Three

The night went exactly as Shouta thought it would.

He looked over his information, emailed Hizashi back, talked to Hizashi on the phone, made dinner, and fed the cats. He was busy, finally, and Shouta was more than a little relieved at that, given how bored he'd been since finishing the rest of his work. At least tracking down this villain gave him something to do, and on top of that, he'd discovered something new, had made a new acquaintance

He glanced over his photos and the notes he'd made about the location that Bloodwing mainly operated in and as the hours went on, he found himself wondering which building Hitoshi lived in. He'd mentioned that the latest attack had been near him and from his short interactions with him, the kid didn't necessarily seem to have the best home life. Shouta busied himself with everything else, though, but at around two in the morning, his curiosity finally got the best of him and just like the previous night, he found that Hitoshi was alone in the chatroom.

Shouta had no logical reason to make more contact with him right now, but he did, anyways. Not because he wanted more information but just because… he wanted to talk to the kid.

AizawaShouta: Isn't it sort of late for you?

His response was almost immediate, as if Hitoshi had been waiting for someone to talk to.

MindJack: Not really. I'm up late a lot.

MindJack: I don't sleep too well.

AizawaShouta: Neither do I.

With a pause, his fingers hovering over the keyboard, Shouta decided to share more about himself, though he carefully picked out things that wouldn't give him away.

AizawaShouta: My partner is out of town right now, so it's been difficult to sleep.

AizawaShouta: Chatting passes the time.

MindJack: Woah, are you married or something?

AizawaShouta: Yes.

MindJack: Are they cool?

AizawaShouta: I think he is.

MindJack: You really are old.

AizawaShouta: I'm not even old enough to be your father.

MindJack: You are if you had a kid in highschool!

MindJack: I'm just kidding around. You're not that old. My foster parents are way older than you. They're ancient.

MindJack: They're like… 70 or something.

Shouta stared at his screen, his eyes a little wide. From his few interactions with him, Hitoshi seemed like the kind of kid who liked to joke around and seemed to use a lot of sarcasm, but Shouta really couldn't tell if he was kidding or exaggerating or if he was serious. So far, it'd usually been pretty easy to discern the difference, but not this time.

Shouta was more than a little shocked at that. Foster parents in their seventies… Shouta had heard of older couples fostering, but from what Hitoshi had said before, it really seemed like Hitoshi's household was crowded and not the best environment.

AizawaShouta: Are you joking?

MindJack: No. They really are super old. I think they're both in their 70s or close to it.

AizawaShouta: How many kids do they take care of? Is that normal?

MindJack: Hm, counting me, there's… five of us, but one of the littler kids is about to go back with her birth parents.

MindJack: And no. You don't really know a lot about foster care, do you? That's ok.

MindJack: There's just not really a normal for anything in foster care.

AizawaShouta: That doesn't really sound safe.

MindJack: Eh, the system really doesn't care.

MindJack: I'm hard to place because of my quirk. I get tossed around a lot. They usually just put me with whoever's willing to take me. It's whatever. I age out in four years anyways.

MindJack: Hey, guess what?

AizawaShouta: What's that?

MindJack: I put in my application to UA today.

Shouta paused, but his mood lifted a little and he found himself smiling a bit again. Even if this kid didn't know who he was, he'd still done something to help him as a civilian rather than a hero.

Shouta didn't think that anyone could be a hero, but the ability to be a hero didn't rely on the type of quirk. It relied on heart and work ethic, the want and ability to improve and push themself. If they didn't have a good heart and had no work ethic, then there was no way they could be a hero. But this kid… if he put in the work, there was no reason he couldn't be one. His quirk didn't matter—as long as he was willing to push himself and find ways to make it useful, he could be as great of a hero as anyone.

AizawaShouta: Good.

AizawaShouta: If your grades are good, they should call you in for the exam.

MindJack: Shouldn't be a problem. I'm at the top of my class in middle school.

AizawaShouta: You should be fine, then. Make sure to study.

AizawaShouta: My husband works at UA.

Mindjack: Really??? What does he teach???

Oh no. No, Shouta was absolutely not going to give himself up just because he'd slipped up in trying to reassure and encourage a kid. He had to lie and keep it believable.

AizawaShouta: He's a janitor.

Hizashi would never let him live this down if he ever found out. That much, Shouta was completely sure of.

MindJack: Are you serious.

AizawaShouta: It's a respectable position.

MindJack: Are you also a janitor?

AizawaShouta: No, I'm a teacher.

MindJack: At UA???

AizawaShouta: NO.

AizawaShouta: Regular highschool.

AizawaShouta: I teach math.

Also a lie. Shouta was good at the subject, but he mainly taught hero law and ethics. Math was all Ectoplasm. But Shouta couldn't say what he actually taught without telling this kid that he taught at a hero school, which would make him suspicious. If he was a regular teacher at a regular school, though, that's what he'd decided he would teach. Math sounded logical enough.

MindJack: I'm not the greatest at math, so that's really respectable and cool.

MindJack: You're not lame at all.

AizawaShouta: Thanks? MindJack: I really do hope UA accepts me. Everyone's always said I can't be a hero, but if there's a chance… I'll do anything for it.

MindJack: I even already thought of my hero name! Wanna hear it?

AizawaShouta: Sure.

He already had a pretty good idea of what it was.

MindJack: It's Mindjack.

AizawaShouta: Yeah, I sort of guessed that.

AizawaShouta: It's a good one.

AizawaShouta: Names are hard to think of.

MindJack: They are.

MindJack: How do you think Eraserhead came up with his?

He had a lingering feeling that Hitoshi wouldn't like the real answer to that question, given that he'd called Hizashi lame in their first conversation. Shouta had honestly just been planning on using his name until Hizashi had blurted a name out for him fifteen years ago, and it'd just stuck.

AizawaShouta: He probably thought long and hard about it.

MindJack: Yeah, it's so fitting. So cool. I hope my name is like that, too.

AizawaShouta: It's a good name. I'm sure you'll be popular.

MindJack: I don't really want to be popular.

AizawaShouta: Oh, really?

MindJack: My quirk wouldn't really work if a lot of people knew what it was.

MindJack: I have to get someone to respond to me in order to use it. If people knew me, they could just not respond. So it's better that I'm not popular, right?

AizawaShouta: Sounds logical.

MindJack: And… I don't really like attention or anything. I just wanna be a hero. I don't want to be popular.

MindJack: I want to be like Eraserhead.

Shouta smiled to himself. This kid seemed to look up to him a lot, with the way he brought him up a lot. He didn't mind it much, but maybe that was partially because it was nice to know that someone genuinely looked up to him. Hitoshi had poked fun at him a lot and clearly had a dry, sarcastic personality, but he did seem like a good kid—driven, persistent, clearly caring about the things he held important to him. He'd evidently created this entire community and brought people together on a forum. He had a good heart, and he reminded Shouta a lot of his younger self.

AizawaShouta: He'd probably like you.

MindJack: You think? I've always been afraid of meeting him.

MindJack: Everyone always says that you can't expect anything when meeting heroes. I've always been afraid that he'd just think I'm some bratty kid.

AizawaShouta: I don't think that's true.

MindJack: Thanks. It's cool to know that he might like me.

MindJack: I kinda wish there was some way to contact him, you know?

MindJack: Underground heroes are super cool and all but… I don't really know what to do about what's going on here. Either we wait for someone who cares to take care of it or take matters into our own hands. Not a lot of people know about what it's like here.

MindJack: I think Eraserhead would care, but there's no way to tell him about what's going on. Or… anyone else, for that matter. It kinda sucks.

Shouta was starting to get the feeling that Hitoshi was much more worried about Bloodwing than he'd let on before. Shouta couldn't blame him. Hitoshi was a kid in foster care who lived near where Tsubasa had—putting him in the exact demographic that Bloodwind was targeting. Even if Hitoshi didn't fully realize it, he was in danger.

Which meant that Shouta had to take this guy down as soon as possible. The very kid he was talking to right now was a target, the exact person Tsubasa would attack. Shouta glanced at his growing folder of information on Bloodwing, narrowing his eyes at it. With what he knew… there was definitely a rush. Especially with the way the guy had been attacking near every night and growing bolder. If Shouta wanted to keep this kid safe, he had to act fast.

Tomorrow, he decided. He had photos, places marked out to stakeout, had scoped out the place and committed to memory various hiding places and escape routes. He'd done what he could today. Tomorrow, he'd pack his things, make a solid plan, and take care of this guy.

Even if the police in the district didn't care, the hero division in the inner city would, and Shouta had already contacted them and alerted them of his intentions to take down Bloodwing. Luckily, the detectives there, who dealt with heroes and quirk crime, liked him and knew him well and were well prepared to detain Bloodwing once Shouta took him down.

AizawaShouta: I can see why you'd think that.

Unfortunately, though, he had no idea how to reassure Hitoshi. The problem would be taken care of tomorrow, but he couldn't tell Hitoshi that or assure him that Eraserhead would help without giving him away. Shouta was a realist, had always been one, but at the same time… he didn't want this kid to give up and feel hopeless and helpless.

With the things he'd said in the past few days, there was a good chance that Hitoshi was looking to go after Bloodwing himself, whether to protect himself and the other kids or to prove himself as worthy of being a hero. Shouta couldn't let that happen at all. He couldn't let this kid become some reckless vigilante, taking on a criminal bigger than him and ending up hurt or dead. The more hope Hitoshi lost, the bigger the possibility became that Hitoshi would take matters into his own hands.

Shouta knew that from experience. If this kid really was like him when he'd been younger, then that possibility was already very high.

AizawaShouta: How about you just give it another day or two?

AizawaShouta: You learn with age that outside problems tend to resolve themselves if you leave them be for a bit.

MindJack: Are you sharing old man wisdom with me?

MindJack: But ok. I know it's dangerous. I'll wait a little bit.

MindJack: I guess it is a little scary.

MindJack: But just a little.

AizawaShouta: I'd be scared.

MindJack: Seriously?

AizawaShouta: It's a scary situation. You're also pretty young. Something like that would terrify me.

AizawaShouta: It sounds like you're trying to handle it well, but it's alright to be scared, too. It's only logical to feel afraid in situations like this, isn't it?

MindJack: I guess so.

MindJack: It's just… everyone else in my foster home is so much younger. They're really scared. SOMEONE has to not be scared.

AizawaShouta: Not really. It's natural to be scared.

MindJack: Eh, I guess you're kinda right.

MindJack: Thanks.

MindJack: I think I hear my foster mom up. I gotta go to bed before she yells at me or grounds me or something.

MindJack: Thanks again.

AizawaShouta: It's no problem. I'll be on in the morning again if you want to talk.

With that, Mindjack signed off, and Shouta lingered for a moment before closing his laptop, washing off his dishes, and once again grabbing a nearby cat to take to bed with him.

Everything would be fine, he told himself. He'd convinced Hitoshi to wait a day. That was all he needed. Shouta had all the information he needed to take down this criminal. Another day would be more than enough, and then Hitoshi and the rest of his foster family wouldn't have to worry about some villain attacking foster care children.

He had a lot of work to do in the morning, and Shouta fell asleep quickly for once, planning on taking down Bloodwing as soon as night fell.

Like everything else, though, things didn't exactly work out how Shouta had expected them to.

------

The morning went exactly how every other morning had gone. Shouta went through his routine of waking up to Hizashi's phone call, feeding the cats, and making himself breakfast. It was in the middle of him eating breakfast that things changed, that Shouta decided to log onto the forum again, keeping his promise of being around a bit in the morning in case Hitoshi wanted to talk more.

For the first time, though, Shouta didn't see Hitoshi online.

It wasn't like he thought that the kid spent all his time online. Well, that actually was kind of what he thought, but logically, he shouldn't have been surprised to find Hitoshi offline. It was around ten, Hizashi actually having managed to get the math right this time, and really, there was a good chance Hitoshi was just still sleeping. But something seemed off, and when Shouta didn't see Hitoshi listed as being online or on the chat, something dropped in his stomach.

Everything told him not to, but he entered the chat, anyways, having completely forgotten about his breakfast or anything in his surroundings. All he could focus on was that kid and where he was, and even though up until then, he had no evidence of it, he knew something was wrong.

That was just confirmed the second he went into the chatroom.

RedEyes92: I'm really scared.

RedEyes92: Our neighborhood isn't good at all, but for something like this…

FiveEars: Calm down, it'll be alright.

Blackcatx: I dunno, I'm kinda with Red here.

Blackcatx: Have you gone to the hospital, Red?

RedEyes92: I can't. My dad would kill me if I went out after that.

AizawaShouta: Did something happen?

He knew they were all talking about Hitoshi. Somehow, someway, he knew.

RedEyes92: You know Hitoshi, right?!

AizawaShouta: The site moderator? Yes. We've talked.

Blackcatx: Who's this???

RedEyes92: Hitoshi was taken to the hospital today.

RedEyes92: His foster sister was taken by that criminal he's been talking about.

RedEyes92: He tried to defend her. Nobody knows where she is or if he's alright.