hiss in Nedzu's direction.
"Witness protection we can guarantee." Nedzu said calmly. "House arrest depends on your information. You've killed a lot of people."
Shigaraki groaned, "I know that! And for the record, I know it might not be possible, but All for One picked me up when I was five years old and wandering the streets. Is it too much to ask for a second chance at a normal life?"
"His Sensei raised him to be a killer." Shouto cut in. "He was groomed to be the next incarnation of the man who took him in, so it wasn't something he chose."
"Which is something we'll keep in mind when considering his sentence." Tsukauchi said. "But that depends on what information he can give us."
"How about the identity of your mole, Trapper?" Shigaraki offered. "I bet you never thought to look past MInrou Mineta's little act to see what he was really hiding. I can tell you pretty much everything he's passed along so far. Is that good enough?"
Nedzu and Tsukauchi exchanged a glance, "It's a start."
"Has anyone seen Mineta?" Mandalay asked, passing out the students phones as a precaution so that they could contact the teachers in case anything happened during the exercise. "I keep reaching out to tell him it's time to begin, but I can't find him anywhere!"
"Let's just start without him." Tiger said sternly. "There's no reason for the rest of the students to miss out just because he wasn't responsible enough to show up on time."
Mandalay sighed, "I guess you're right. Alright kids, listen up! You're going to take turns scaring and being tested."
"Class 1B will be the scareers this first round and Class 1A will have to endure!" Pixiebob took over. "Class 1A, you'll be split into groups of two! Your goal is to get a piece of paper from Ragdoll at the other end of the school and bring it back here. Class 1B, you may divide however you like, but your goal is to scare your classmates out of their pants!"
"That's it?" Monoma laughed, "Oh, this will be a piece of cake!"
"I dunno." Tiger said vaguely. "They might just surprise you. Also, we convinced the support course to help out and they'll be working to scare both groups too, so there might be a few more surprises waiting for you!"
Bakugo grumbled, "I swear to god, if it's glitter again…"
"Alright!" Pixiebob interrupted. "Scarers, get out of here. The rest of you, let's draw lots to find out your pairs!"
Izuku and Mei had set up camp in Izuku's workroom, his big computer already linked to the camera feeds so they could see all the students. The little spider trackers that Mei had made were hanging out in little groups throughout the school, but most of them were hanging around the beginning, ready to latch onto the students without them even knowing, their camera feeds taking up the third screen. Izuku and Melissa had both told her that adding cameras to the spider bots was redundant, but she'd thrown them in anyway, so they might as well have the feed pulled up, even if they weren't going to use it.
The Pussycats were still giving instructions, so they were just stuck in that awkward waiting phase between action and anxiety that Izuku hated. It didn't help that he was kind of freaking out about other things too. Hitoshi and Ochako seemed closer somehow than they did before, and he'd overheard one of the other hero students say that Hitoshi had asked her out. Did that mean they were dating now, just like everyone thought Izuku and Mei were dating?
What did it really mean to date anyway? It was supposed to happen when someone liked someone else, right? Or at least liked them more than other people. Maybe that wasn't quite right? Izuku's mouth fell open in a quiet oh. Maybe it wasn't that he was supposed to like Mei more, but that he liked her differently than everyone else. And that was true. Izuku liked Hitoshi and Ochako, obviously, but they didn't hold the same place as Mei. She was his partner in crime and he didn't think anyone could ever even come close to replacing her as that. Was that what liking somebody meant?
"Ok, I can see you overthinking from here." Mei poked him in the side. "What's on your mind, Izu-kun."
Izuku hemmed and hawed for a moment, "I, uh, think I might like you."
Mei rolled her eyes, "I like you too, Izu-kun. You wouldn't be my best friend if I didn't…"
"That's not what I meant." Izuku mumbled. "I meant I think I might like you romantically."
Mei's eyes widened, "I don't think I heard that right, Izu-kun, could you speak up?"
"Romantically." Izuku blurted, blushing now. "I think I might like you romantically. I mean, maybe? I know you're really important to me and I can't imagine my life without you, but like, it's more than that, you know? It's that I want you by my side as my partner for the rest of...well, I mean we're still young, so things might change, but at least for now and…"
The crosshairs in Mei's eyes narrowed as she zoomed in on his face, "Really? You...you're not lying?"
Izuku shook his head, "I know neither of us are really used to people actually liking us, especially not in that way, but...I dunno, people already think we're dating and I guess...well, I'm not opposed to that maybe being the truth?"
Mei grinned and grabbed his hand, "It would definitely be a lot more fun!"
Izuku chuckled awkwardly and squeezed her hand, "So does this mean you're my girlfriend now?"
"Mhhm!" Mei nodded. "And you're my boyfriend, because I feel the same way. I never want to lose you. Ever. You're stuck with me and my babies forever. Got it?"
Izuku smiled widely, "That sounds absolutely perfect."
"Good." Mei nodded in satisfaction before turning to the screens, "Oooh! They're starting!"
Ochako watched Kouta out of the corner of her eye as he glared at her classmates. He really seemed to hate heroes and she wasn't quite sure why, but from the way he'd reacted when Hitoshi had brainwashed the pussycats, it probably had something to do with heroes putting themselves in danger all the time and that just made her feel worse about the whole thing. Maybe she could find some way to make it up to him, but at the same time, he'd probably prefer it if she never talked to him again, so she just didn't know what to do. This was one of those things where she couldn't just ask Izuku and Mei for advice because both of them were even more useless in social situations than she and Hitoshi were and Mina tended to be a little bit too pushy, which definitely wouldn't go over well.
"He'll be fine, don't worry." Mandalay said softly. "He...well, his parents were heroes and he blames them for leaving him behind. Seeing us in danger just brought back bad memories is all, but he's a strong boy and we're here to help him. Assuming he accepts our help."
"I'm sorry." Ochako muttered.
Mandalay gave her a sad smile, "You didn't know. He'll understand one day. It's just hard for a little boy when everyone seems to celebrate his parents death, just because they died as heroes."
She patted Ochako's shoulder and sighed, "Well, it's time for you and Asui to get going! Don't let that other class scare you too badly, alright?"
Ochako smiled and popped her knuckles, "Oh don't worry. I think I've got it covered."
Mineta weaved his way through the tunnels and made his way up from the basement. While the rest of his class was busy doing that stupid test of courage, he was busy visiting every single backup generator and busting it by pouring sugar inside that he'd stolen from teh kitchens. Now, when he cut the power, the generators would fail just as quickly and the doors would be wide open for the league. Now, he could find all the power switches, but that would take time that he didn't have if Shigaraki was already spilling his guts.
Finding Kaminari was so much simpler.
He kept to the tunnels until he saw a shock of yellow and black hair through the vents, then went a little farther and popped out into the hall. He made sure the door was closed before running to catch up, "Hey! Kaminari! Wait up!"
"Mineta!" Kaminari grinned. "You made it!"
"Yeah!" Mineta lied. "The pussycats told me to just run ahead and join your group."
"Well then, be looking out for 1B." Kirishima said. "They're supposed to pop out and scare us at any second."
"Well then maybe we should scare them first." Mineta turned to Kaminari. "Why don't you show them what you can really do?"
Kaminari frowned, "What are you talking about?"
"Blow out the power." Mineta shrugged. "It'll be dark so we can scare all of them and it'll set the mood. Plus, Kirishima's strong enought o take care of you and you're oging to be impossible to scare if you're dumb."
"I don't know whether to be offended or impressed, dude." Kaminari whistled. "That's really smart."
Mineta seethed internally, "Thanks man."
"But um, won't we get in trouble?" Kirishima asked. "I mean, blowing out the power is kinda a big deal."
"Nah, there's backup generators and they can always just reset the system." Kaminari insisted, walking toward the nearest plug. "This is gonna be eipic."
He took out a paper clip and jammed it in the socket, sparking as he maxxed out his power output. The lights flickered once and then went out.
"Um...it's really dark." Kirishima fretted. "Aren't the emergency generators supposed to kick on or something."
Mineta didn't answer. He just chuckled silently to himself as he used the sudden darkness to steal Kaminari's phone and slip away.
Hitoshi wasn't sure that having all the lights go out at once had been the original plan, but he thought it was a nice touch. It definitely made the place more spooky, but he was pretty sure that at least some of the lights were supposed to stay on in case of an emergency. He'd been partnered with Ojiro, who looked like he had a very fight response when it came to fight or flight, so they would probably be alright. Class 1B sounded like they had some creepy quirks from what he'd heard from Izuku's ramblings when he was working on their analysis packets. But Izuku's analysis could make anyone's quirk sound terrifying, so yeah, hopefully the students they ran into were still working on implementing Izuku's advice and hadn't quite leveled their quiks up to eldritch horrors quite yet.
"Ugh." Ojiro groaned behind him and HItoshi turned around. "My tail's caught on one of Mineta's gross little balls. Pretty sure he lost his head the second things got scary and just tossed his balls everywhere in a panic."
"Yeah." Hitoshi laughed, then froze. "Wait a minute. Mineta wasn't a part of the exercise."
Ojiro stopped pulling, "What?"
"Mineta wasn't part of the exercise." Hitoshi repeated. "He didn't show up, remember? So he shouldn't be here. "
Ojiro frowned, "What are you…"
Hitoshi saw something moving through the shadows and lunged to tackle Ojiro out of the way, but before he could a storm of purple balls flew out from the shadows. He managed to dodge most of them, but he took a step back and stepped on one, anchoring his foot to the floor. Hitoshi immediately took off his shoe, but that meant he wasn't looking when the next volley of balls came and stuck themselves all over his clothes. He tried tearing off his shirt, but the balls stuck to each other and to his hands, so all he managed was to get himself even more trapped. A shape dashed out of the shadows and Mineta punched him in the back of the knees, forcing him down to the floor and sticking him even more completely.
Hitoshi stared at Mineta in shock, "Since when are you actually good at fighting?!"
"Since I got here." Mineta snapped. "But you, like everyone else my whole life, were too busy underestimating me to even notice, just like you never noticed I was working for the villains." He turned his attention to Ojiro. "And yet, everyone loves you tail boy. But what about without it, huh? How will you fight now."
Ojiro tensed and raised his arms, "I've still got four limbs, you traitor. What did you do?"
"I cut the power." Mineta said. "And poured sugar in the emergency generators. This whole place's security system is run on electricity. Without it, the villains can just walk right in! And honestly, I don't even have to fight you, you idiot, I've got what I came for."
Ojiro's eyes narrowed, "And what is that?"
Mineta pulled a spray bottle out of his bag and got to work spraying the balls attaching Hitoshi to the floor, "Bait."
As he sprayed them, the balls turned green and took on a mossy appearance and something clicked in HItoshi's brain, "You're trapper! Iz...Cheat Code was right! Todoroki wasn't the traitor!"
"Why the fuck would Todoroki be the traitor?" Mineta scoffed. "He doesn't have the range. Do you know how hard it was to keep everyone from seeing my true colors? Pretending I was more interested in the girls than the info I was getting everyday? Todoroki could never."
Hitoshi flailed as Mineta tried to pick him up, but he felt the pinch of a needle at his neck and a cold numbness started radiating out from the point, "What….what did you…?"
"Muscle relaxant." Mineta bragged. "Only works for a few minutes, but that's more than enough to get the great Cheat Code to come save you. Now come on. We've got a trap to set."
Hitoshi fell asleep listening to Ojiro call out for help.
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