Chapter Text
Kaminari was giddy. He could feel the energy flowing through his bones and tickling his toes as if it were electricity. He couldn’t keep the grin off his face as his legs bounced below him. They were all wearing black uniforms and matching black padded armour to cover their chests and backs. “Jesus, man,” Sero murmured as he prodded at Kami’s knee. “Chill. You’re shaking the entire bus.”
Mina grinned at him from her seat, turning her head back so she could see them. “Our boy’s excited! Can you believe we’re actually doing this?” She squealed and Kami couldn’t help but join in.
It was his last year in the police academy and he had finally been chosen to be part of the team alongside his best friends; Mina and Sero. They were all training to be detectives.
The van turned into a grey car park, pulling alongside numerous other vans of a similar size but with different logos brandished on them. Kaminari jumped onto the ground, Mina and Sero right behind him. They were in front of a large building that was originally used for storage but now was used for, well, things like this, Kaminari guessed. It looked bland and unassuming from the outside with no colours or posters or signs; perfect for a police drill.
They walked in and were met with 5 other police squads, all specialising in different things and all having the same determined look carved into their face. Each of them had their own coloured uniforms, blocking the separate teams out.
“Hello,” a tall woman addressed everyone from the make-shift stage. A few other higher-ups (as told by their hats and numerous medals) sat behind her on grey fold-up chairs. “Today is the annual police academy challenge!” She flashed them an excited grin as she paced around. “We have six teams today from six different police academies and colleges in the country. I recognise some faces from last year but there is a good chunk of you whom I’ve never seen before, which is great! This is something fun but, of course, if you win, you get a free team dinner at Rush Kitchens as well as this glorious trophy!” She gestured to one of the men behind her who held up a decent-sized gold-painted trophy cup. The man had no emotion and promptly placed it back on the table next to him. Kaminari half-listened as the lady rattled on about the exercise and the rules and basically everything he should’ve been listening to. He couldn’t help it. His mind was too excited and it was running away from him. He wasn’t even too sure who he was sitting next to.
Mina tapped his right shoulder. “Psst, we’re going now.” She was already standing up, ready to walk out of the row of seats. He quickly got up, too, mumbling a small apology to whoever was sitting on his left for holding them back. He half-heard a low voice mumble back, “It’s fine” but he was already chasing after Sero and Mina, begging them to repeat whatever the lady said.
Sero teased him but gave in pretty easily. It turned out that the goal was to find a black box hidden somewhere within the building. Every team had a different starting point within the building and they were all given maps of the building’s layout. Boxes of items and paintball guns were located around the place. Kaminari felt like he was taking part in the Hunger Games, although he’d never actually finished reading the series. He followed their team leader; a snarky guy called Monoma he wasn’t too favourable of ever since they met a few hours ago. Mina and Sero also didn’t like him. In fact, it seemed he had managed to rub the entire team the wrong way as soon as possible. Monoma said something and sneered at him. Kami wasn’t listening and sent him a false, tight-lipped smile back.
They stopped in a dusty square room. The walls weren’t even painted. One of the higher-ups from the stage left as soon as they all filtered in. On the floor was a small box of black earpieces and a folded map. “Right, team,” Monoma started, his voice high and annoying. He picked up the map and held it close to his face so no one could see it but him. Mina scowled and crossed her arms, jutting her hip out to the side. “We don’t know where the box is so we should split up into smaller teams and search the building systematically.” Kami glanced around; there were only six of them in the team and, of the six, he only really knew Mina and Sero.
“Shall we split up into pairs?” a girl with straight, green hair asked. It was tied up in a high ponytail and a single, tiny braid ran through it. Mina nodded and reached forward to take a picture of the map. They all ended up with a digital copy of it.
Monoma let out something extremely close to a cackle. “Excellent. I’ll go with Sen. Shiozaki can partner up with you.” He pointed straight at Kami. “And you two can partner up,” he said, gesturing carelessly to Mina and Sero. “We’re taking the left side,” he decided and patted the other guy, Sen, Kaminari guessed. They both ran out of the room.
“That seemed kinda rushed,” Sero stated.
Shiozaki shrugged. “Monoma confuses everyone. Wanna take the right side?” she asked, facing Kaminari.
“Sure.” He let the smile wiggle back onto his face as they ran out of the room, waving back to his friends.
They ran as cautiously as they could through the cold hallways and down multiple flights of stairs. Kami quickly realised how good Shiozaki was at this; she stopped them seconds before another group of trainee cops could pass by, she seemed to hear them and know where they were at all times, she had faster reaction times and was warier. She was definitely the only reason they still both had two paintball guns each.
“Good work,” she let out as he peeked around a corner, slightly breathless. “There are thirty other student cops here and we’ve taken out eight so far.” Kami wanted to believe that the number of people he’d taken out measured up to her skills but he knew it didn’t. Still, he flashed her a cocky grin and they took off again, following an imaginary route. She was taken out with a pink paintball ten minutes later, leaving Kaminari all alone to try and figure out where the black box was.
“Mina? Sero?” he called into the earpiece.
“Yeah?” Mina’s bubbly voice crackled through. “Have you found the black box?”
“No.” He shook his head, even though he knew she couldn’t see him. “Shiozaki’s down. I’m on my own.”
“Oh, shit,” Sero’s voice crackled through as well. “Really? Damn. Do you know where you are?”
“Yeah, I think so?” He squinted at the map on his phone. He had no idea where he was. A few paintball blasts echoed behind him and he gasped, shuffling to quickly hide behind a blue barrel drum. The sound of footsteps filled his ears.
“Kami?” Sero said, but Kaminari heard the voice pinging around the room as well. Gingerly, he rose up from behind the barrel and let out a huge sigh of relief when he noticed his two friends standing in the room.
He rushed towards them. “Oh, my God, guys, I didn’t know it was you!”
Mina hugged him as she said, “We took out two guys before we came in here. I don’t know where they were from but they had purple uniforms.”
“Oh, yeah! I’ve taken out a few with purple uniforms too!” Kami added. “Wait, how come you guys are here?”
Sero chuckled nervously as he scratched the back of his neck. “We may have gotten lost.”
Mina pursed her lips. “Yeah, we have no idea where we are, but lucky we found you! Now, you can tell us where we all are.”
Another loud bang and the sound of boxes falling over echoed throughout the air, cutting off his reply and saving his ass. A guy wearing the purple uniform ran into the room, skimming past them without a word. He had wild, purple hair and Kami only barely saw his face. Another guy, an angry blonde in a blue uniform, ran in after him, yelling his head off. He shot a yellow paintball at Sero and then another at Mina.
“Oh, God, why?” Sero pouted as Kami dashed behind the barrel again. Someone in a red uniform entered the room next, chasing after the blonde guy. Kami sprinted after him, dodging a few shots and using his spiky red hair as a beacon.
He heard Sero’s voice through his earpiece informing Monoma that he and Mina were out. Monoma insulted them until Sen told them that they were both out as well. It seemed only a few from each team were left.
Kami held up his gun to try and shoot a paintball at the red-headed guy but he missed. He flung the gun aside once he realised that was his last shot. The redhead and the blonde guy ended up getting in a fight, each reaching for their guns. Kami took one and shot the redhead at the same time as someone else shot the blonde. They both cursed and the blonde went feral. He didn’t really know where he was going as he ran after the purple-haired man. There were two other people chasing after him too (one of them took out the angry blonde-haired guy) but they both got each other out.
He saw a peek of purple disappear into a room and chased after it. A black box sat in the middle of the floor. Before Kami could look up, someone was on him and he was tied in a bundle, watching as the purple-haired man strode towards the box. The guy smirked towards him and let out a sly “Thanks”.
It was only then that Kami realised that that was the same voice who said “It’s fine” earlier.
That was the first time he met Shinsou Hitoshi.
Three years later…
“Whooo!” Mina cheered as she slammed another shot glass down. The bar was loud as they laughed and chatted. They were celebrating a massive drug bust that had just happened, lead by Uraraka Ochako from another station nearby their own.
“Kacchan!” Midoriya exclaimed at something Bakugou said. Bakugou stood up, a retort ready to roll off his tongue, and then crashed to the floor. Kirishima caught him before he kissed the ground.
Kiri chuckled nervously, a red tint crawling up his neck as he pulled Bakugou back up. “I think I should take him home now,” he decided.
“Are you sure? I can give you a ride,” Iida offered, his eyebrows furrowed in concern.
“Nah, it’s okay. I’ll just get a cab, make sure he doesn’t die and then go home myself. Besides, you should have fun.” None of them said the truth: Iida should probably stay in case they had a repeat of last time.
“I can help you out,” Iida said, already getting off the bar stool.
“Fuck you, Four-Eyes!” Bakugou slurred.
“It’s okay,” Kiri repeated, steering Bakugou away.
“Okay, byeeeeee!” Mina waved them off before ordering another round of shots. Todoroki had had a lot to drink but somehow he was the most sober of them all, aside from Iida who hadn’t drank anything. Mina wanted to change that. Desperately.
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Kaminari woke up with a splitting headache and a continuous buzz ringing in the background. He groaned and pulled the pillow back over his head, somehow making the headache worse. It took him a solid few minutes to realise the buzzing was coming from his phone and not his head.
“H-hello?” he muttered, sleep heavy in his voice.
“Sorry for waking you but, Kaminari, you have been selected for an ongoing investigation. Come into my office at nine and I’ll debrief you,” Yaoyorozu said in her calm voice.
“O...kay.”
“Great, see you later. Goodbye.” She cut the phone and Kami stared at the screen through blurry eyes. He could just make out that it was 6 : 5 0 in the morning. He groaned and slumped back into his pillow.
He walked into the police station an hour and half later, a cooling coffee cup in his hand and a pair of sunglasses shielding his eyes. He waved half-heartedly at Mina, Sero, Kirishima and Bakugou, earning small grunts of acknowledgement in response. Kiri beamed when he saw him and ran to his desk. He was the only one out of them all not wearing sunglasses and not dying from a hangover.
“Hey!” he exclaimed. Bakugou threw something at him and he narrowly dodged it, but still kept on smiling. “So, what happened yesterday after I left?” he asked, voice dropping low to a whisper.
Kami shrugged. “Mina tried to get Todoroki drunk but, bro, that guy’s a rock. And Midoriya talks so much. He started ranting about All Might and then was raging at Endeavor, I don’t know why, and then he broke down crying on Todoroki’s shoulder and it was at that point that Iida took most of the gang home.”
Kiri grimaced. “Yikes.”
“Yup, now please go away. I’m still dying and I need to get rid of this hangover in the next twenty minutes.”
“Shut up!” Bakugou whisper-yelled in their direction and threw something else at them. Kiri caught it easily.
“Good luck,” he said as he patted Kami’s shoulder and left, collecting the other thing Bakugou threw from the floor. Kami groaned and face-planted his desk.
Time flew by deliciously fast and soon he was knocking at Yaomomo’s office door. “Come in!” she called and he opened it. She gestured a perfectly manicured hand to the chairs in front of her desk and he slipped into one. He was glad that Yaomomo was so chilled. Otherwise, he would never have been allowed to wear sunglasses indoors, but they had been investigating a gang for almost two years, and Yaomomo knew how much it meant to the entire team now that it was finally over.
“Right,” she started, once the door had fully shut. “I don’t know much about this operation but Aizawa has been recruiting people personally for this.”
Kami’s jaw dropped open. Aizawa Shouta asked for him personally? It made no sense. The people in the room just next to them were much more talented than he was. Kirishima and Bakugou held the record for the most amount of perps brought in, in a year. Mina and Sero were both tactical and always seemed to know what the criminals were going to do next. Kami didn’t even really have a partner.
Yaoyorozu placed a yellow sticky note in front of him. “This is the location of where you’re meant to meet on Monday. Aizawa said you’ll be given a full run-down of the operation there as well as kitted out with whatever you’ll need.”
“Am I going undercover or something?”
Yaomomo gave him an unsure smile. “As I said, I really don’t know much. This operation’s very top secret. All I know is that it’s been going on for the past few years and now they’ve decided to expand the team. I don’t even know who else will be there.”
“Oh, okay.” He took the post-it note and pocketed it. “Um, thank you,” he said before leaving. Yaoyorozu nodded.
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“What happened?” Sero asked before he bit into his meatball sub. Some sauce dribbled onto the wrapper laying below him on the table.
“Yeah!” Mina was much more chipper now, all her hangover symptoms gone. Kami still had a slight headache and Bakugou still wanted to kill everyone. “You were talking to Momo this morning.”
“I got a call really early at, like, six and apparently I’m doing some kind of top-secret mission, I don’t know.” He shrugged and bit into his own sandwich. He grimaced when a bit of lettuce crunched between his teeth. Ew. Lettuce.
Bakugou scowled. “Why are you doing important stuff?”
Kiri lightly slapped his shoulder. “Don’t be rude.” Bakugou huffed and stabbed his salad with a fork.
Kami sighed. “I don’t know why I was picked for this but, I mean, I’m not going to say no. Besides, Aizawa scares me.”
Mina gasped. “Holy shit. Aizawa’s running this?”
Sero gasped equally as loudly and his sandwich almost fell out his mouth. “Eraserhead! I heard he took out an entire gang with his luscious hair.” Bakugou grimaced.
“I heard he has a kickass son who’s basically a carbon copy of him,” Mina added.
“I heard he can turn people to stone just by looking at them like Medusa!” Bakugou gave Sero a funny look.
Kiri grinned. “I heard he’s going out with that radio guy, Present Mic.”
Mina threw her head back as she let out a giggle, exhibiting her master black eyeliner to the world. “That would be so cute!”
Bakugou slammed his fork in his salad. “Shut up!” He readjusted his sunglasses and stalked off somewhere to be a loner.
Kaminari snorted. “Maybe Bakugou should date someone. Might help him chill a little.” They all quickly finished their lunch. Sero left first, stating that he had reports from the drug bust that he had to complete. Mina was looking at a new case with Kiri.
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Kaminari got off the train and opened google maps. The old warehouse was in a really obscure place, very much off the beaten track. He’d have to take two buses after his fifty minute train ride and then walk for a further fifteen minutes. He sighed and made his way to the nearest bus stop. He wondered if Aizawa found joy in picking difficult-ass places to get to.
He stopped beside a purple-haired girl at the bus stop. She huffed as she stabbed at her phone with her thin fingers, holding up a massive box under her right arm. She had earphones in and her fringe cut an a-line across her forehead. A black rucksack sat on her back. Normally, Kami would break the ice and flash a flirtatious smile in her direction, coupled with some tacky finger guns that he hadn’t been able to get rid of since his teenage days, but she was too focused and Kami just felt awkward so he pulled out his own wireless earphones and pressed play on a random playlist. Electric beats popped into his ears and he forgot the world as he waited for his bus.
The purple-haired girl got on the same bus as him. She made the same switch as well. They both got off at the same spot and this time he wasn’t the only one sending strange looks. They walked silently, Kami ever so slightly behind her and trying his best to not look like a stalker, until they both stopped in front of a grimy building. It looked like the building hadn’t been used in years. They both waited, watching for the other person to make a move. Finally, Kami took the first step and pushed open the large, metal door. It was heavy but swung open fairly easily and he slipped in. It took a long time for it to clang behind him. He spun around, pausing the music and was met with frowning purple eyes. She looked him up and down suspiciously.
“You don’t need to ask if I’m an angel, I know I’m outta this world.” He grinned and finger gunned. She wrinkled her nose and side-stepped him, gripping the box resting on her hips tightly. It was a simple cardboard box and the lid wasn’t properly on but instead balanced precariously over the items stuffed inside.
“Whatever,” she muttered and walked past him.
Kami quickly ran to catch up, matching her pace. “I’m Kaminari Denki.” He held out a hand for her to shake. She glanced down at it and then looked back up. “Alright,” he said as he lowered his hand so it wasn’t awkwardly hanging in mid-air. “Uh, are you also working…here?” He didn’t want to say anything more just in case he somehow managed to blow the entire operation. Knowing him, he probably would do that. Somehow. Easily. He was nervous and he tried not to let it show. Kami gulped.
She gave him a look out of the corners of her eyes. “Duh. Why else would I be here? I’m Jirou Kyouka.” She led them through the empty, narrow hallways and into a fairly big, rectangular room. It was most likely a storage room before but now the only thing that sat in it was a single grey table with Aizawa sitting tiredly on it. A black rucksack sat at his feet. Kami bit his lip. Was he supposed to bring stuff too? The only things he had were his phone, wireless earphones and his denim jacket.
Aizawa raised his head, his dark eyes visible under lanky strips of hair and stared at them. Both of them froze. “U-uh…Aizawa, sir.” Jirou stiffly bowed and Kami followed her after a small lag. Aizawa didn’t say anything.
“What do we do?” Kami hissed to the girl next to him.
“I don’t know,” she mumbled back. “This is my first time being here.”
“Well, fuck.”
“Yup.”
“Hey! Aizawa!” someone called from behind them. They both spun around as a blonde guy with very bushy eyebrows pushed passed them, a cocky grin staining his face. “Long time, no see! How’s it been?”
“Sit down, Takami,” Aizawa grumbled as he waved the guy off. The man looked around their age; in his early twenties, and his hair was pushed back rather messily, held in place with yellow headphones. The long, tan coat he was wearing had a small graphic of red wings on the back. It made it look less like something you would find in the men’s section of M&S and more like something found in a designer store. He exerted such exuberance that Kami couldn’t help but gape. This guy was everything he could ever dream to be.
“How many times do I have to tell you? It’s Keigo,” the guy said as he pulled himself up onto the table next to Aizawa. His gaze flashed over to the two by the door and he waved. “Hey, what’s up?”
It took Kami a second to respond but he made his way inside. “Hi, I’m Kaminari Denki.”
“Takami Keigo.” Keigo also didn’t have anything with him, which was a huge relief.
“Jirou Kyouka,” Jirou said as she also stepped closer. “So, we’re early. What do we do now?”
Aizawa clicked his tongue. “I said to be here at ten and that’s when the meeting will start. Go entertain yourselves for fifteen minutes.” He waved his hand dismissively and Keigo quirked his eyebrow up, sharing a glance with Kami and Jirou.
“Damn, you’re even more boring than I remembered. Chill, dude.” He laid back on the table, closing his eyes as he got comfortable.
More and more people slowly started to filter in, some chatting to others and some just standing around in empty space awkwardly as they waited for the clock to tick by. Kaminari wasn’t one of those people. He found out that alongside Jirou, who worked usually in cybersecurity, two others; a dark-haired boy who clearly hadn’t grown out of his goth phase and a pink-haired girl wearing ridiculous goggles and had a habit of calling her laptop and other gadgets her ‘babies’, also carried in cardboard boxes. They were all around the same age which seemed to make things easier.
At ten, exactly, Aizawa cleared his throat and all the talking in the storage room ceased. Everyone turned to look at him, creating a small semi-circle around the table. There weren’t many people there; only about ten, but for some reason that made it feel all the more serious. Keigo had been talking with a long-haired girl who was quite short in stature, not that Kaminari could say anything, and he finally sat up but didn’t move from his place on the table. “Thank you all for coming,” Aizawa started in his tired drawl. “I’m Aizawa Shouta and I’m your supervising officer and will be overseeing this investigation. As I’m sure most of you know by now, this is an effort to expand a current investigation. We’ve uncovered some vital information thanks to Hagakure—” He nodded his head to a girl with a hazel brown pixie cut. She beamed at everyone and gave a small wave. “That is why you have all been called here today. We’re investigating a large underground drug trade and have multiple leads that point back to the League of Villains, an underground street racing gang who also have many ties in other crimes. I’ve decided to have three teams here today; the cyber unit, detectives and undercover agents. Jirou Kyouka, Tokoyami Fumikage and Hatsume Mei will be the cyber unit. Takami Keigo and Hagakure Tooru will be working undercover and Usagiyama Rumi, Iida Tensei, Kaminari Denki and Shinsou Hitoshi will work as primary detectives.”
Kami’s head snapped up when he heard the last name. He scanned the room and landed on tuffs of wild, purple hair. The pale face he remembered smirking at him three years ago stared blankly ahead, focusing on whatever else Aizawa was saying. They looked tired and dead inside. They drifted to him and he froze.
He cracked a smile and pushed down the urge to wave like a school kid. Shinsou returned his gaze back to Aizawa. This was his partner for the operation. Did Shinsou even remember him?