82

Interlude II

A/N: I know some of you were wanting the continuation of the last chapter, but… oh well. Instead, we have our second interlude! Occurring just after the second time Izuku's been kidnapped, tricked by a disguised Toga, hampered down due to an intake of debilitating substances, and followed up by everything fading to black due to some other use of a quirk. Hmm… Sensing a pattern here, anyone? Too bad you won't get to see what it all means until later...

Setsuna slammed her hands down on the table, her flat palms cutting through the short-lived silence that arose from Edgeshot's statement.

"What. Do. You. Fucking mean! He's gone!?"

Edgeshot grimaced, raising his head to look at the distraught girl before him.

"Oh heck no," Mineta suddenly cursed, his hands pressed against the sides of his head. "This isn't happening again. Why is this happening again?"

Kaminari himself visibly tensed, his fists curling and uncurling at his sides. Sero crossed his arms, moving his gaze to focus out the window, and Shiozaki otherwise remained still where she stood for all except the horrified look on her face.

Todoroki was leaned up against the wall in the corner of the room, his eyes remaining glazed and unfocused aside from the brief instances he glanced over at the others.

Edgeshot sighed. "He got in over his head this time." He paused. "Well, again, really."

"This isn't a time for jokes!" Setsuna all but shrilled, irritation clear in her voice.

"Apologies," Edgeshot said. "That wasn't what I was trying to do. I was merely pointing out that Midoriya's survived similar events."

"That doesn't mean that he should be even getting in these types of scenarios in the first place!" Setsuna slammed her fist down on the desk. "You told me that Izuku was just sitting this thing with the Nine out! You lied to me! To all of us!"

"I am aware," Edgeshot said. "And I'm sorry for the misdirection. But the operation with the Nine was more important."

"More important!? More important!" Setsuna screamed. "That whole operation was a waste! Nobody was even there! And you're only telling us now that Izuku was taken! What the hell happened?!"

Edgeshot followed up with an answer. "CCTV footage caught Himiko Toga, disguised as your classmate Shoto Todoroki, meeting up with Midoriya during his patrol. Midoriya was, quite unfortunately, expecting young Todoroki to arrive alongside his father and the rest of his agency for the raid on the Nine. We're certain that that was why Midoriya wasn't suspicious of Todoroki's presence, and thus lulled into a false sense of security."

"So Midoriya got caught because of me, then?" Todoroki spoke up for the first time, rising slightly away from the wall.

"No," Edgeshot expressed. "It wasn't your fault, Todoroki. The Li— Hmm. The League was expecting him. Toga may have had your blood, but ultimately it was their actions. You couldn't have controlled that."

Todoroki hummed, closing his eyes and leaning back against the wall. "I wonder where she got it?"

Setsuna brought the attention of the room back to herself with another slap on the desk. "Where did you even get that info? Some random city worker looking through the cams call it in or something?"

Edgeshot licked his lips. "Midoriya... may or may not have been on call with… Hawks, when the abduction occured.

"You serious?!"

Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Kaminari called out. "What do you mean Hawks? Why the heck was he talking with Hawks?"

"Doesn't matter!" Setsuna yelled, swiping an arm at Kaminari. She turned back towards Edgeshot. "Where the hell is Hawks then? Is he doing anything about Izuku?"

"He's indisposed at the moment."

Setsuna threw her hands up in the air. "Then how about those Commission people?! He's an asset to them, isn't he? Wouldn't they want him back?"

The others looked a bit confused at that remark.

"Tokage," Edgeshot barked. "Watch where you are and what you bring up, please. No need to be punting around Midoriya's private life to others he hasn't cleared."

Setsuna growled, her hands pulling on her hair. "You're not doing anything! We're not doing anything! And now my friend's been missing for nearly eight whole fucking hours! What the hell do you think you were doing by not telling us?!"

"Tokage!" Edgeshot slammed his own fist down at the desk. "Do not take that tone with me. I understand that your upset, but—"

"I'm more than fucking upset! I fucking pissed!"

"And I wish that we could go and find him! Just like we did the first time this happened. But we can't at the moment. For multiple reasons."

Setsuna looked on in disbelief. "You're kidding me."

"I'm going to have to side with her, Edgeshot," Kaminari said, his voice somewhat reserved due to the screaming girl beside him. "We should be going after him, right? I mean, Midoriya just got taken from right under our noses! I mean, sure, he was out on a patrol. But, you had to have authorized it in the first place, right?"

Edgeshot pinched his nose. "You're right, I did. And I never should have in the first place. Not so close to what's happening later this week. Everything's been tense and—" Edgeshot stopped himself from continuing.

"Look," Edgeshot breathed. "I don't like the fact that I'm saying this, but we have the hold off on the search for now."

"Excuse me?!" Setsuna retorted. "I think you just suggested that I leave my friend out to the fucking wolves. For the second time, do I have to say again that he was taken by the League? They have a serious interest in him! Doesn't that mean that we should go after them? Stop them?"

"There are more pressing matters at work Tokage."

"More pressing matters my ass!"

"We can't spread our resources thin for one child right now," Edgeshot admitted. "No matter how important he may be, or the fact that he is my pupil at the moment. I care about his well being, even if my words don't express as such right now. But I can't let that get in the way of what's coming up."

Setsuna backed away from the desk and began pacing back and forth before it. "You're actually serious! Unbelievable! You're going to let the League get away from this!"

"I'm afraid so, Tokage."

Setsuna turned around and looked back at the others. "Are you all just going to go along with this?!"

Mineta gulped and went fiddling with his fingers. Sero averted his gaze once more, while Shiozaki met Setsuna's gaze with a look that said "no."

Meanwhile, Todoroki nodded towards Setsuna in agreement. Kaminari did the same, his eyes glowing in resolution.

"Well come on then, Todoroki, Kaminari." Setsuna began walking towards the door, gesturing for them to follow. "Let's see what we can do about finding Izuku."

"Tokage!" Edgeshot pressured on, his voice resolute as he shot out from his chair. "If you take one step out of this office before we're done here, I will have to detain you. Resist, and any hope of aiding in the search for Midoriya will be smothered. The same goes with you two as well," he said to Kaminari and Todoroki.

Setsuna paused, her fists tightening. She then turned back to face Edgeshot. "I can't beat you in a fight. I know that. Even if all three of us fight back I'm not sure if we would win. Especially with Reverb and Highbrow just a few rooms down from here. And maybe the others if they feel like stopping us," she motioned to Mineta, Sero, and Shiozaki.

"But you're telling me that I have to leave Izuku out there to who knows what! I have to do something!" She pleaded.

"And what exactly are you going to do?" Edgeshot asked. "We don't have any leads. I refrained from mentioning this before, but Toga and Midoiya both were teleported from the street. There's no trail to follow."

"But—!"

"Stop," Edgeshot interrupted. He sat back down, taking a breath before he continued. "Look. It's clear that nothing short of brute force is going to stop you three. And I'd like to refrain from that. Especially with you, Kaminari."

The boy in question raised an eyebrow in question. "Me? Why? What's so special about me?"

Edgeshot drummed his fingers on his desk. "Okay, fine." He pointed at Sero, and then Shiozaki, and then Mineta. "You three, out."

"Huh?" Mineta said dumbly.

"Out," Edgeshot reinstated. "Now." He turned his head towards the door of his office. "And Bakugou! If you're even thinking of following along with Tokage's schemes, you better come in here now!"

There was a lull of silence, but eventually the slightly ajar door bashed open as Bakugou stormed into the room. "And what makes you think that I'd do that, huh?"

Edgeshot ignored Bakugou's antics, instead turning a glare towards the three students who were much less inclined to help Izuku out. "What did I say?"

Sero, Mineta, and Shiozaki promptly sped out of the room afterwards, Bakugou slamming the door closed and locking it behind them.

Edgeshot gestured the four forward. "Closer, to the desk, since you all insist on being such nuisances."

Bakugou then walked up towards the desk, his eyes narrowed and glaring at Edgeshot. Setsuna walked over and stood beside the boy, looking quite like him with the face she was making. Kaminari strolled forward, much more obviously anxious than the others, while Todoroki moved forward with a face as stoic as usual.

"So?" Bakugou seethed. "What is it?"

Edgeshot shook his head. "Okay, make sure that you are all listening to me, you hear? Because I'm only going to say all of this at once, and I forbid you to speak any hint of any of this once we leave this room, alright?"

"I'm waiting, Edgeshot," Setsuna returned, obviously impatient.

"And I'm highly torn between actually telling you this or not, but thankfully for all of you I'm leaning towards telling you."

"And…"

Edgeshot relented. "What I'm about to tell you is highly classified. If word gets out…"

Shutters fell over the windows, blanketing the office in darkness. The click of several locks emanated from the entrance, while a thick, metal trapdoor shut itself over the ventilation.

Before long, a low hum began to come off from the walls, and not long after did a light source — a single lamp, specially designed to be overtly bright enough to fill the room without causing strain to the eye — brought the three occupants of the room into clarity.

"And with that, the faraday cage has been activated, as well as a couple other assurances that I have built into here," Nezu proclaimed, turning his chair to face the two individuals before his desk. "Nobody will be listening in anytime soon."

"Tea?" the principal offered out. "It's Valerian root, for the stress."

Yagi accepted the tea graciously. Aizawa, not so much.

"I wasn't aware that you had such systems in place," Yagi mused, trying to lighten up the atmosphere.

"But of course!" Nezu smiled. "I'm always prepared!" He turned towards Aizawa, gesturing the tea forward again. "Are you sure that you don't want any?"

Aizawa blinked. "Yes, I'm sure. And before you continue: No, I'm not in the mood. And yes, I made sure that I didn't leave Mic alone with Eri. He still needs work on volume control, after all."

Nezu set the teapot down and tented his hands together. "Well then, seems like you covered everything Shota. Well, except for one thing..."

"That damned problem child, you mean." Aizawa growled. "His recklessness got him into some trouble again, and after I specifically warned him of it. And just after a whole week of training too. Did he not learn anything?"

"There's nothing we can do about now Shota," Nezu admitted. "And while it may be true that we may know of Midoriya's possible location right at this very moment, the fact stands that we can't act on such information until we are ready. We still need more time to make sure everyone is in place for the big event."

"And that's what I'm afraid of," Yagi said. "We got to young Midoriya fairly quickly last time, but it was quite clear that they were only holding him in an attempt to turn him to the side of villainy."

"And it's quite clear that he isn't doing that anytime soon," Aizawa muttered. "Is that your point?"

"Partially. Rather, I'm afraid of the possibility that it may be part of a greater plot from All For One," Yagi said.

"Despite him being imprisoned right at this very moment?" Aizawa questioned.

Nezu hummed in thought. "It could be quite possible. Even with the villain locked away in Tartarus, there's no telling how much of a handle he still has of things out here. He made no effort to hide his interests in Midoriya. This abduction could be an extension of that."

"What are the chances that this "Doctor Garaki" that we've been gathering information on has him?" Aizawa asked.

Yagi groaned in response. "The one making the nomus, you mean?" Yagi leaned back, pressing his organic hand over his face. "I don't even want to consider that a possibility."

"We have to face facts," Nezu said. "Through our information networks we've surmised two strongholds for the Paranormal Liberation Front. The first is the mountain villa in Gifu. The second is the Doctor's cover hospital — which is coincidentally in Kyoto, same as Edgeshot's agency. I'm willing to bet that that is where Midoriya is being held at this very moment, if we leave out any possible hideouts that they've kept hidden from us."

"Do we not have any concrete leads whatsoever?" Yagi asked. "Nothing aside from the fact that the warp quirk All For One used in Kamino may not have actually been his own?"

Nezu took a sip of his tea before answering. "After reviewing the CCTV footage, Edgeshot did a whole sweep of the area. Nothing was left behind but Midoriya's phone and his flightpack. As such, there'd be no use of asking help from Miss Hatsume on that front."

"Dammit," Aizawa suddenly muttered. "I shouldn't have told him about what they were going to do that night. He wouldn't have been expecting Todoroki, then."

"Nonsense," Nezu rebutted. "It wouldn't have mattered. The League would have just done it after the operation, then, when everyone would have been tired and left their guard down."

"You can't—"

"I can be sure of that, Shota." Nezu sent a look at Aizawa, which the ragged man returned before veering away from it after a few moments.

"That being said," Nezu continued, "something of note to add. Edgeshot informed me that was compelled to talk about the operation to a couple of his interns."

Aizawa jerked his head back towards the principal. "You're kidding me."

"Nope. They were threatening to do something about searching for Midoriya themselves otherwise."

"Who exactly?" Yagi asked. "And why would informing them of the operation early dissuade them from doing what they wanted?"

"Ah!" Nezu held up a finger. "And there lay the crux of the problem. He had to inform four of our students: Tokage, Bakugou, Sero, and Kaminari."

"They were all part of that makeshift rescue operation for Midoriya the first time around," Aizawa pointed out.

"Precisely," Nezu agreed. "But the main problem lay in Kaminari, however."

"He's vital to the operation due to that villain with the electric quirk, is what you mean," Aizawa said. "So we couldn't have had him distracted or unwilling before the operation."

"Yup! And if either of you were wondering, you don't have to worry about them doing anything rash. Edgeshot's making sure they aren't going anywhere. And they themselves understand — however begrudgingly — why they can't go and look for Midoriya, lest they endanger the operation."

"Good." Aizawa nodded. "We need to prevent similar instances like that from occurring, keep things on the down low."

"But why?!" Yagi inquired, appalled. "Shouldn't we at least inform his friends? The rest of his class? What about his mother? We haven't told her, right? Doesn't she deserve to know?!"

"There would be a higher chance of an info leak that way," Aizawa clinically responded. "And besides it would do no good aside from arising panic and distrust. First off, it would be an unnecessary distraction to the students, who need to be on their best when the raid occurs. If we must, we can tell them... after. If we haven't found Midoriya by then, that is."

"Plus," Nezu interrupted, "If we let it be known that another student of UA has been kidnapped by villains — the same student, might I add, and by the same villains — the public outcry would be insurmountable. The fact is, we can't take any form of public outcry at such a pivotal moment as of now, no matter how deceptive it may be of us."

Yagi grimaced. "I… I don't think that it's right."

"I don't like it anymore than you do," Nezu added. "And that even when you consider me being upfront with both of you when I say that I may be a bit biased with Midoriya. He interests me, tests my intelligence, makes things in general interesting. I like him more than my other students. And there are many, many laws that I'd have no trouble breaking to get him back here unharmed. But we have something else to focus on at the moment. Something more important than one boy's life, however heartless that may sound."

"The only thing that we can do is hope that nothing too unkindly is happening to him right this moment. He's already broken before, after all. Not too much so, considering the ways he's been broken and placed back together and fixed. But too much tension and stress, a breaking point and…"

"Midoriya may just be pushed to the limit."

Nezu nodded, his ears pressed against his head. "We can only hope that he can hold on for the next coming days."

Yagi's fists tightened in response to that final line; his one real arm shaking in anger, the servos of his metallic prosthetic whirling and echoing through the silence.

"I can still help," Yagi said. He raised up his prosthetic arm, the light shining off it at different angles as he observed the device in all its glory.

"My new arm here is a fine piece of machinery. Hatsume and Melissa did a wonderful job designing it, and—"

Nezu decided to cut him off there. "It's for self defense, Toshinori."

"There are weapons in this thing, Nezu," Yagi countered. "If I could just—"

"And you're powerless without it," Aizawa cut in. "You can't turn into your heroing form for any more than a couple seconds now. You'd be a liability on the battlefield, more so than our students."

"But I—"

"It's fine, Toshinori," Nezu interrupted again. "You stay, watch Eri. You don't need to be out there. In fact, before you say another word, I'll let you know that I've changed the schedule."

"The... schedule?" Yagi asked.

Nezu nodded. "Midoriya's abduction made me realize the scope of the situation; the fact that some of our students have the chance of dying during this whole thing stands as a real possibility — one I don't wish to force onto our students. So, I've set it all up so that they all will be coming back to campus back a day before the raid. A last ditch get together, if you will."

"You aren't going to be telling them about the operation beforehand, are you?"

Nezu waved him off. "Of course not! Info leaks are a thing, as you previously mentioned. No, rather; I'll just be warning them of something else. A cover story — an operation in say… Hokkaido, or something. I'll warn them of the real chance of dying, and that they aren't obligated to join. Those who decide to opt out can stay."

"And," Nezu continued, looking towards Yagi, "with that, you will be able to see your students before the big day. A send off and well wishes, to inspire them to go beyond. That's what you were telling me you wanted to do earlier, was it not?"

"I…" Yagi smiled, nodding his head. "Yes. Thank you, Nezu."

"Of course. And just worry about those kids for now, okay. We'll get Midoriya back here eventually. He's a strong kid; he can survive whatever they have in store for him."

...

..

.

"My, my, my! What a wonderful gift you've presented me with. I mean, with all those juicy little secrets in his head, I'm sure that we'll be spending plenty of time together..."

A/N: And there we have it! A bit of insight on some other ongoing things that'll play a part into the plot a little later. And don't worry everyone! Up by next week, we'll be back to Izuku!

...

Huh? What was that? Lazy chapter title? Eh... I'm running thin enough on words and names I can use as it is!