99

Chapter 99: Trajectory

A/N: And here go a bit of character interactions! This time around, we'll be adding up to the current team of co-conspirators to Izuku's cause.

Izuku held off from sending his bugs up ahead to see who Nezu had been referring to. He didn't exactly want to know the identities of the visitors ahead of time. That way Izuku would be able to hold in any possible anger he had for the Nezu for just the last second — all just to spite the rodent if the need arose, of course.

So there Izuku found himself, walking down the halls of the aforementioned rodent's secret underground complex that also happened to act as a sort of technically illegal super prison.

He spared a few sideways glances at the cells and their occupants within as he passed by, nodding to himself as he found each of the prisoners still unconscious from the drugs running through their systems.

Of course, that observation was exempted from the ones who weren't of parahuman origin — those being Caustic, Toga, and the infamous Doctor Garaki. The first two were acting like their normal selves — lounging around and pacing ever so often in thoughts — As for the latter… not so much.

It didn't take much longer until Izuku reached the designated elevator and got right in. It was a bit cramped inside, him having to duck his head just a bit and even then only having enough room for maybe one other passenger. According to Nezu's words, it was a sort of defense mechanism to ensure he wouldn't get overwhelmed if such a situation came to fruition.

"Huh."

Izuku looked over to his left, finding Taylor to have manifested and taken up the space.

"Yes, Taylor?" Izuku asked.

Taylor pointed her thumb up above. "Some rather interesting visitors with Nezu. Can't say that I mind them being informed of all our little escapades."

"Is that so?" Izuku said, holding back a sigh. Because of course Nezu would go ahead and do something like that — not that Izuku really minded at this point. Everything done by Nezu so far had proven to be useful or at the very least beneficial at one time or another.

A sliver of light invaded Izuku's vision, seeping into the enclosed space through the growing crevice up above, signifying the ride nearing its end.

Izuku heard a few muffled gasps of surprise — as expected really, considering the elevator's design — as a section of the floor in Nezu's office opened up.

As the elevator settled down, Izuku found himself between the two chairs in front of Nezu's desk, the seats having been moved aside on the moving mechanisms of the floor to make way for Izuku's arrival.

Izuku's gaze turned towards his left, revealing a bewildered Best Jeanist, whose eyes gave away enough of his intrigue to make the notion obvious. To Izuku's right sat Hawks, heavily burned and injured across his body aside from the one pristine wing on his left side — the only thing of his that had left his battle with the League unharmed.

Todoroki stood beside the one-winged hero, looking out of place among the others in the room. Though, Izuku mused, the same could have been considered about himself, in a way.

"Well," Izuku began, looking between the two visitors pros, "can't say that I was expecting you two."

Izuku then walked off the elevator, inciting the platform to descend back down into the earth and the two chairs back to their original positions. Once the platform settled he found his spot behind the two's chairs. It was only then that Izuku considered the surprised looks of the pros, turning to Todoroki.

"Did they not see you use the elevator, or…?"

"Traveler brought me up here," Todoroki answered. "He said that because of his payment for tonight's travels that he was swimming in money. He wanted to do more, he said, as he considered it too much."

Best Jeanist raised his finger in preparation to speak.

Izuku interrupted him before he could get a word out of his mouth. "Yes, Nezu designed it like that on purpose. No, he thought up of the idea himself."

"Indeed I did!" Nezu cheered, already pouring a cup of tea for his wayward student, who graciously accepted the offering.

"Hmm," Best Jeanist hummed. "I must say that I wasn't expecting that. Gave me the feeling that I get from surprise denim."

Izuku blinked. "Surprise… denim."

Jeanist nodded. "Specifically, the feeling I get from new jeans on Christmas morning."

"Oho! I know that feeling!" Nezu exclaimed. "I must say that I feel quite similar whenever I find myself terrorizing my students on a daily basis!"

Hawks' fingers suddenly started tapping away at the phone in his hands. -Yeeaaahhhhh! Mighty cool! Can't say that I share the same feeling though!-

Izuku blinked, this time for his recognition of the voice Hawks was using for his text-to-speech program.

"Is that… a Present Mic text-to-speech program?"

Hawks rolled his eyes with a huff.

-I'm not the one that chose this, little listener!-

"Yes, that would be me," Jeanist said with a slight chuckle. "I decided to have some fun and chose the program that specifically changed what he types into something more of what Present Mic himself would say."

Hawks' fingers tapped onto his phone once more. -And I'm getting back at you for it later, villain! Yeah!-

Izuku shook his head in amusement, taking a sip of his tea afterwards. "So.. What brought two such prominent pros into Nezu's office?" Izuku flew some of his bugs around to look at the office's clock. "Especially since it's nearly one in the morning?"

-We were following up on the whereabouts of that nasty man! That Doctor Garaki, you know!-

Jeanist nodded. "Yes. We were hoping to see if we could get anything out of him regarding any possible hideouts of All For One. It took us a fair bit, but we finally tracked him down to the Musutafu police department."

-His face when he learned of Nezu getting the Doctor was hilarious!-

"Yes. So we came up around here to talk to Nezu, you see. Considering the way things are, we have not a moment to lose. And we knew that Nezu would accommodate us — it's how he is after all." Jeanist paused. "And now that we've brought it up again, it's just come to me that he completely avoided our questions."

Izuku sighed. "And he diverted you by talking about my less-than-legal activities, then?"

-That have anything to do with the weird elevator, my man?!-

Izuku looked over to Nezu, who was busy looking innocent as can be. It wasn't working, of course. "How far along did you get with them?"

Nezu refilled his cup with a flourish. "Well, I was just getting to that time you fought off a criminal while you wore a backpack over your head!"

-Technically, I'm already aware of everything the principal should have to tell us considering my — AHEM — connection to the HPSC. I've read up on you, Little Listener! I know almost everything there is to know about you! Not in a creepy way, of course! I was just interested—

Hawks shook his head, his fingers pressing down on the backspace button on the phone. Nevermind. Point is, I let Nezu be — It was mostly for Jeanist's benefit, ya know?!-

Izuku cocked his head in thought. Then he smirked. "So you know about the fact that Garaki kidnapped me?"

Jeanist nodded. "We do. And we are glad to see you coping so well after such a thing."

Izuku scoffed. "As if. Would I surprise you to say I wanted to kill the bastard?"

-Understandable, actually-

Izuku took a nonchalant sip of his tea. "You know about the fact that I can body snatch people and puppet their bodies?"

Jeanist blinked. "We were informed abo— People? As in, more than just Shigaraki's body?"

Izuku hummed. "Mhm. Though it's limited to parahumans only."

"Para... humans?"

"And I used it today," Izuku continued, marching right through Jeanist's questioning look. "Made a move with a couple of my friends. We have nine serial killers locked up in the basement because of it."

-SJBg8034jfw2Gcw2p;031! !-

A few feathers involuntarily shot out from Hawks' wing, impaling themselves in the ceiling and walls of the office.

On the other hand, Jeanist merely hummed. "I believe that your sudden exclamation led me to just wrinkling my jeans."

"Izuku!" Nezu screeched, tea spilling out from his held teacup. Izuku blanched, jumping in place at the spectacle.

Shit! I've never heard such a tone from Nezu! What did I—

"You ruined storytime!"

It took Izuku a few seconds to really process what Nezu had said. "Seriously?"

"What?! It's true!" Nezu slammed his cup down on his table. "I had this whole slideshow planned! With pictures! Many pictures! Like of you getting stabbed by Miss Toga during your first meeting—"

"Where'd you get those?!"

"—and that time you got caught by the police! And that time you were scouting out the Shie Hassaikai compound by your lonesome—"

-He did what now?!-

"—and of you and your friends demolishing the Nine like the h̵u̴m̷a̷n̵ ̵s̷c̴u̸m̶ ̴t̶h̴a̴t̴ ̴t̵h̴e̷y̸ ̴a̷r̷—

Izuku sent a whole contingent of wasps towards Nezu. They were taken out quite quickly — one moment they were in the air, and the next all seventy of the hornets were either bisected, wingless, frozen, or burnt.

Nezu was unhurt, and he may have had an unamused glare pointing straight as Izuku, but he had stopped in his maniacal monologuing — just as planned.

"You've proven my point," Izuku interjected. "The way you were telling it, we would've been up here for hours. And it's already late enough into the night."

"Bah!" Nezu sank down into his seat, crossing his arms. "Fine! Do what you want."

Izuku nodded. "Thank you." Down back below, Izuku got some of his bugs to call the elevator up.

-Wait. What exactly are we doing?-

"It's about that Garaki lead."

Best Jeanist arched an eyebrow. "Yes?"

"Well… it's a dead end."

"And… how can you be so sure?"

Izuku opened his mouth to speak, though closed it after a moment's thought. He looked over to Nezu, who was lying back in his seat, looking up to the ceiling and humming a cheery tune.

Izuku shrugged. "Just take my word for it."

The floor separated itself yet again,revealing the elevator down to the underground complex. Though, Izuku noticed a slight difference from when he was on the elevator last.

"...You can make it bigger?"

Nezu chuckled. "Who ever said that I couldn't?"

Izuku sighed. He waved his hand for everyone to follow him into the elevator.

As they all made their way in, Todoroki decided that it was his moment to ask something that had been bugging him for a good amount of time now.

"You know, "I still don't understand what Traveler meant; why would anyone ever want to swim in piles of money?"

Izuku sighed, a smile forming on his face as he covered his eyes in exasperation.

-Because then they'd be exactly like Scrooge McDuck!-

They all looked towards Hawks.

"...Who?"

-Uncultured brats-

The doors closed, leaving Nezu alone in his office as the four began their descent.

The doors to the elevator opened up. It just so happened that the opening of the doors coincided with another event, leading to the eyes of Izuku, Todoroki, Jeanist, and Hawks to meet those of Spinner.

The man in mention was outfitted with the same collar as those from Kentaro's group, secured tightly around his neck. Though, given his status as a technical ally, he was free to wander the complex unhindered.

And so there he was, familiarizing himself with surroundings and eating an ice cream cone that he'd found in the snack room. It just so happened that he stumbled by the elevator at the same time the others arrived.

Spinner stopped in his place, mouth hanging open in surprise. "Uhh…"

Best Jeanist and Hawks sprung forward in defense. But their advance was stopped by the unseen rope of spider silk that was strung up at the heights of their necks, causing it to collapse.

Izuku had his spiders dismantle the silk and called them back over. "No attacking our resident temporary ally, please."

"Ally?" Jeanist asked, rubbing his head as he stood himself up.

"Yup," Izuku said. "We've come to an… agreement. We need all we can if we're going to go against All For One."

Spinner let out a nervous chuckle. "Yeah… I'll just go then." He didn't hesitate, prolonging his escape for not a moment longer.

"Come on," Izuku said, motioning for Hawks and Jeanist to follow. "Todoroki, go ahead and check on the others if you don't mind. Tell them they can head up to bed — and at the same time even, if Nezu decides to keep the elevator as is. I'll finish up on things down here."

Todoroki nodded, walking off in the other direction. The other two present began to follow Izuku in earnest.

"Others?" Jeanist asked.

"My friends," Izuku reaffirmed. "They helped last night in taking down the Kentaro and his band of killers. And before you ask, I'd like to let you know that we all left the scene unharmed. There wasn't a scratch on us."

Still think that it's rather irresponsible of you, Little Listener! And besides, what would the Commission think of you going out and breaking their terms of your deal with them?-

"Are you going to tell them?"

-As if!-

"Then I don't have to worry about them finding out; not that they have the capacity to even do anything about it at the moment in the first place, anyways."

"Right, sure," Jeanist interjected. "If you wouldn't mind me asking, where exactly are we going?" Jeanist when pointed at the greyed out glass panes of glass that they had begun to pass by. "And are these what I think they are?"

"Mhm." Izuku ordered around a couple within the complex's control room. The place was isolated by most of the complex aside from a miniscule tube that led into the room from the elevator shaft, much like the first room that Nezu had set up as a test. It was there that Izuku willed his bugs to lower down the opaqueness of the windows, allowing insight to the cells and the prisoners within.

"In all honesty, the advanced nature of this place baffles me," Izuku admitted. "Of course, it's even more baffling when you consider the place wasn't as big and advanced as before last week. But that's Nezu for you — always pulling convenient stuff out of nowhere."

"As for where we're going," Izuku continued, referring to Jeanist's first question, "I have another lead that could get you what you want. You'll just have to stay outside the cell for this one."

"Outside?" Jeanist asked, eyeing the cells that they'd been passing so far. "Is this prisoner awake, then?"

"She is," Izuku confirmed. "We can use quirk suppressors on her, so that's why. And don't worry, you can watch and listen. Just need to activate the one way glass mechanisms in her cell."

-Any reason why we can be seen?-

Izuku shrugged. "She's more… receptive. when it's just me. Though, I suppose that the same could possibly apply to Uraraka… but she's not involved in any of this, so I haven't exactly tried."

Izuku stopped before a cell. He motioned the others towards the glass as he himself walked towards the door. "And here we are. Mind not saying anything as I open the door? Don't want her to know that you're here."

Hawks smirked. -Won't have a problem here-

Jeanist nodded. "I'll refrain from unnecessary noise until the door has been sealed."

"Make sure that includes any gasps of surprise," Izuku retorted, beginning to open the door. "And wish me luck."

The door shut behind him with a heavy slam. The forceful and fast swing of the door was an obvious expulsion of force on Izuku's behind. The stimulus from the noise and weight of the door would have even acted as a good distraction for the hurtling body that had begun to make way for Izuku — if he hadn't already known that it was coming, anyways.

Izuku could feel the fingers press into his costume, looking for a way in and through to his skin. He paid it no heed, taking priority to grab at the others' arm, using the momentum to flip his attacker over and onto their back.

"OWW! Izuku!~"

"What did you expect me to do?" Izuku asked, only mildly irritated. "Leave you to have your way with me?"

"Oh, I don't know," Toga giggled, seating herself up on the floor with crossed legs. "I wouldn't have minded~"

Izuku sighed. He backed away, keeping sure that his eyes never left Toga. She happily let out a wicked and toothy grin, it only widening as Izuku planted himself the farthest he could across from her.

He didn't sit down, of course. Toga was tremendously fast when she wanted to for someone without a speed quirk. Not to mention her capability to seemingly disappear for moments at a time.

It was true that she, too, had a collar. But Izuku wasn't taking any chances with his obsessed yandere stalker, and remained standing in preparation for attacks.

"So, watcha want?" Toga asked, rocking her body back and forth. "At this point I'd expect business considering all the past times… Unless you're here for pleasure instead!?"

Izuku kept up his blank stare.

"Hmph! Meanie!" Toga whined, lowering her head. Her head then snapped over to meet Izuku's eyes. "Can I at least have some—"

"Maybe after."

Toga's words died on her tongue, the sounds coming out becoming a stuttering mess. "I— Wha—You— Really?!"

She shot forward. Izuku just barely was able to stop her advance by holding a foot out and pressing it against her torso, keeping her just out of reach. The distance wasn't so far a distance that Izuku missed the absolute adoration in the girl's eyes, however.

Toga switched over to hugging the leg, pressing her face against its length. "You'll really give me some of your blood?! After all this time of me asking? Like, really really? No tricks or anything?"

"Well, I'm not going to go asking Uraraka around for her blood. And I'd seem like some sort of creep if I'd get caught collecting her blood from our hero exercises. So, yeah. I will. No tricks."

Toga let go of Izuku's leg, allowing herself to collapse back to the floor and onto her butt. She planted her hands out to her side and onto the floor, blowing a few strands of her hair off from the center of her face before looking back at Izuku

"I'll be upfront with you. I'd like to know all possible locations of where the rest of the League could possibly be hiding."

Toga grimaced. "You want me to... sell out my friends? I— Why should I even consider something like that?"

Izuku sighed. He walked over to face the glass pane, turning his back to the girl behind him. It was a sign of trust, even if they both knew that Izuku's bugs could see an attack near instantly coming from three blocks away.

Toga's eyes even widened at the action, her head tilting to the side in thought.

And — even if Toga didn't know it herself — as Izuku stared right into the glass, he was staring right at Best Jeanist and Hawks as well.

"The world out there is a bad one," Izuku proclaimed. "I know it. My friends know it. You know it. And so does Dabi. And Twice. And the whole rest of your team, Toga."

"All those heroes 'resigning' because things are getting too hard? Citing that for the first time in their life things are not in their control? Quitting just because public opinion is against them? They aren't real heroes."

"Heroes are the people who stay behind and help the masses. Heroes are the ones who actually stop to check in on the crying kid on a street corner, take the time to ensure the civilians are safe after a fight rather than partake in an interview. Heroes are the ones who persevere, and don't give up when things are down. They give all they can, to ensure a brighter future."

"The country needs to change for the better. Needs to change into a place where people like you, or Dabi, or Twice aren't mere statistics. A place where your types of stories never end up happening in the first place."

Izuku turned around to face Toga, crossing his arms behind his back. "That's the type of place I'd want the country to strive for. That's the place I want to make way for. That's the sort of place that I want to make."

Toga huffed, her chest puffing out before her. "And you think you can do that?"

"No." Izuku smirked. "Not by myself, of course. But I think that by this point, I have some rather... hefty allies that will help move such a vision along."

Izuku moved forward, making sure to keep his movements slow and deliberate. He made his way in front of Toga, lowering himself to sit himself right in front of her. "I won't kill any of them. I'd rather avoid casualties, in fact. The people in the League aren't the irredeemable types. They aren't monsters like Kentaro or All For One."

"But they're broken in some way," Toga spat out with a scoff. "Right?"

"Not by any circumstance you could have handled. But I promise that I'd do all I can to ensure they get the help that they need."

Toga sighed, leaning her head back to stare at the ceiling. Her voice came through just barely above a squeak, an involuntary release of thought for all intents and purposes. And while the words were mostly unintelligible, Izuku could tell what the girl was asking. He heard the question clear as day.

'Just like you promised me?'

"Just like I promised you." Izuku leaned back as well, a smile forming on his face. "After all, I still owe you that favor, don't I?"

Toga descended into a fit of giggles, collapsing down on her side on the floor.

There was a blur.

Izuku shot his leg out, feeling it collide with a thump and a slight cry. His arms moved, catching Toga's head in their grasp mere inches before her mouth reached for his exposed neck.

"Awww!" Toga whined. "I thought that I'd get you for sure this time!"

"Toga," Izuku admonished.

"Can I come with you then?"

Izuku blinked, keeping sure to keep up the strength in his arms. The only thing reaching his neck so far were the hot breaths from the girl's mouth, and that was as far as he was willing to allow Toga to get.

"Promise to at least lessen your tendencies to jump me?"

"Hmmm... Okay!" She backed away to her previous sitting position, though this time leaned a bit forwards, offering out her pinky finger."

"But you have to pinky promise — everything you said before about not killing and changing society. Do that for me, 'kay?"

Izuku glanced at the offered pinky, hesitant at completing the action. There was a single stipulation he had in mind, after all.

"I… there's a chance that I won't be able to get Shigaraki out unharmed. Not after his transformation, and especially not with All For One in his head. Is that—"

"Okay?" Toga sighed. "You have to try, 'zuku. Or I'll have to punish you."

Izuku nodded, interlocking his pinky with hers. "Think of it like this: if I don't keep up with my promises, you have my word that you can strike me down. I won't stop you from doing so."

"Yay!" Toga cheered, her face inching downwards. As her open max went towards the interlocked pinkies, Izuku's other hand came up to meet Toga's jaw, causing the girl to recoil in pain.

"No biting, Toga."

"Fiiinnneeee."

A/N: Just in case some of you couldn't tell, we're nearing the final showdown. And with that, ever nears the end of this fic. So be prepared for that! Hope you all enjoyed this week's chapter!

Also: Songs of the Cicada has us catching up on Toga and how exactly she's gotten to her current position in this chapter. So... check that out if you're interested.

Anyways, till next time in Chapter 100!