Chapter Text
It had been a quite Friday night. A fact that Shouta was more than thankful for – after all his week had been stressful enough without having to chase some deviant villain through some dirty alley to boot.
God, he couldn't wait to crawl into his bed.
He landed on the low roof of a supermarket and was just about to jump down to the side-walk below, so he could make his way home, when he heard a pained grunt coming from a close by alley. Barely a second later he had already changed his course, his bed forgotten as he slipped his goggles over his eyes.
He crept close to the alley, hidden in the shadows, his dark costume making it all the easier. The scene he saw was nothing that surprised him. It nearly looked like a fist fight that had gotten out of control… yet it seemed too vicious, too angry somehow.
On the ground was a person. Shouta's best guess was that it was a man, going purely on stature without being able to see anything else. Standing over the downed person was another man – eye-catching blond hair styled upwards, into a prominent cone shape that was easy enough to spot even in the dim light of the alley.
Tacky, Shouta thought to himself.
The blond man had a near mad grin splitting his face as he kicked the person on the ground two more times and then, surprisingly enough – just as Shouta wanted to spring on him to stop him – the blond man let up in his assault.
Shouta stopped and instead choose to watch a little longer to maybe gather a few hints about what had happened first.
The blond man straightened up fully and Shouta realized that he must be at least as tall as him. The blond pulled his dark leather jacket into place again, as it had seemingly slipped slightly from his movements, and in the same motion lifted his right hand to push his tinted glasses further up his nose with his middle finger.
“Scumbag.” the blond hissed through his teeth, loud enough for Shouta to catch. It made Shouta frown for a second…
Was something going on that he didn't have all the details to? Had the man on the ground attacked the blond first and it had been self-defence? Then again the blond really didn't seem like some innocent civilian in his get up. More like a tacky villain with some illusions of grandeur, really.
Shouta frowned as he mulled over his options. He could always just spring on the blond and tie him up before he even knew what had happened… but he somehow had the nagging feeling that he was missing some crucial puzzle piece.
Then again better save than sorry.
He didn't know what quirk this man might have and he hadn't planned on ending up dead in a ditch tonight. That would be kind of an inconvenience after all and ruin quite a few of his plans.
The blond man, still unaware of his presence, patted himself down, clearing away imaginary dust, moving as if he was putting on a show for no one in particular. He made a motion as if he wanted to crouch down and Shouta took the opportunity.
His capture weapon snapped forwards to wrap around the other man… but sadly the blond must have seen some kind of movement out of the corner of his eyes or maybe a reflection in his tinted glasses – and took a half stumbling step back letting out a startled ‘woah!’.
Of course this couldn't be easy, Shouta thought, disgruntled about the fact that the blond actually managed to dodge by a hairs breadth – that's what he got for not using full force.
He pulled at one of the tendrils around his neck, letting the weapon puff up around him.
“Woah! Time out! Time out!” the blond man yelled, both hands in front of him as if he wanted to calm Shouta down – as if he was staring down some wild and highly dangerous animal. He took a few additional steps back “I can explain!” he added hastily.
Shouta took a step closer and the other man took one back in response, still there was nowhere to run, this particular alley was a dead end and if the blond wanted to flee he’d have to get past Shouta first.
The blond let out a nervous sounding giggle, hands flying in the air as he started blabbering “Hey, I think I know who you are. You are that infamous, nameless underground hero. The weird scarf kinda gave it away… also the yellow goggles.”
Shouta bristled at the knowledge that this man seemingly knew who he was facing, but the blond didn't seem to notice his stiff posture and simply continued to talk.
“You should see some of the hot shots around, thinking they are the big cheese, yo. But the second anyone brings you up they pee their pants, it’s actually really hilarious.
Anyway, I just hope that we can talk this out, you know? I'm not gonna do anything, promise. Just let me explain.”
Shouta regarded the other man a few more tense seconds, his brows furrowing in something akin to disbelieve “You must think I'm royally stupid.”
“No, well, actually I was hoping that you might be royally generous and not pummel me into the ground without at least hearing me out, you know?”
“Why should I trust you?”
The blond turned his hands pointing at himself and then making an indicating motion at Shouta “Look. I'm not a moron. I know when I'm outmatched. I'm not gonna take my chances with you. I know you took down people with powerful quirks like it was nothing and there’s a whole lot of speculation how you do it. Fact is, no one really knows.
I assume you have some kind of non-physical quirk, maybe something psychological that takes out people, maybe something like that Midnight woman, or something else disabling. So you see, I'm not too keen to roll a dice on that and be wrong in the end. I rather like my shiny white teeth where they are, thank you very much”
Shouta felt a wave of irritation flood through him at the unceasing babble but more than that he felt like he suddenly was the one who needed to be on defence – even if he arguably seemed to have an advantage.
The fact that the blond could piece together so much of his quirk from mere word of mouth… was concerning.
Whoever was in front of him was dangerous thanks to his intelligence alone, nevermind the quirk he might have.
“Then talk and make it fast.” Shouta nearly hissed, his chronically dry eyes burning with the way he had them unblinkingly fixed on the other man – wary of letting him out of his sight even if he didn't have erasure activated.
The blond was strange, clearly dangerous, yet he didn't really look like much – thin and long limbed, nearly lanky – but Shouta still felt all the red lights flash in his mind, telling him that there was something more, that he shouldn't believe what he was seeing.
“Okay.” the blond said “I’m gonna move, don't suplex me or something out of reflex. Yeah?”
Shouta didn't answer and after a few seconds the blond moved towards the unconscious person on the ground, he reached out his hands very slowly and turned them over. Shouta realized that his first suspicion had been right, it was indeed a man.
The blond, still very slowly, pushed his right hand into the other mans inner jacket pocket – his head tilted towards Shouta from time to time, nearly nervously, Shouta's best guess with the tinted glasses obscuring the other mans eyes was that the blond was watching him, making sure he wasn't moving.
The blond man pulled out a plastic pack of pills and threw them to the ground in front of Shouta's feet before he started rustling through the other pockets of the mans jacket and finally pulled out an old-looking flip phone.
He placed that one gently on the ground in front of himself and then stood up to walk backwards, hands again raised in a submissive motion.
“What’s that?” Shouta asked, eyes momentarily flickering down to the pill pack and then up to the blond man again.
“If you ask what those are exactly, like what’s in them, then I have to tell you that I really don't know.” the blond shrugged “But if you ask what they are for, now that I can answer. I bet my ass that if you get them analyse you're gonna find out those are some KO or date rape drugs.”
Shouta blinked, feeling stumped for a second “And how would you know that?”
The blond man gave a cocky grin “Cause, I have been hunting down this scumbag for three weeks now. Piece of shit is part of a human trafficking group, kidnapping women and shipping them over seas … he’s also really hard to track down. That really took some time out of my days, I’ll tell you.
Anyways, I bet you'll find a lot of names and contacts on his phone. Actually that was exactly my endgame when I sprung on this dude and clubbed him in the head, no sense trying to hide that, now is there, hero?”
Shouta saw the other man giving him an eyebrow wiggle.
“Anyways…” the blond continued “How about we work out a deal? You seem like a decent enough sort as far as heroes go from what I’ve heard. So… tell you what? You take all that stuff.” he inclined his head to the phone, the pills and lastly the unconscious man, as if that had been some kind of afterthought “And set to work on getting the leader of that group behind bars and in exchange for all this info I unwittingly provided you, you're not going to slam my pretty face into the nearest wall? That’s sounds good, doesn't it?”
Shouta squinted at the man standing in front of him “And what exactly are you? A weird villain? A self-proclaimed vigilante? Someone with a personal vendetta?”
The blond shrugged “Someone with standards I would say. You’re doing me a favour too by getting rid of those assholes.” he gave another cocky grin “So, what say you? Good deal? Yes or nay?”
Shouta remained silent for a long moment, contemplating.
“You don't have to worry about me springing on anyone.” the blond filled the silence with his blabber “Well, at least not on some law abiding citizen. Might be different if I find another one from that group though, so no promises there.” the blond paused for a second, seemingly thinking, before he continued.
“I realize I'm probably not making the best case for myself by mentioning that but, eh, you know. Honesty can open some closed doors here or there. And I assume you wouldn't do anything different if you met one of them, so...” he trailed off, giving another shrug.
Shouta took a few steps forwards and saw the blond man drawing up his shoulder in unconscious self-defence.
The blond gave a nervous giggle “Be gentle with me?” he asked, though it sounded somewhat strained.
Shouta flung his capture weapon out – the other man flinched back as if trying to dodge – and wrapped it around the phone on the ground, pulling the device into his hand. He flipped it open and pulled up the contacts. He scrolled in silence, his eyes flickering from the bright screen to the other man opposite of him to make sure the blond didn't get any ideas.
The first few names told him absolutely nothing, but he finally stumbled as he read the name Hideyoshi. He continued scrolling, finding another few names that he could link to recent criminal activities.
He grit his teeth. He was going to regret this wasn't he? His whole body was tense and then he let out an annoyed sigh, his shoulders slumping “Get out of here, before I change my mind.”
For a second the blond seemed stumped but then he flew into motion “Good on you hero! Have fun with all that info!” he hastily scrambled past Shouta, giving him two finger guns before he slipped to the exit of the alley “No offence but I hope we never see each other again!” he called and with that he vanished around the corner. Out of sight but not out of mind.
Shouta sighed again and touched a hand to his forehead. He really shouldn't have let the blond go. He might have done something arguably good right now but who knew what else he was up to in his free time.
One could never know with such types.
He shook his head and instead bowed down and picked up the pack of pills. He stuffed both the phone and the package into one of his pockets and then took the last few steps towards the unconscious man on the ground.
He patted him down, and let out an irritated grunt as he pulled a handgun from one of the pockets. The man didn't seem to have any other arms on him though and so Shouta simply tied him up and pulled his own phone out, speed-dialing the police station.
When they arrived the typical spiel happened. Seeing his hero licence, noting his ID – since Shouta had no name to go by – writing down the time of the capture, and so on and so on.
“How did you catch him anyway?” the woman, Takahashi, asked. She had been in the police force for quite a few years and usually worked the night shifts. She was a tall woman, with a pair of sharp grey eyes burning from beneath two very prominent eyebrows.
She and Shouta ran into each other quite often and were well acquainted at this point.
Shouta gave a dismissive shrug “I found him like that. Guess I just got lucky.” was all he said.
Takahashi gave him a furrow-browed look, grey eyes sweeping over his face for a second, yet she didn't say anything else, simply giving a respectful bow that Shouta mirrored before she and her partner vanished with the villain in tow. Their car headed to the police station.
And so, nearly an hour later than originally planned, Shouta ended his patrol, finally making his way home.
Hopefully he wouldn't run into that weird blond man again.
For a while after the strange encounter life went on as it always did and after the third week had passed Shouta had nearly forgotten all about it again – merely another weird day as a hero. After all, in Shouta's profession there were more ‘unusual’ days than not.
It was a Saturday evening, one of his two free days when it came to hero work, and he was currently grading the assignments he had given the week before.
He let out a soft sigh as he put the paper he was currently reading down on the table again. He lifted his now free hand to rub over his face. It felt like every year the penmanship of his pupils just got worse and worse.
Shouta let out another sigh and finally stood up. He stretched and a few of his bones popped. He needed more coffee for this and maybe a qualified philologist too, at this point.
He turned the coffee machine on and pulled a mug out of his cabinet. He placed the porcelain on the counter and then sat down on the kitchen chair, waiting. He raised one hand and rubbed it over his left eye. It burned cold as he closed the lid and with another huff he pushed out of the chair again to walk back over into the living room to get his eye-drops.
He picked the bottle up and had just managed to get two drops in each eye before his phone on the table vibrated once, then twice. For a second after it was quiet before it started buzzing again, signalling that someone was sending him still more messages right now.
He found himself staring at the phone for a moment, then turned his head towards the kitchen where the coffee machine was still sputtering. In the end he placed the drops on the table again and instead picked up his phone. He unlocked the screen and opened his messenger app.
Another sigh.
It was Kayama.
Shouta really didn't know why the woman had taken such a shine to him. Admittedly, over the years he had known her she had grown somewhat onto him – and most of the time he didn't mind, some other instances he liked to link the feeling to a fungus or maybe a rash.
He scrolled through the messages, half out of boredom, half to have some excuse not to go back to the essay on the table that could arguably be called ‘abstract modernist art’.
Hey, I was just on my way to that new bar down the street from me… U know, the one I mentioned before?
Well, small world, I actually met a police officer
Awkward situation, I'm gonna tell you on Monday
But anyway, point is, I just found out that our zip-tie mystery vigilante is still at it
Seems he caught someone again yesterday and zip-tied the sucker to the lamp post in front of the police station
Supposedly been quite the commotion if Yukimura-san is to be believed
Yukimura-san is the police officer fyi
The villain the Zip-tie man caught was supposedly some kind of human trafficker
And since a little birdie told me you are currently looking into that kind of stuff too I thought I’d keep you updated
Sadly I don't know much more, Yukimura-san says it’s confidential and he can’t tell me more in some shady bar. So if you wanna know more you have to get your ass to the police station for details.
Now that I think about it ‘Zip-tie man’ actually kinda sounds like some bad, seedy swinger club or like some weird sex thing… you know how [...]
Shouta closed the app again and put his phone on mute.
Whatever dirty thing Kayama came up with – while probably intoxicated and at a bar – was not something he needed to read. He put the phone down and made his way back into the kitchen where his coffee was done by now.
He poured the coffee and then sat down at the living room table again, a new vigour to his movements. With the vague information Kayama had written him he now really wanted to be done with his grading so he could make his way to the police station and get as much information about the captured criminal as he could.
He didn't know how much it would help but he was willing to find out.
The whole case that had been jump started by his encounter with that weird vigilante in the alley was slowly coming to a close. Shouta, for three weeks now, had been patiently drawing the noose tighter and tighter around all the criminals and villains involved…
The only problem was that he was currently at that very annoying point in an investigation where he knew he was close – very close – but the final puzzle piece was still missing. So he was simply hoping that whatever the so called Zip-tie man had dragged in this time around would somehow give him the advantage he needed.
The Zip-tie man – which, honestly was an incredibly stupid name, but what else could you expect from sub-par sensational journalism? – was another phenomenon that had cropped up the last year.
If Shouta remembered correctly it had started last year in spring when the police, for the first time back then, had found a villain zip-tied to a lamp post in front of their station. It had turned out that the woman had been a serial murderer they had been chasing after for over two years at that point.
It was a small sensation for maybe a week and then it had been forgotten again by the short memory of the general public, disappearing into the collective subconscious again… at least till the next person, had been found zip-tied to the same lamp post.
It had been some half-baked would-be celebrity, with a suit case cuffed to his wrist.
And after the initial worry over a possible bomb had been laid to rest the police had cracked the case open and instead had found a whole pile of incriminating documents proving that the man had paid a lot of money to shady organisations specialized in forced prostitution.
It had been a huge scandal and the media had made quite the meal of it.
Somewhere in the columns of some gossip magazines the name ‘Zip-tie man’ had been coined and it had somehow just stuck no matter how idiotic it sounded.
Since then there had been numerous catches, all sorts of people found zip-tied to the lamp post in front of the police station.
Some of them already had a warrant out, most of them didn't, and were found with bags or suit cases handcuffed to their wrist proving their involvement in some crime or another.
The police – and several rookie daytime heroes intend on making a name for themselves in a swamped job market – had been trying to find the mystery person since then. Needless to say: they hadn't been very successful.
Descriptions of the Zip-tie man varied.
Many of the caught criminals didn't get a good look on them, if at all since they seemingly liked to just knock people out from behind.
The villains who had actually fought them had given mixed descriptions. Many had said that the fight was disorienting and loud, that there had been some kind of noise that made their vision swim accompanied by nausea.
Some had been in shock, beaten up quite badly with bleeding ears, blabbering nonsense.
So there really was no coherent description to go on and even if the media had started to call the person a ‘Zip-tie Man’ even that was not quite sure, since some of the caught culprits had also described the person as a long haired woman.
There was also the fact that despite the destruction that had been caused at the places where the fighting had happened there was no valuable evidence. So whoever was behind all this was obviously highly intelligent and cunning, leading police and heroes alike in circles and onto a wild goose chase.
Shouta for his part didn't really care.
As long as that mystery person didn't outright kill someone he wouldn't lift a finger to run after them.
Sure, it was arguably bad that this person was taking the law into their own hands but on the other hand all the people caught where – again, arguably – bad people, some of them so far up the ladder of fame or so well protected behind all their money that no one would have even suspected how many corpses they had in their basement.
The destruction was more or less minimal – it came nowhere near the destruction All Might sometimes caused with a single punch – and most caught criminals were only roughed up a little, many only whining about the bump on the back of their heads where the Zip-tie man had knocked them out.
So really, hunting after this particularly evasive person was nowhere near Shouta's priority list – and while some daytime heroes tried to cash in the fame of catching that mystery person – the majority of the underground heroes Shouta knew couldn't be bothered either.
If one wanted to go so far, well, then that person was even doing all of them a favour by going after people they couldn't – be it because of bureaucratic red tape or some other reasons that would have them all jumping through hoops till some overpriced lawyer retaliated by ruining their life's and dragging them through the mud on television.
Shouta sighed as he squinted at a word that could either mean ‘heroic’ or ‘demonic’. The worst part was that the context really didn't help to choose one option… wait, maybe it was supposed to mean ‘harmonic’? Would that even make sense?
Shouta’s brows furrowed as he read the sentence again. He let out another sigh as he raised his hand to his eyes. He closed them for a second and rubbed his fingers over the lids, feeling the cold burn.
Yes. ‘Harmonic’ would also make sense.
He drained the rest of his, by now cold, coffee and then capped his pen. Screw it, he would do it tomorrow.
The essay was more red than white or black at this point anyway and Shouta didn't know why he was still looking for some hidden points that might bump that particular mess from an F to a D.
This had been going on since the start of the new school year and it was very clear that this particular pupil had no interest in any subjects – Shouta knew since all grades had to be passed to the home-room teacher, which meant him.
Really it was a waste, the girl had a powerful quirk but that really was her only good quality. She was short tempered, put no effort into anything – not even the actual hero training – and generally exhibited an air of smug arrogance as if nothing could touch her.
She also showed no signs of changing any time soon.
Shouta had given her a chance – several in fact – but he also wasn't the kind of person to stupidly try the same thing over and over and somehow expect a different outcome, like some madman.
He gave a disdainful look to the essay on his table, covered in his own neat writing, every available free space coloured red.
In the end he uncapped his pen again and wrote an F at the very top right corner. He would have to fill out an expel note tomorrow as well.
He was looking for growth after all, yet all he saw was regression. Frankly, he had better things to do – namely, focusing on the meagre rest of his class that actually seemed to be cut out for hero work and was willing to put in the effort as well.
He capped the pen again and stood up. He changed and barely ten minutes later he was out of his apartment and heading in the direction of the police station. Hopefully this would finally be the last cue he needed to bring this cat and mouse game to a close.