73

Izuku and Mei had run until they had found someplace relatively safe to set up camp. Well, maybe the lobby of an abandoned apartment building wasn't necessarily safe, but it was far enough away from the mall that Shigaraki's decay wouldn't be able to reach them and a random enough location that Kurogiri would have a hard time finding them. At least, that's what Izuku was counting on. 

Izuku's laptop was still connected to the security feed from the mall and the first thing he saw when he opened up the screen again was a portal opening above the fountain. He gulped and looked at Mei, "We were right."

Mei nodded grimly, "They can't seal off the exits, right?"

"Not while the fire alarms are going off." Izuku cracked his neck and scooted closer to the screen. "At least not easily, but if they try, I'll know. How's 1A doing?"

Mei grabbed for Izuku's phone and opened the group chat, "About half of the class has responded since Exta-Credit-Kun added Cheat Code, and Aoyama says that the lizard guy who just came through the portal is named Spinner."

"Most likely the new hero killer, judging by the katana." Izuku said absently. "Wait...isn't that where Hitoshi was?! I, uh, I think we might need to call Nedzu again..."

Hitoshi stared at the lizard guy, Spinner, as he screamed out his challenge. He...he didn't have permission to brainwash him. He only had permission to help civilians right now, not fight the villains. He was also pretty sure that Todoroki had been upstairs with Shigaraki when the portal had appeared, which was pretty much all the proof they needed that it was him who had given the league their location and created the opening for this attack. He couldn't afford to worry about that right now though. Todoroki still believed his cover was secure which meant that he wouldn't risk attacking them directly. That meant that the biggest threats were from Kurogiri, shigaraki , Spinner, and another villain named Trapper that his adults hd mentioned was working witht eh league as well. And of those, only one was currently brandishing a sword at him. 

Spinner glared at him as he hopped down off the fountain, sword in hand, "You're one of those UA brats, aren't you? I recognize you from the sports festival. Are you a true hero or just another one of those fakes?"

Hitoshi swallowed, but didn't move. The heroes were already on their way before the portal even appeared, which meant that they had somewhere between five to ten minutes before anyone showed up to help them, less if they were lucky. That should be well within the window of time where Hitoshi could activate his quirk without taking full control of his target. 

With half a plan in mind, Hitoshi stepped forward, smirking sharply has he spread his arms wide, "I dunno. Maybe I'm a fake or maybe I'm just that awesome. How would you know either way?"

Spinner's hand tightened on his sword, "I will cull the fakes. If you survive, then perhaps you deserve the title of a true hero."

Hitoshi's smirk widened. Bingo.

Ochako had developed a new appreciation for how hard izuku worked. Kurogiri had appeared in the plaza less than a minute after she'd finished telling 1A about Shigaraki and she'd had the brilliant idea to follow him before she realized just how hard it was to track a teleporter. Unlike Mei and Izuku, She didn't have any fancy tech to help her out and even though she'd come close several times at the USJ, she'd never actually touched him, which meant that she couldn't anchor to him directly. Instead, she was having to rely on just tracking him visually, which so far basically came out to a large scale game of wack-a-mole. Every time she saw a wisp of purple smoke, she had to find her nearest classte, anchor to them, and just guestimate to try and get close to him. She'd kept him too busy to be able to warp any other villains in through, so that was something at least. 

She hadn't managed to get close until Kurogiri did a shorter jump than usual and he had accidentally gotten close enough to Sero that Ochako didn't even have to think about it before she was right next to him and reaching out for his neck armor, only for her fingers to close around thin air as he disappeared again. 

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that." Kurogiri said smoothly, appearing just behind her. "Your quirk allows you to teleport to anyone you touch, correct? I'm sure you can understand why that might be inconvenient for someone in my position."

Ochako growled and lunged for him, but again was left only with a fistful of purple smoke, "Well that's frustrating...how did he even know?"

Izuku facepalmed as he watched Hitoshi walk towards the villain with the massive sword, "Why did we pick that one?"

"Because he's going to be an amazing hero if he lives." Mei groaned. "What in the world is he thinking?!"

"Most likely that he can establish a connection with his quirk and activate it as soon as the heroes give him permission." Izuku sighed. "And it looks like Ochako is chasing Kurogiri. They're both gonna get in trouble if the heroes don't' get there soon."

"Or if they don't get permission to fight." Mei already had her phone in her hand. "We were gonna call Nedzu again anyway."

She put the phone on speaker and let it ring until Nedzu answered, which didn't take very long at all, "Hello children! How goes the evacuation?"

"It looks like about half the civilians are out of the mall." Izuku reported. "But they're going faster now that the rest of the league has shown up."

"Oh no." Nedzu hummed. "That's not good. We already have several heroes on their way. Hawks is approximately three minutes away. He wasn't in the area, but his faster speed means he'll make it there faster than some of the heroes that were supposed to be closer. Can the hero students hold out until then?"

"Not without permission to defend themselves." Mei snapped. "That crazy sword guy's got his eye on extra-credit-kun and Gravity Girl is the only one who's gonna be able to keep up with Kurogiri and…"

"You understand why I can't give children full permission to use their quirks, Miss Hatsume." Nedzu said firmly. "If one of you gets hurt, or worse, hurts someone else, then that could be disastrous not only for the students involved, but for UA as a whole."

Mei looked livid, "But…!'

"That is not to say that I am willing to leave our students completely helpless." Nedzu cut in quickly. "However, the permission will need to be conditional. I can authorize them to defend themselves against direct attacks, but they cannot initiate, will that do?"

"It'll have to." Izuku snatched up his phone from the floor and sent a message to the group chat. "Done. Now we just hope they don't need to use it."

Hitoshi stared Spinner down and tried to think of his next move. He wasn't allowed to activate his quirk yet, which meant that he had to actually survive long enough for the heroes to show up and give him permission to brainwash this idiot. That was going to be easier said than done, considering that his opponent had a sword and he had to rely on a sharp tongue and roguish good looks.

Also, Spinner had just threatened to kill him, obviously, just to keep it interesting. This day just kept getting better and better, didn't it?

So, how was he going to get out of this without becoming a shishkabob? This guy was obviously obsessed with worthiness, so he might have some underlying ideology that hitoshi could take advantage of to keep him talking instead of fighting. He also needed to make sure that he did at least one weird thing to throw his opponent off and keep him from connecting the brainwashing to answering a question because he did not need the league of villains figuring out his quirk's activation requirements. Ok. Easy as pie...hopefully. 

Hitoshi kept smirking at Spinner as he shrugged, "I mean, there's gotta be a more effective way of seeing if I'm a hero than stabbing me and seeing if I die. Like, what's a true hero even like? Maybe we can come up with a better test?"

"All Might was the only true hero." Spinner narrowed his eyes. "Are you saying we just come up with a test to see if you're as worthy as the symbol of peace?"

HItoshi whistled lowly, "Whoah, that's a tall order. I can't say I'm exactly on All Might's level, but hey, we're bound to share some similarities, right? You're the one holding the sword, so I guess it's up to you to decide if I get close enough."

He let out a breath of relief when Spinner gave a short nod. Ochako would probably be better at this than he was, considering that she was literally All Might's successor, but she was busy right now, so Hitoshi was just gonna have to do it. Now he'd managed to turn the fight into a friendly chat, or about as friendly as it was going to get, so the next step was just to be as confusing as possible. He nodded in satisfaction and walked toward the fountain. He hung around his kidnappers for fun, he could manage a little chaos. 

Spinner pulled his sword, "What are you doing?"

"Well, I figured if we're going to have a serious discussion, we should probably sit down." Hitoshi shrugged and put one foot into the water, "This seems like as good a place as any."

Spinner blinked, his sword wavering as he watched Hitoshi pull his phone and wallet out of his pockets and put them on the side of the fountain, "...in the fountain?"

Hitoshi hummed an affirmation as he sat down, suppressing a shiver from the cold water as he looked up as Spinner, "Why not? All the cool kids are doing it! It helps get the brain juices flowing."

Spinner hesitated for a moment longer, unsure if he was supposed to go along with it or just walk away before slowly sheathing his sword and joining Hitoshi in the fountain, "Very well. Tell me, young hero, how are you like All Might?"

"Well, let's start with the fact that I want to save people." Hitoshi leaned back, the water splashing slightly as he put his hands down to support himself. "What other qualities am I supposed to have? Let's see if I match up."