69

Chapter Text

Hitoshi was exhausted. He hadn't slept in two days and for once, he couldn't even blame it on insomnia. No, instead he had to blame it on his classmate, who was apparently an oddly successful streamer who spent his time getting roasted by an actual, real life villain because that was completely normal. Obviously. What even was his life?

After finding the stream the other night, Hitoshi and his adults had spent the entire night and next day going through every single last episode that Dusty and Icy Cat had archived, but even though they hadn't been streaming long, the duo was ridiculously dedicated to putting out content, which meant that they didn't get to bed until way past midnight. 

It was easy to see how the two of them had become so popular. Todoroki's tendency to actively encourage his followers to make fun of him was unique and had caught a lot of people's attention, add to that his deadpan humor and Shigaraki's constant roasting and it was no wonder so many people tuned into their streams. Despite the seriousness of the situation, Hitoshi had found himself actually enjoying the content and he'd even caught Aizawa reluctantly cracking a smile a few times. 

They weren't watching the stream for entertainment, though, they were watching it because as soon as they'd all gotten over the shee panic of hearing Shigaraki's raspy voice in their living room, they'd all jumped to the next logical conclusion: that Todoroki was likely a member of the league and that the villains had somehow planted him as a traitor within 1A to feed them information. It made sense, but at the same time, it didn't. From what Izuku and Mei had told him, Todoroki had saved Aizawa at the USJ, but if he was actually a villain, then wouldn't he have just let him die? 

That was the main reason they'd decided to binge the stream instead of immediately notifying the police. At first Hitoshi had been convinced that Todoroki was a villain, but after more than a day of listening to Shigaraki and Todorki interact, he wasn't so sure anymore. They didn't act like co-conspirators so much as friends or maybe even brothers with a healthy dash of sibling rivalry sprinkled on top. Todoroki never talked about 1A, except to benignly make fun of Bakugo a few times and Shigaraki spoke about the league even less, so it didn't look like they were discussing insider information. 

Hitoshi supposed that it was always possible that they were sharing info off stream, but as weird as it sounded, it almost seemed like they'd designated the stream as some kind of neutral space where their roles as hero and villain didn't really matter. That somehow didn't stop them from joking about Shigaraki trying to kill their entire class, though, which Aizawa thought was ridiculous and both Hitoshi and Mic had to admit was darkly hilarious. 

As terrible as it looked, there was still a chance that Todoroki wasn't a traitor, and that he'd only paired up with Shigaraki and streaming because he felt he had nowhere else to turn. The fact that Endeavor had kicked him out though, while surprising to learn, only added more evidence to the villain theory, because it gave him a reason . 

Hitoshi was so tired that he didn't even notice anyone else had come into the kitchen until a steaming mug in front of him. He blinked up slowly and looked up at Aizawa, "What do you want?"

"For my students to not be problem children." Aizawa said dryly. "But caffeine is the next best thing. Drink up."

Hitoshi took a deep gulp of the coffee and groaned, "Why is binge watching more exhausting than insomnia?"

"Because your brain was still working the whole time." Aizawa said. "It's the same reason stakeouts have you feeling dead even though, objectively, you were just sitting in the car the whole time. It's the same concept here, especially since we were actively researching a villain. The fact that it's a villain we've fought before and that it affects one of your classmates only makes it more mentally and emotionally exhausting."

"Oh yeah. That. " Hitoshi drawled. "Where's your partner in crime? Isn't he usually the high energy one?"

Aizawa scoffed, "That's when he's gotten his beauty sleep. No. When I tried waking him up this morning, my wonderful husband told me in no uncertain terms that he would murder me if I tried to wake him up before 10 am."

Hitoshi raised an eyebrow, "And what time was this?"

Aizawa smirked, "10:02."

"Figures." Hitoshi chuckled. "At least he'll be rocking those eyebags so he matches the rest of the family." He took another gulp of coffee and grimaced. "This is doing absolutely nothing."

Aizawa rolled his eyes. "It's coffee, kid, not magic."

The conversation fizzled out and both of them were more than happy to embrace the silence as they waited for the coffee to kick in. It was nice and relaxing and Hitoshi was actually starting to nod off again when his phone suddenly vibrated loudly against the table and startled him so badly that he almost fell out of his chair. 

He scrambled toward the phone and picked it up, "Hi?"

"Good Morning!" Ochako's voice was cheerful and loud enough that Hitoshi had to hold the phone a few inches away from his ear. "Are you ready for me to pick you up?"

Hitoshi blinked, "What?"

"Mina invited everyone to the mall, remember?" Ochako said. "Don't tell me you're gonna bail! I was gonna come over and we were gonna get you more used to teleporting with me, remember?"

"That was today?!" HItoshi rubbed at the bridge of his nose. "Of all the...yeah, uh, just… everyone's coming, right?"

"Yeah, I think Mina managed to convince everyone." Ochako answered. "Why?" 

"Uh, no reason." Hitoshi's brain was racing as sluggishly as humanly possible. If everyone was going to be there, then that meant that Todoroki was going to be there and at this point they had no clue if he was a villain or not. It might be a good idea to watch him and see if he was acting suspiciously for any reason, but at the end of the day, it probably wasn't Hitoshi's call. Aizawa was the homeroom teacher and the hero most responsible for Todoroki at the moment, since Endeavor had obviously noped out of the position, so anything Hitoshi planned on doing definitely needed to be cleared with him first. "I uh..right. Ok. Let me just check something out with Dad real quick and then I'll text you when I'm ready to go."

Hitoshi hung up quickly and turned to Aizawa, who looked shocked for some reason, but Hitoshi shook it off. They were both too tired to really care at this point, "I forgot that a bunch of our classmates are going to the mall today and I already promised Ochako I'd tag along. I was thinking that since Mina's dragged pretty much everyone into going, then there's a really good chance that Todoroki is going too. I'm assuming you want me to keep a close eye on him, right? I know we hadn't really discussed what we were going to do, but I figured that if he's working with the villains..."

Aizawa shook himself out of whatever stupor he'd been in and frowned. "I have a meeting with Nedzu today to inform him of the situation, but there's still so much we just don't know. It would be illogical and unfair of me to ask you to do a job when both the danger and the threat level are both still completely unknown. "

"But you're not asking. I'm volunteering, '' Hitoshi pointed out. "And he's my classmate, so if he is a villain I'm already kind of at risk."

"Which is the only reason I'm not telling you to avoid him entirely." Aizawa said firmly. "Go, have fun with your friends, but if Todoroki starts acting oddly, inform us instead of going after him yourself. He shouldn't be your top priority and I don't want you putting yourself in danger. Got it, kid?"

"Got it." Hitoshi stood and nodded to Mic as he walked into the room. "I gotta go, I'll talk to you guys later."

"Alright kiddo!" Mic gave him a knowing smile. "Have a great day."

"Ok?" Hitoshi shook his head and went to go get dressed. His adults were so weird.

Shouta stared after Hitoshi as he ran back to his room, "Did he just…"

Mic grinned widely, "Yeah. Yeah, he did. Our kid just called you Dad, Shou. How do you feel?"

Shouta groaned, "I think I need a nap."

Tomura walked into the bar only to see Kurogiri talking to Giran and two NPCs that he'd never seen before, "What's going on?"

Kurogiri heaved a disappointed sigh and gave him a look, "First of all, you're late. Second of all, allow me to introduce our new recruits. This is Dabi and the young woman next to him is Toga. They have come to join us because of our alliance with Stain's successor."

Tomura tried not to grimace as he remembered that there was a reason they'd taken Spinner out on that murder spree. He didn't want new recruits, he wanted to get an apartment and try the newest video games. Sensei had raised him to beat All Might, but at the end of the day, that wasn't what Tomura really cared about. He wanted to beat bosses, sure, but it was a lot more effective to get that sense of accomplishment from gaming rather than murder. There were more bosses to beat, for one, and fewer consequences when he failed. 

Eventually, he just huffed, "So why are you NPCs here?" 

The one Kurogiri had introduced as Dabi raised an eyebrow, "To join your little group. I guess you're just as stupid as you look."

"Not that, you idiot." Tomura growled. "I mean, why do you wanna join? What objective are you after?"

Dabi gave him an appraising look, but Toga jumped right in, "I loved Mr. Stainy! I wanna kill people and drink their blood just like he did! I wanna meet his apprentice and drink his blood too!"

"That…" Tomura wrinkled his nose. "That's something, I guess. And what about you, patchwork? Why are you here?"

"To expose the fakes masquerading as heroes." Dabi replied, not breaking eye contact. "What about you? Is your reason good enough to follow you?"

"I'm just here to beat the big boss." Tomura snapped. "I don't really care if you join the party or not, so if you don't like that, go find your own side-quest or whatever."

"Tomura!" Kurogiri shouted at him as he shouldered past the new recruits and tore open the door. "You must forgive him. Our leader knows what he must do. Allow him to clear his thoughts and we'll get back to you on recruitment."

Tomura slammed the door behind him, resisting the urge to disintegrate it completely. Drinking blood and exposing heroes. On the surface, those seemed like great reasons to be a villain, but at the same time, there were other ways to make those things happen legally. Even if there wasn't, though, Tomura couldn't get the thought out of his head that Sensei was going to find a way to twist these guys' goals for his own purposes. With how he had been manipulated over the years, Tomura could only imagine what those two would be like once he was done with them. Could he really just stand by and let that happen?

Maybe Kurogiri was right. He needed to clear his head.

Hitoshi took a few deep breaths as the world righted itself again. Ochako had given him some anti-nausea medication before they'd left and Izuku had printed off an entire booklet of strategies for him to try, so he managed not to throw up his coffee, but it still took him a couple minutes to feel good enough to start looking around, "Uh, Ochako? I thought we were going to the mall, why are we at Izuku's place?"

Ochako blushed deeply, "Well, um, I was just thinking, um, that everyone in class kinda knows of them, but no one really knows them and it might be nice to have a buffer...I mean, it might be nice to let people meet them!"

Hitoshi blinked. If the worst case scenario happened and Todoroki was the traitor, Izuku was Cheat Code. He and Mei had already proven that they were capable of fighting the league, so if things went south, it would be super useful to have them around. Ochako was looking forward to just having a normal shopping trip, though, and if he told his kidnappers about Todoroki, they'd probably jump into the whole situation with both feet and the whole idea of a normal outing with friends would fly out the window...He could always tell them after, or even bring it up later if Todoroki started acting suspicious. He was supposed to be leaving it to Aizawa anyway, right?

"Oh, uh, yeah!" Hitoshi laughed awkwardly. "That sounds great. Uh, do they know we're coming?"

Ochako nodded, "Yep! I texted them both yesterday and Mei said she'd meet us at Izuku's. I tried texting you too, but uh...you weren't really responding, so…"

"Oh, uh, I was...busy." Hitoshi grimaced. "Sorry."

Ochako shrugged, "You were spending time with your adults right? I noticed you called Aizawa Dad earlier, so that must be going well."

Hitoshi did a double take, "What? No, I didn't."

"Uh, yeah you did." Ochako gave him a confused look. "You said, and I quote, I have to check something out with Dad real quick, so I'll text you. You totally called him Dad, Shindig."

Hitoshi opened his mouth to deny it again, then froze in realization as his brain caught up, "Oh no. I called Aizawa Dad. In front of him. And Mic was just around the corner so he probably heard. Ugh, no wonder they were acting so weird! I called Aizawa Dad! "

Ochako patted his back, "There, there...uh, at least he didn't call you out on it?"

"That just makes it worse." Hitoshi groaned. 

Right at that moment, Mei and Izuku came running down the stairs...or Izuku was running and Mei was trying to slide down the bannister, "Extra-Credit-Kun, what took you so long? We've been waiting forever!"

"You only know that because Mom asked why we were still there." Izuku pointed out. "You wouldn't have noticed otherwise because you were too busy showing me the plans you have to make Tensei's wheelchair fly."

"Levitate." Mei corrected. "It would be too energy inefficient to actually make it fly for long periods. Too much fuel would just slow him down!"

Ochako giggled, "You two are so cute sometimes! You're like an old married couple!"

Izuku frowned, "Why does everyone always say that?"