47

Chapter Text

"So, that's how it is, huh?" 

The others didn't respond to Kirishima's comment. Most of them couldn't think up an applicable response, while others just weren't feeling up to it. Togata in particular was sulking, contemplating his actions over the past few days.

The rather gloomy atmosphere was interrupted by a loud ding, signifying one of the elevators opening up to the lobby.

"Holding an all night vigil, are we?" They all looked up to find Aizawa approaching them.

"Aizawa-sensei!" Uraraka and Tsu greeted in tandem.

"Please," Aizawa began, "you can call me Eraserhead outside of school, you know."

He cleared his throat. "Anyways, I was thinking about ending all of your work studies today."

A colorful variety of shouts rang out in protest of Aizawa's rather blunt delivery of news.

Aizawa promptly ignored them. "You heard about how the League may be involved; that makes this a whole different ball game. It gives me a valid reason to consider pulling you out."

He sighed, rubbing his face. "But I know all of you by this point. There's no chance that any of you would let this go as is. So, as much as I want to pull you all out, I won't."

There were a few cheers in response, but Aizawa wasn't done. 

"That doesn't mean that I like it." He focused his glare on Izuku. "Especially when concerning you, Midoriya."

Izuku raised an eyebrow in question.

Aizawa continued. "Physically and experience wise? I find that you're in tip top shape. But I don't think you're mentally prepared for this, especially if we consider recent events." 

Aizawa shook his head. "However, it's not exactly my call. So you're part of this no matter what, it seems. But know that I'll be watching."

Izuku receded the bugs on his scalp and moved them further down the strands of his hair. In doing so, his bugs narrowly avoided Setsuna's head and arms suddenly appearing and leaning on his head.

"More of your super duper secret training stuff, eh?" she asked, smirking. 

Her head floated over the front of Izuku's head, lowering while upside down until her eyes gazed into Izuku's. "When are you going to tell us about that, hmm?"

Izuku frowned. "Not anytime soon, I think."

Setsuna harrumphed, her head moving back up atop Izuku's. Setsuna's chin rested in Izuku's scalp while her arms slid down to the sides. "Not even just a smidge?"

"Anyways," Aizawa interrupted, "the fact of the matter is that we're undergoing this operation. With that said, the Big Three — and to some extent, Midoriya as well — are on par with the heroes. You four," Aizawa turned his attention to Kirishima, Uraraka, Tsu, and Setsuna, "will have reduced roles." 

"Oh? You're grouping mister buggy boy and us together?" Hado asked, a finger to her lips. "Now I'm really curious!" she pouted. "It just wants me to see him in action more and more!"

Amajiki "That's quite a compliment coming from you, Eraserhead," Amajiki said, his lazy gaze turning. "Are you sure it stands true?" 

Aizawa sighed, slowly nodding. "Unfortunately, yes."

"Well, that's good to hear!" Togata suddenly exclaimed, bursting out of his sullen mood from before. His smile shined as he stood from his chair. "I don't misbelieve Eraserhead one bit if he thinks Midoriya is on our level. After all, he chose not to fight me. That shows some serious deductive skills!" 

Togata made a nod towards Izuku, which Izuku gladly returned.

"Anyways," Aizawa interjected, his voice raising somewhat. He set his gaze on the remaining first years present. "You four aren't exactly here because you volunteered. What do you all think about this?"

Uraraka and Tsu reaffirmed their wishes to save Eri however possible, Kirishima doing the same with the smashing of his hardened fists.

Setsuna, much to Izuku's chagrin, remained in place. She shifted a bit; her head rested on her hands now but remained on Izuku's head with her floating stumps almost covering Izuku's eyes. She responded to Aizawa's inquiry in kind.

"Definitely. It's sick what they're doing to the poor girl. Plus, I need to keep an eye of 'zuku here. He might be strong, but he still kinda sucks at reacting sometimes."

"Hey!"

"I just needed to make sure," Aizawa said. "But know this. The goal of this operation is saving Eri, nothing more. Our information as so far doesn't see the League of Villains as partners in any of this. But on the off chance that we're wrong and we do encounter any of them, that's where your role ends, alright?"

"Got it!" The four said together.

Aizawa nodded. "Good. Now that that's all settled, I think that it's time to—"

Izuku felt the shift as it occured. His body jerked side to side, almost knocking him from his chair. Setsuna toppled over from atop his head, but set herself in the air as she regained stability.

Once the shaking was over, Izuku found himself suddenly hampered by four extra protrusions strutting out from his back.

His hands immediately reached for his back and found that the struts had originated from his new backpack. The protrusions were about two to three feet in length, were colored a light yellowish gold, and ended in a roundish shape that had holes at their bottoms.

Izuku sighed. "Of course there'd be something like this."

"Midoriya." Aizawa asked.

"Hang on for just a second, Aizawa-sensei." Izuku reached for his back and attempted to push the protrusions back into place. As he tried this, Setsuna's head floated just nearby watching in silent amusement.

"That's something Mei made for you, ain't it?" 

"Are those what I think they are?" Kirishima asked, looking at the anomalies in interest.

Izuku tried forcing one strut in. It wouldn't budge. "Well, uh…"

"Midoriya," Aizawa grunted. "Is that thing even approved?"

Izuku blinked. "I… probably? Wait, uh, yeah. I think."

Then Izuku's phone rang from his pocket. He hesitated a bit, but eventually caved in and went for his phone despite the questioning gazes of everyone around him.

"Hello?"

"Izuku! How's it going?!"

Izuku instinctively moved his phone away from his ear; he turned to address everybody else, who were all watching him with various faces. 

"I'm gonna take this," Izuku said. "I'll be back in a bit."

Despite some words of protest and a heavy sigh from Aizawa, Izuku retreated away to the bathroom. After he made sure that the room was empty via his bugs, Izuku continued on with his call. 

"Mei!" he whispered. "What the heck!?"

"Sorry 'bout that! I was testing the remote capabilities of my baby!"

"Remote capabilities? What remote capabilities? I didn't agree to any of those!"

"Well, you kinda did when you accepted my gift without asking any pertinent questions."

"It was early. You knew that." Izuku rubbed his face. "So, you're saying that you can do this at any time you want to?"

"Like I said, testing!" Mei countered. "It's not like you need to worry. I'll make sure to only use it for emergencies."

"Yeah, whatever 'emergencies' means to you," Izuku muttered.

"Never mind that!" Mei cheered over the phone. "You like 'em?! I wanted to make them rotor powered at first, but I decided on an anti grav system with pseudo air propulsion and rocket systems instead! Now you have something like my boots, but on your back! And it's much more refined!"

"What are you…" Izuku took a breath. "How do you put them away?"

"Oh! It's voice activated! The password's 'Pony's Saddle!'"

Izuku let out a small laugh. "Right, you're still on that, aren't you?"

"It'd increase her abilities ten-fold!" Mei cleared her throat. "Anyways, as for the voice control, only you and I can do it, so you don't worry about villains taking advantage of it in the field."

Izuku clicked his tongue in thought. "Why'd you give this to me without telling me, anyways?"

"It was a surprise, doh!"

Izuku sighed. "At least tell me next time alright?"

"Sure sure. So, how'd the meeting go? What's your plan for saving that little girl, huh?"

"What?!" Izuku almost yelled. He lowered his voice even further and covered his mouth and phone with his hand to muffle the noise.

"How do you even know about that! It's supposed to be classified, and… I— You were listening in! Do you have bugs in the backpack?! Mechanical bugs, I mean!"

"Maybee…" Mei's voice echoed. "But that doesn't matter! Just trying to watch out for ya, you know? What happens if you get captured again? I need to know where you are. And being able to listen in to the villains would help plenty!"

Izuku's eyes lowered, disbelieving. "You really think that I'll get captured by villains again."

"Mhm. Definitely. It's almost a certainty."

Izuku sighed once more. He could feel the gray hairs slowly overtaking his greenish-black strands. So much of Mei's inventions in one day often made Izuku feel like that.

Still, Izuku was thankful that Mei would be thinking for him in such a way. "Thank you Mei… again. Though, you don't have any more surprises, right?"

"Nope! Nothing for now or the foreseeable future."

"And by 'foreseeable future' you mean…?"

"Eh." Izuku could feel her shrugging her shoulders over the phone.

"Right. Ahem. Pony's Saddle." Izuku felt the protrusions retreat and fold back seamlessly into his pack. 

"So, you gonna test them anytime soon?" Mei asked.

Izuku opened his mouth to retort, but stopped himself; he closed his mouth after a few moments. A small smile appeared on his face.

"Actually, I think I might test this baby out tomorrow night. I'll tell you how it goes after. But only after. You can wait until then, right?"

"Hmph. Fine."

"Good. Bye Mei, I've gotta get back to everyone else. See you later."

"You better test them tomorrow!"

"Of course I will."

"And you're sure that they're gone?" Izuku asked over his phone. "I mean, I suppose that I could try to see if I can sense them. But I'm not exactly confident in doing that considering what happened last time."

"Yes, I'm su—"

Izuku's eyes widened in revelation. "Hey, hold up! I just thought of it now, but you don't think that maybe the bomb and the drones were because of that Magamo guy? You know, the one you used to catch me in that act? He has that whole forgetting quirk."

"Really Midoriya? This again?" Kaniko's tone was completely flat.

"What?" Izuku deflected. "It just came to me now! I'm just covering all my bases."

"Well, to answer your question, we already checked in with him. He's still where we last left in; prison. In fact, he's being a good little prisoner, too."

"Besides it couldn't have been him. His quirk at the most only works on a couple people at a time. He wouldn't be able to handle blocking out everybody that was involved in the operation, even if he targeted a concept like 'drones.'"

Izuku nodded. "Fine, fine." 

Izuku utilized his silk rope yet again to climb down from the window of his room. He was a lot more careful in doing so this time around; after all, it was barely past six. The sun was only barely setting, and most of his classmates were still up and about doing whatever it was that they did. 

Izuku was stuck in such a predicament since it was the only time Kaniko was willing to let him do what they were about to do. She wasn't willing to let him go alone, after all.

And so, once he touched the ground, Izuku began sneaking around corners and utilizing his bugs to ensure nobody was around. He was slowly making his way to the nearest exit of the campus. 

As he did so, Izuku used his bugs to search out for Kaniko, lowering his voice to a whisper as he spoke into his phone. "You're in the green car across the street, right?"

"Using your bugs to spy on me, are ya?"

"Maybe."

"Uh huh." Kaniko paused. "Hey, you told that principal of yours that you're doing this, right?"

Izuku was nearing the gate. He giggled, just a bit, at Kaniko's question. "I don't need to. He's probably watching me sneaking out right now, actually."

"And you're sneaking out despite that?!?"

"He's fine with it. He told me so." Izuku turned the final corner leading to the gate and paused in his tracks.

"Ah, Midoriya! What are you doing out of bed on this lovely night?"

It was Nezu in the flesh, leaning lazily against the wall. Oddly enough, he was drinking from a cup of tea despite the inherent lack of any teapot nearby.

"And he's here right now," Izuku said into his phone. "Give me a few minutes until I get there, alright?"

"Midoriya—"

Izuku hung up his phone and turned his attention towards his principal.

"How are you able to hide from my bugs so well? Izuku asked. "I didn't even see any signs of you making your way over here."

"That's knowledge that I'll bring to my grave, Midoriya," Nezu said. He took a sip before continuing. "So, you're sneaking out again?"

"It's sanctioned. Kaniko — Miss Kaniyashiki, that is — is letting me do this."

"I'm aware of your handler's part in this. It makes me wonder exactly which of you two is more foolhardy and reckless."

Izuku stood by as Nezu took another sip of his tea. "So… I'm good, right?"

"Mhm. Good luck with that police business of yours."

Nezu took out and swiped down his card over the gate's sensor and opened said gate. Izuku continued on and nodded as he passed Nezu. 

Once he was finally outside of UA grounds, Izuku crossed the street and steadily made his way over to Kaniko's car. 

He went around the car and went to open the passenger side, but was interrupted by his principal shouting out from across the street.

"Try not to stay out too late Midoriya!" Nezu warned. "You still have more punishment training tomorrow!"

Izuku waved. "Thanks, principal Nezu! Don't worry, I'll be back soon!"

Nezu retreated back into campus and locked the gate behind him. Meanwhile, Izuku finally found himself within Kaniko's car. 

Once Izuku finally settled and put on his seatbelt, he finally noticed the disbelieving look on Kaniko's face.

Izuku smirked. "See? I told you."

It was already dark out when Kaniko pulled the key out of the ignition and groaned, moving to rest her forehead on the steering wheel. "I still can't believe that I'm letting you do this. Actually, I can't believe that I let you convince me into letting you do this. This is so utterly stupid of us."

"You aren't backing out, are you?" Izuku asked.

Kaniko sighed. "No, no. We're already here, after all. Might as well continue as planned."

"Alright." Izuku nodded. "So you're still staying put right here then?"

"It's not like I have the mobility that you now have, Midoriya. I'd be dead weight." Kaniko leaned back up in her seat. In one swift motion of her hand, Kaniko and her seat launched backwards into a reclining position. 

"I'll wait here. You go off and do your vigilante stuff."

Izuku sent a look at Kaniko. "It's not vigilante stuff if you're allowing it."

Kaniko guffawed. "Sure whatever keeps you happy. Nevermind the fact that you know what we're currently doing is against orders. Nighteye and such specifically knocked down your argument of letting you scout out their base for Eri."

"Which I still think was stupid," Izuku countered.

"In a certain way it is," Kaniko somewhat agreed. "While it may be true that there's virtually no risk for you, there's the off chance that they have something up their sleeves that we haven't anticipated."

"What do you mean? It's just another yakuza group. The only difference between them and other groups I've gone after in the past is that they're one of the head groups." Izuku paused. "That and how a large number of their members have powerful quirks… and the fact that they're making drugs that can permanently disable quirks and… Huh. It's really only hitting me now."

"Mhm." Kaniko hummed.

Izuku shook his head. "Well no matter. I should get going. We don't have all night, after all."

Izuku went to open the passenger door, but he was stopped by a rather abrupt interjection coming from Kaniko. Izuku turned back to address her. "Yes?"

"Hold on for just a sec…" She went searching around in her bag. After a few seconds, she pulled out a small, black earpiece. "Aha! Here ya go. Let's use this to communicate."

"An earpiece?" Izuku asked as he took the device. "But what about my—"

"I don't know about you Midoriya, but a swarm of talking bugs loitering in some person's car isn't exactly all too inconspicuous."

"Huh. Good point. Well, I'm off."

"Nobody's around?" Kaniko asked.

"Not a waking soul for three a whole three block radius."

"Good." Kaniko nodded from her reclined position. "See you in a bit, then. And don't forget the ski mask."

"Ah, right." Izuku reached into his backpack and took said mask out, placing it over his head.

Izuku finally got outside of the car and took a breath of the nighttime air. 

After a few light stretches, Izuku made his way over to a nearby alleyway. Once he was in the alley's midst, Izuku grabbed onto the straps of his new "backpack" and braced himself, taking in a few breaths.

"Pony's Saddle." The four protrusions shot out from his back; Izuku was only slightly jostled this time, having been ready for the sensation. Izuku made a quick check on the struts and was satisfied that the temporary changes to color had taken effect. The four struts were for now muted black and grey to ensure he'd blend into the rooftops during the night.

"Okay. If I remember correctly…" 

Izuku felt around within the inside compartment of his pack, where he had earlier hid a couple of his bugs. 

After a brief look around, Izuku found — just as Mei had explained to him the other day — a small hole that hadn't been there earlier. As per Mei's design, the hole had only appeared when the passcode was uttered. 

The hole acted as an on and off switch of sorts, the opening leading to a small passageway that bugs could fit through. Once at the end, the bugs would reach a small system of wires and controls that they could interact with in order to completely activate and operate the pack to its full capabilities.

And so after a few moments of light travel for the bugs, a slight humming had begun to emit from the pack. 

"Alright," Izuku muttered to himself. "Let's see here…" 

One of his bugs activated one of the controls. The pack slowly lifted Izuku off the ground, anti grav systems and small propolsions from the rounded ends of the struts working together to lift all his weight.

"Aha! It's working!" Once Izuku stabilized himself in the air, he moved on to his next bug. "Okay, to the right this time…"

Another bug made its work on another control, adding pressure to a plate to drive the pack rightwards. The rounded ends of the struts rolled to recompense the movement, their ends tilting left. The air blasted, and Izuku found himself being launched to his right.

"Too strong—!"

He crashed into a pile of gathered trash bags, the impact cushioned by a mixture of hard and soft waste within the black plastic.

Izuku shook his head. "Note to self: Use less pressure next time."

"Midoriya?" Kaniko's voice came through the earpiece. "What was that?"

Izuku stood up and began brushing himself off. "It was nothing," he responded. 

"You sure?" 

Izuku reoriented himself, then found himself steadily hovering in place. Once he readjusted himself and his bugs, he slowly began rising in the air. "Yeah, I'm good."

"If ya say so."

Izuku found himself at the same height of the rooftops. Once more, but plenty more carefully, izuku added pressure to the plates within his pack. He slowly moved forward and found the floor of the roof under his feet.

"Phew. I think that I've got it now."

"So you did crash just a second ago!" Kaniko said.

After a couple minutes travel via roof jumping and flight-induced leaps, Izuku found the supposed base of the Eight Precepts of Death within his range. It was a rather nice looking building, styled in a traditional sense with nothing really looking out of place. 

Izuku took notice of the abundance of guards, however, and watched each and every one with as sparingly few bugs as possible. Up from his position on a not so far-off roof where he laid prone, there was little chance of him being discovered. But all it would take would be somebody to notice some strange behavior of bugs, and it would all be over. So Izuku took the scouting slow.

It took nearly half an hour before he found what he was looking for. The subject of Izuku's search was a man with bangs and stylized bolts in his hair. One of Izuku's bugs had overheard him talking about a "that pesky girl" and dreading having to "check on that rascal agan." 

Izuku set one bug on the man's hair and another in his breast pocket. More bugs were sent in close proximity to him, setting watch for his actions. Eventually the man found himself in front of a wall. After a patterned pressing of a couple different wooden planks, the wall opened up into a stairway leading to underneath the building. 

Izuku took the moment for what it was worth. He sent as many bugs as he could without risking the chance that they would be spotted. By the time the man had entered and the door closed behind him, a couple dozen bugs had infiltrated the complex. 

Izuku immediately went to work. He sent a few bugs ahead, exploring what he could of the underground facility. Some doors were open, while others were closed and completely without any ways to get past them, no vents or spaces underneath. Still, Izuku thought that it would be enough. All he needed to do was memorize as much of the complex as he could. 

The man Izuku was following was rather slow, pandering about and often stopping to have conversations with others he passed by. It took another half hour for the man to finally reach his destination — a dark, sealed off room complete with various toys and designs that would invoke signs of a young girl.

In fact, once the man had walked in, some of Izuku's bugs saw movement from the bed. There laid a young girl with a horn on her head who was pulling her covers up to her face, shielding herself from the man.

"Hey calm down, it's just me again," the man said. Izuku personally thought that his tone was rather off, something he attributed to the man faking his kindness. He began walking towards Eri, leaving the door wide open. Izuku used the chance to let in a good portion of his bugs, leaving around half of his gathered force outside to distribute throughout the base at hidden places for later observation. 

The man sat down on the bed and patted Eri's head. "Now, I know that I'm not supposed to give you any snacks after dinner, but do you want any?"

She shook her head in response.

The man scoffed. "Suit yourself then. I'll be back to check in on you in the morning with breakfast. So go to sleep, alright?"

 The man walked away without looking back, closing the door with a loud, heavy slam. That left Eri all alone in the room lit by only a faint lamp on her nightstand. Once Izuku ensured that the man was far enough away and talking to another of his colleagues, Izuku formed up his bugs into a small swarm.

Izuku came at a blank with what to say. "Kaniko," Izuku said into his headset, careful not to transmit the words to his bugs. 

"Huh? Whazza?"

"Kaniko. I need to know what I should say to a little girl in distress."

"Huh? What?" Her voice sounded much more alert. "You mean that you found her? She's in there?!?" 

"Yes. So, what should I say?"

'Don't say anything to her!" Kaniko exclaimed.

"What? Why not?" Izuku asked.

"She could compromise the entire operation! Tell the Precepts about it!"

"She won't do that! Why would she tell her captors about a police raid on this place that's coming to save her?!"

"Umm…"

Izuku paused. The voice wasn't Kaniko's. He finally noticed Eri staring at his bugs. Izuku ignored the rest of Kaniko's words.

"Oh. Uh… hi, Eri." The swarm's voice was rather small, almost quiet and nonexistent. A direct result of not having as many bugs gathered to make the usual sounding voice.

Eri pulled her sheets back up to her face. "What are you?"

It took a second for Izuku to realize that she was referring to his swarm.

" Umm… You can call me Izuku." 

Her eyes narrowed. "You're a swarm of bugs called Izuku?"

"Oh, uh, no. It's my quirk. I'm using my bugs to talk to you right now."

She blinked. So you're a person?"

Izuku's swarm moved up and down to stimulate nodding. She lowered her blanket slightly, her nose peeking above the fabric. "Is what you said true?"

"What do you mean?"

"The thing about the rescue thing. Are you… are you coming to get me?"

"... I guess that I was speaking aloud?"

She nodded.

"Huh. Well, that saves me the trouble, I guess. Yes, we are coming. Just sit tight, alright? We'll be her in full force soon."

"Soon?" Her blanket had completely removed itself from her face now. She was actually leaning forward in anticipation.

"I promise. A couple days at most. Tomorrow at the soonest, but don't get your hopes up on that. You'll just have to wait until then, okay?"

Eri deflated. "Fine."

The swarm bobbed up and down and then formed a makeshift thumbs up.

"I'll see you soon, Eri. Do you have any other questions before I leave?"

She shook her head. "No. Not really."

"Alright. Then I'll be going no— There aren't any vents or cracks in here. Huh."

"What's the matter?" She tilted her head.

"There isn't a way out for my bugs. When I get far enough they sort of get out of my control, so—"

"You can use the boxes with the toys in them."

Izuku hesitated. "Are you sure—"

"Yes." She had already gotten off her bed and emptied out a box, dumping the contents on the ground. She held it open for the waiting swarm.

"Huh. Well, okay then." The swarm flew inside and packed together. Eri subsequently closed the box. "Just don't open it while I'm gone, okay?"

"Mhm. I'll make sure." She brought the swarm-infested box up to her face, and peered at the bugs behind the plastic. "But I might open when you guys come and Overhaul gets me. Is that okay?"

"I don't see a problem with that."

"Thank you."

"Of course. See you soon Eri. Bye."

Izuku cut the connection with his bugs and found himself back on the roof. He reached to his ear and spoke into his headset.

"Kaniko? You there?"

"Yeah I am!" she said. "Did you really just tell her everything?!?"

"What?" Izuku stood from his spot and activated his flightpack. Once he was hovering steadily, he slowly made his way back to where Kaniko had parked.

"It was actually easier than I thought," Izuku continued. "It kinda felt like we were on the same wavelength when we were talking. It was kinda nice."

Notes:

Raid's up next time, and you know what that means! Action! Fighting! Death! (Kidding).

Well, see you all next time!