Work Text:
There it was – Fat Gum’s secret snack storage closet. Whispers of it were common gossip around the Fat Gum agency. Apparently, only Fat himself knew of its location and oversaw its stocking and maintenance. Kirishima had been looking for it since his previous work-study, but he had never expected to actually find it.
The trick was simple really. The takoyaki grill pan on Fat Gum’s desk had a cartoonish version of his face engraved on it, and while Fat was in an afternoon meeting before they went on evening patrol, Tetsutetsu had casually leaned an arm on it.
There was a click from the desk, followed by the whir of motors and the scraping of a large door across the floor. The door, which had previously been nothing but the wall to the left of Fat’s desk, emitted a cool air from behind it.
It revealed a fully refrigerated, massive pantry, with everything in it from raw vegetables to packaged desserts. Items were stacked extremely neatly, labeled, and there was a clipboard with what looked like a full inventory hanging on a hook on the far wall of the space.
Kirishima stepped inside, completely in awe.
“Woah.”
Amajiki was panicking.
“Kirishima, don’t go inside!” He hissed.
“We could get in so much trouble with Fat! Oh no, what if we get fired?! Then I’ll never find any work after graduation. Someone like me…” He devolved into self deprecating mutters.
Tetsutetsu was looking at his own elbow with reverence, as if it was that body part specifically and not its coincidental action that had enabled this discovery.
Kirishima was looking through the shelves now, engrossed by the collection.
“Some of this stuff isn’t even on the market anymore!” He exclaimed, picking up a box of All Might shaped seaweed snacks and looking at the back.
“Kirishima!” Amajiki whined.
“Stop it!”
“Ah, come on! It’s fine! S’not like I’m gonna take anything. Sides, it’ll be ages before Fat is back from his…”
The door to Fat Gum’s office clicked open, and Kirishima turned around, horrified, to view Fat’s large form step inside.
Tetsutetsu ducked under the desk, and Amajiki flattened himself against the wall and covered his face, perhaps thinking that if he couldn’t see Fat, the pro also couldn’t see him.
Kirishima was completely frozen, in the middle of Fat’s secret stash, still holding the box of discontinued All Might seaweed snacks.
There was a pregnant pause, and then Fat burst out laughing.
“Oh, man!” He wheezed as he slowly recovered.
“Thought you could pull one over on me, huh?”
Amajiki slowly lowered his hands, and Tetsutetsu peeked out from under Fat’s desk. Fat stepped over to Kirishima and took the box from his hands, placing it back on the shelf.
“Sorry, Kirishima, but I save these for special occasions. You can take anything else as a reward for finding this place though.”
“You’re not… mad?”
Fat laughed again.
“I’d expect nothing less from my cleverest interns! Besides, you really thought I didn’t know you were looking?”
Kirishima’s face grew hot. Of course, it was arrogant of him to assume a hero of Fat’s caliber hadn’t caught on to his antics.
“Now, chop-chop, pick your reward! We have something important to discuss.”
There was a marked shift in Fat’s tone, and all three of them straightened. It was easy to tell when Fat meant business, and when he did, he didn’t mess around. Working for so many years with the police had given him a bit of an edge, though he didn’t like to show it around civilians.
Kirishima snatched a bag of Bokun Habanero (totally not because Bakugou likes them, shut up) and went to stand next to his fellow interns, at attention.
“Alright, you all. I got back early from that meeting because we have a new mission.”
Fat shut the large door to his secret stash with a click and a whoosh, before turning to face them.
“Red Riot, you’re friends with Uravity and Froppy, right? Suneater, you are with Nejire-Chan, correct?”
Fat had shifted to using their hero names: another way he signaled to his interns the difference between work and play. Amajiki nodded solemnly. Kirishima responded.
“Yeah, Uravity and Froppy are good friends!”
“So, you know what they are doing this winter, but just to fill in Real Steel: Uravity, Froppy, and Nejire-Chan were working with Ryukyu, No. 10, to take down some villains doing drug trafficking by the coast.”
“Woah.”
“They caught the guys, but it turns out they were just mules. There’s two sides to this whole mess, the buyer, and the main sellers.”
Fat sighed, moved over to his desk and sat down.
“On the buyer's side, other heroes are trying to investigate. They’re thinking something larger might be going on, because it seems like one buyer has been trying to buy up everything from a variety of different sellers. On the seller’s side, at least in this case, it’s suspected to be a small-mid range operation, and I’ve been approached about taking care of it.”
Fat pulled a bag of chips from a drawer in his desk and started munching on it, his next words said around a mouthful of them.
“So, I’ve told them Suneater and I will take it on, but before committing Red Riot and Real Steel to it, I wanted to talk to you about it. I haven’t done a drug bust in a while, but they’re more dangerous than a standard patrol. Things can get real ugly, real fast. And with Trigger being the drug involved, there’s even more uncertainty.”
Faced with the assumption that he would be joining Fat by default, rather than taking it as praise, Amajiki sunk into himself, and muttered about high pressure and Fat torturing him. Fat ignored this entirely, and poured the last of the chips crumbs from the bag into his mouth before continuing.
“I trust all of you, especially Suneater, to be able to handle it well, but Red Riot, Real Steel, there’s no shame in saying you’d prefer to sit this one out. I can put you on patrol with some of my sidekicks for a while.”
Kirishima and Tetsutetsu had remained standing tall and at attention in front of Fat’s desk, but now they were practically vibrating with excitement.
“You mean…”
“We can…”
There was a pause, and they looked at each other, before shouting in unison:
“You can count on us, Fat!”
Fat grinned and leaned forward in his chair.
“That’s the spirit! Now…”
He pulled out a manilla folder previously stuffed in his pocket.
“Let's discuss the details.”
*
Kirishima quietly edged his way into the suburban alleyway. He made sure to look nervous and shifty, which wasn’t hard because felt like he was about to explode with nerves, just not for the reason an outsider might expect.
The distant sounds of the city at night pounded in his ears. A fluorescent street light flickered at the end of the street. He didn’t even try to stop himself from jumping at every noise: his role right now was not to be a hero.
Certain he was alone, at least for now, he put a hand to his left ear and whispered:
“Red Riot, in position.”
A staticky voice warbled back.
“Perfect, stay right there. Make sure you look nervous and unsure too. The more the better. We want them to let their guard down. Suneater?”
“In position….”
Testutetsu had been forced to stay back tonight, due to a family situation. Originally, they were supposed to have been together. Kirishima reassured himself. It was just recon, it would be fine. Besides, even Crimson Riot was afraid when putting his life on the line for civilians, that was just part of a hero’s job.
He bounced on the balls of his feet and blew into his cupped hands. Both for warmth, and to pass the time. Then, he pulled out his phone and opened the text conversation between himself and a man who called himself ‘Jun’, though Fat had confidently told them that this was almost certainly not his real name.
‘Jun’ was a dealer, who the Fat hero agency had obtained the contact information of. He was, it seemed, one of the main people who worked for the operation they were trying to dig out. And, he had a tendency toward dealing to school age children. Particularly, those with aspirations toward being heroes.
A rattling noise startled Kirishima out of his thoughts. He spun around to where it came from and saw a tall, gangly man, with a shark-like grin, dressed head to toe in black walking toward him. He showed absolutely no hesitation in his stride and headed straight for Kirishima before stopping next to him and leaning his upper body against the wall behind them casually.
“You’re a UA kid.”
There it was. Fat had told him to expect to be drilled, but not to rehearse his answers too much, as it would look suspicious.
“H-how do you know that?” He bounced on feet again and shoved his hands in his pockets.
The man laughed sharply.
“You kidding? You were all over the news a while back. Red Riot, hero of the people. Saved a bunch of people from a out of control Trigger user.” He spat the words ‘out of control’ like they were poison.
Kirishima waited. It wasn’t the right time to respond.
“So, you really thought you could get me like this? Don’t make me laugh.”
“I…thought you could help me, but I guess not.” He made his voice dejected, channeling the feelings of young Kirishima, begging his mother in the grocery store for sweets or snacks.
“I got your number from Ryota, at Kansai Okura.” Kirishima dropped the name nonchalantly, but the high school was one of this operation’s biggest feeding grounds.
“He said that you could help. My quirk… it’s weaker than my classmates. I’m starting to fall behind. My teachers say that I might not have what it takes.”
The man sighed and scuffed the ground in front of him with his beat up shoes.
“I shouldn’t be surprised by the country’s top hero school producing hypocritical scum like you. You have the money?”
Kirishima flinched at the slight, but still clumsily pulled a stack of yen from his pocket and handed it over. In return, the man passed him a small case pulled from his backpack.
“You inject them. In case you didn’t know.” He sneered.
“Don’t take another until the first one you took wears off.”
He started to walk away and waved in acknowledgement as he went. Kirishima panicked. He was supposed to get more information!
“Wait! What do I do when I need more?! When I run out?”
The man turned his head to look at Kirishima.
“You retarded? You have my number don’t you?”
“I… can’t use this phone too much. My parents read my texts sometimes.” The excuse is last minute, but not a terrible one. The phone he’s currently holding is actually a dummy phone provided by Fat, but the man didn’t need to know that.
Frustration emanated from the man, but he conceded.
“There’s a building downtown that looks abandoned, with the windows busted in. The one that says it’s for sale?”
Kirishima nodded. He knew which building the man was referring to. He’d seen it many times on patrol with Fat.
“There you go, then.” The man finished, and began to strut away again.
Once Kirishima was sure he was gone, he spoke to the earpiece again. The Trigger case felt like it was burning in his hands, his knees were a little shaky too.
“You get all that?”
“Loud and clear, kid. Loud and clear. Sit tight, I’m coming.”
As promised, Fat arrived quickly, Amajiki close behind.
“Are you okay?!”
“Yeah, senpai. I’m alright, thanks.”
Fat immediately snatched the Trigger case from him and pulled into a squishy hug with the other arm.
“That was great, kid. You did great.”
Kirishima swallowed, his throat tight, and exhaled into Fat, letting himself relax.
“Thanks.”
“Thanks to you, we have a lead on where at least one of their hideouts is. I think once we drop this off at the police station…” He waved the case of Trigger, “then we should go celebrate!”
Fat took them to get ramen. Because of course he did. Kirishima smiled into his bowl while Amajiki and Fat bickered.
“See, you should take Kirishima as an example, Tamaki! Look what he was able to do tonight with his mental strength alone! If you could have that kind of resolve, you’d be Number One in no time after you graduated!”
“Ah, it’s always like this. Why must you torture me like this? I’m going to sue for workplace harassment!”
Fat laughed, and Kirishima slurped his noodles.
*
The dorms of UA were a cacophony, as always, while Kirishima and Testsutetsu made their way to lunch. Midoriya was shouting about some new hero analysis video, Bakugou was screaming at everyone to get out of ‘his kitchen’, and the girls were talking loudly in the corner about their winter work studies. Kirishima was trying to fill in Tetsutetsu about the events of the previous evening regardless.
“Oh, man! That sounds so intense! I’m sorry I wasn’t there bro!”
“It’s alright, everything turned out fine, and you can come back to working starting today too!”
“For sure! I’m going to be there to support the team!”
“Oh, what are you guys doing, Kirishima? Tetsutetsu? You’re both working with the Fat Gum agency now, right?”
Uraraka had heard them talking. Generally, they were allowed to be pretty open about what was going on at their work studies with fellow classmates. All the class A students had an understanding about being discreet. Even over the top students, like Aoyama, were able to keep their mouths shut when needed. However, Fat had given both of them a stern talking to about keeping this case under wraps until it was finished. Especially given that they had crucial information about the location of their operation that was still confidential to almost everyone, even other members of Fat’s agency. Not even Uraraka and Tsuyu, who had been involved in giving them the lead, could be tipped off of anything.
“Oh, it’s nothing. Just had a close call on patrol last night is all. We’ve all been there, right?”
“For sure! I’m glad you’re okay, Kirishima!”
“Thanks.”
In a whisper, he said to Tetsutetsu:
“If you wanna talk more, we should do it somewhere private.”
Tetsutetsu nodded emphatically.
That night, they were poised to go to the decrepit building the Trigger dealer had given Kirishima. Fat wanted to act on the hot information as soon as possible. Additionally, he wanted to determine if the location was even real.
“You did a great job kid. Stellar for your first undercover op, really, but he still coulda given us a fake location, or even a dangerous one, if he didn’t like ya.”
Kirishima swallowed thickly. The idea that they could be walking into a trap scared him, but he had been steeling (or maybe hardening was a better word) himself for the possibility. They were going to try to be as low profile as possible, which was a mean feat when you were with the BMI hero, they wanted information primarily, to neutralize that location secondarily, and ideally, to shut down the whole operation in one fell swoop. Fat had told them to be prepared for anything that night.
“Oi! Shitty hair!”
Kirishima jumped. Bakugou was rudely waving a hand in front of his face, scowling.
“I went to all this damn trouble to make the whole class lunch and you’re not even gonna eat it?!”
He looked down at the food in front of him, then back up at Bakugou. He knew the other boy well enough by now to take his statement as concern rather than real anger. He was touched that even though no one knew what was going on, Bakugou was worried about him.
“Nah, bro! I’m gonna eat it all, you just watch!”
If he was going to be a hero, he had to learn to take his mind off this stuff when not in the field.
*
The building looked even worse than it had when he last passed it, somehow. Several more windows were smashed in, there was a tarp attached to a third story doorway with no more door in it, drifting in the night air. The smell was putrid, like someone was running the world's most disgusting dog daycare inside.
“Well, they’ve made an effort to make this place as unappealing as possible. That’s a good sign. The smell is similar to a few smell producing quirks I’ve encountered before. It’s a valuable power for criminals looking to repel foot traffic. Here,”
Fat handed his three companions a black handkerchief each.
“I had some support gear made a while back for this. Tie this around your face and it will neutralize most of the smell. No promises on its performance if the culprit injects Trigger though, it’s only activated charcoal infused fabric.”
Kirishima took the handkerchief gratefully and tied it around his face, which brought immediate relief from the smell. It wasn’t a perfect seal, but the handkerchief would be easier to rip off in an emergency than a full respirator.
“Suneater, what have you eaten today?”
The answer was immediate, Amajiki had become more confident in the field since their first time working together. Mostly with regards to his own abilities, but his demeanor in the field had improved somewhat too.
“Octopus, a variety of vegetables and fruits, chicken, beef, snake, and scorpion.”
“Good choices. No fish?”
“Not today, no. What kind would be best?”
“Don’t stress it, I have some.” Fat handed Amajiki some dried fish snacks, and he quickly chewed and swallowed them.
“You’re getting better at choosing your foods, Suneater, but I want you to be prepared if we encounter water too.”
“Water?” All three of them questioned.
“Just a hunch. The smell could be quirk based, but it also smells a bit like sewer water to me.”
Tetsutetsu gagged.
“Ugh, you mean we could end up…?”
“Don’t think about it too much now. And if it comes to that, don’t try to stop yourself from vomiting, you’ll feel better once you do. Though, does vomiting the food impact your powers, Suneater?”
Amajiki looked disturbed.
“Like I would have any idea, that’s disgusting. You’re talking like you have experience with this.”
Fat grinned before tying a handkerchief of his own around his face.
“Compared to you, I’ve got experience with everything, kid.”
Kirishima shook his shoulders out, mentally preparing himself for the worst outcome. It was lucky he’d never had a sensitive stomach.
“Alright, gathering information is our first goal. We're going to try to go in without alerting them of our presence, but don’t be surprised if we end up in a fight too. This could be their main location, but it also could just be an outpost.”
Fat took a breath and turned to look at them.
“Remember, when someone takes Trigger, it makes them far more powerful, but it can also impact their control. You have way more training, and way more finesse than any of these low level guys probably will. If you see Trigger on them, try to get it off them before they can take it. If they’re able to take it, don’t panic and fall back on your fundamentals.”
The three of them voiced their assent.
“That’s my interns. Now, let’s go in. Stick together for now, and follow behind me.”
Fat entered the building through a large hole in the side wall, and the three of them followed behind, all of them scanning the area. Tetsutetsu had automatically taken up the rear, keeping his gaze focused behind the group to cover their backs. Amajiki pulled his hood further off his head, for once, so he could use his peripheral vision, and Kirishima felt his quirk put up his base level of hardening, without much input from him at all. They were starting to be better at working in a team.
The building was just as filthy inside as it was outside. There was rubble, dirt, and broken glass all over the floor, as well as an assortment of trash that had been dumped there or blown in. Most of the walls were knocked in, leaving only structural pillars remaining to divide the bottom floor.
Fat scanned the floor, stepping gingerly so as not to step on anything too loud.
“Bingo.” He whispered, leaning over and picking up a broken used needle from the layer of trash and rubble on the floor.
“Could be a coincidence, but it looks like the info you got us was worth something, Red Riot. Keep your guard up.”
Kirishima began searching for anything that looked like an entrance to their main nest. Beyond the partially collapsed stairs on the far side of the room, there was nothing obvious, but it was hard to fully see in the dark, especially now that they had left the street lights behind. Suddenly there was movement in the corner of his eye.
“There’s someone here!”
He didn’t quite shout, but he wasn’t hushed either.
“Damn right there’s someone here you little hero brat. I can’t believe you sold me out.”
It was the man who had given him Trigger the previous night - ‘Jun’. He looked furious.
“Looks like it's time to teach some heroes a lesson about keeping their word!”
He whipped out something that twinkled in the faint light of the building. A needle. Shit!
His arm was stopped in its tracks by a massive octopus tentacle coiling around his wrist. Kirishima jumped into action, pinning him down to the ground by his other arm. Tetsutetsu caught on immediately, and wrenched the needle from the man’s hand – not before encasing his arm in steel to prevent an accidental injection.
Tetsutetsu handed Fat the needle, and he squirted the Trigger out onto the ground before dropping the needle to the floor, shattering it.
“Well, well. Looks like I hardly needed to come along at all.”
Kirishima couldn’t disagree more. The man was struggling under Kirishima, and without Amajiki’s tentacle helping, he would have escaped by now. Kirishima was strong, and tough, but he was still only fifteen. He had trouble standing up to the full strength of a tall grown man. Kirishima grunted as the man managed to push his arm off the ground, and put his whole body weight into shoving it back down again.
“There you go, Red Riot. Use what you’ve got. Suneater, grab his other arm. Get up, Red Riot, so you can talk to him with me.”
Once a second tentacle had secured the man’s other arm, Kirishima released him with another frustrated noise. Fat put a steadying hand on his shoulder. It said, ‘don’t worry, you’ll get stronger as you get older’. Kirishima let a huff of breath out of his mouth and tried to calm down his heart.
Steam had begun to rise off of the man in little waves. This was clearly taking an immense effort on his part, sweat ran down his forehead and he was screwing up his face with the exertion.
“I see, you were trying to fog the area for your friends.”
“Errrgghh…. Fuck you!”
“How many of you are there?”
“As if…” Another pathetic puff of steam. “I’d tell you!”
“Real Steel, knock him out.”
Tetsutetsu was accomplished at applying the exact amount of force with a steel fist to knock someone out, but not cause any serious long term damage. He had bragged about it to Fat on his first day, and Kirishima hadn’t even thought Fat was listening at the time.
“Yes, sir!”
The man collapsed to the floor, limp.
“There’ll be more coming, keep an eye on where they’re coming from!”
There was barely time for Fat to finish his sentence before Kirishima saw movement again. Someone had jumped down from the crumbling staircase! They had been looking for an underground entrance based on Fat’s hypothesis about the smell, and in himself and Suneater’s case, their own experience with Shie Hassakai, but the enemy was actually coming from above. Likely, their base of operation was on one of the upper floors.
This time, the figure was a woman, short and stocky with cropped hair and numerous piercings.
“They sent me down just to deal with you!” She gestured to Tetsutetsu, whose arm was still metal, and her body began to glow. Tetsutetsu went flying, and his steel arm glued itself right to the woman’s abdomen.
A magnetic quirk! But was it selective? Or just not very powerful? No other pieces of metal had gone flying, but Tetsutetsu had come careening towards her. It must be selective, and after watching her colleague fail, it was likely she had taken Trigger before descending.
Tetsutetsu realized, dropping his quirk, but it was too late. Her ability meant he couldn’t use his quirk at all, rendering him helpless beyond his own strength, and at that moment another man descended, this one tall, bald, and with a powerful build. He grabbed hold of Tetsutetsu with muscular arms that stretched and coiled around his neck. The sight was almost comical, like one of those rubber stretchy muscle man toys Kirishima remembered begging his mom for as a kid.
Just as Fat, Kirishima, and Amajiki moved to attack, there was a powerful wave of that awful scent again, and a third man burst in on a wave from behind the building. As Fat had suspected, it was clearly a wave of sewage. The man was filthy from head to toe, and seemed to delight in it, cackling as he approached them. The smell was atrocious: Kirishima was sure his nose hairs were being singed by the sulfurous scent.
He managed to keep his stomach from ejecting its contents, probably because he had barely eaten anything for dinner out of nerves, but Amajiki was worse off. Having just eaten, he immediately bent over and vomited from the smell. As he stood up, he murmured to Fat:
“Fish is gone, I can’t use it. I just tried. So is my snake and beef. Everything else is still there. Sorry…”
Kirishima glanced at Amajiki’s fingers, now a mix of vegetation, chicken claws, tentacles, and scorpion heads. Fat clicked his tongue.
“Tch, don’t worry about it, Suneater. Guessing you can’t stomach anything else?”
Amajiki shakily shook his head.
“Right. There must be an open sewer line behind the building where he’s getting the water. Can you distract these guys while I go back there and cut his supply off?”
They both nodded, and took their stances. Without even talking, they knew who was taking on who. Kirishima had a disadvantage against all the opponents, as they all had at least somewhat long range quirks. But, they couldn’t afford for Amajiki to lose any more of his power, so there was only one choice.
He hardened his entire body, punched his fists together, and shouted at the sewer man:
“Bring it on!”
Sewer Man (its official, Kirishima was calling him that in his head now), barrelled toward him as intented, still laughing maniacally. The sewer water splashed erratically against the walls. He was losing control of his quirk. Or, it wasn't a precise quirk to begin with. He didn't look very strong either. As long as Kirishima could hold his ground, and his stomach, he'd be able to win this.
Amajiki faced his opponents, timid. A benefit to his demeanor was being underestimated, and Kirishima hoped that was the case now too.
Fat ducked left and made a break for the back of the building.
Kirishima held his breath as a wave of sewer water broke over him. His vision, even when trying to keep his eyes open and subsequently risking a nasty infection, was completely obscured by the dark water. There was no point in doing anything but maintaining a defensive stance until his opponent came to him.
Just as holding his breath was beginning to burn his lungs, he felt the sharp tip of a blade attempt to pierce his abdomen. As if Sewer Man was going to get anywhere with that tactic, with his quirk out in full force. At least, while he was still conscious. Once he passed out from oxygen deprivation, his quirk would deactivate, which must be what Sewer Man was waiting for.
The burn and pressure in his chest increased, and he knew he had to finish this quickly. The next time he felt the knife tip clink against his stomach, he reached up and yanked the arm attached to it toward him, before bringing his knee up with force to hopefully hit between Sewer Man’s legs.
It worked. The water came down from around his ears with a crash his body sucked in air greedily. He was still gripping Sewer Man’s arm as he keeled over, whining in pain. Trying to steady his desperate breaths, he twisted Sewer Man’s arm behind his back and brought him to the ground.
Kirishima twisted his arm even more, almost to its breaking point, until the man finally dropped the knife. Then, he knocked him over the head with his hardened arm, trying to imitate Tetsutetsu’s style as much as possible in the execution.
Once the Sewer Man was secure and the knife was safely out of his reach, he took stock of his surroundings.
The entire floor was saturated with brown, foul smelling water. He looked for Amajiki and Tetsutetsu, and found them in the far right corner of the room, Amajiki had double subdued his two opponents, by the looks of it. They were coiled in his tentacles and pressed against the wall, but a giant scorpion tail was sticking out of his back as well. Tetsutetsu was next to him, breathing heavily and clutching his neck where the rubbery man had been holding him.
He heard Fat’s voice ring out then.
“The sewer line is shut off! I blocked it myself for a while, but once I got a hold of the city officials they pulled some strings too.”
He strode back into the building, also soaked from head to toe like Kirishima. His head turned to Kirishima, then to Amajiki and Tetsutetsu.
“Any more of them?”
Amajiki answered.
“I don’t think so. I think the big guy here is the ringleader. He mentioned something about this being his place while we were fighting.”
Fat looked at all of them again, and a strange expression passed over his face before he shook his head.
“We need to sweep the building, are any of you injured?”
Kirishima piped up.
“I think Real Steel got roughed up a bit.”
“Nah, I’m fine, he held me by the throat for a bit, but I think it’ll just bruise. It can wait.”
Fat nodded. He knew Tetsutetsu was being honest, because he was extremely strict about injuries. He had given all of them the same talk on their first day with him about it:
“There’s nothing more important for a hero than the health of their body. There’s no point pushing yourself in the moment unnecessarily when that will stop you from saving more people down the line. Heroes aren’t islands, you need to tell me if anything feels off or gets injured during a mission or patrol. In real life, most of us aren’t All Might’s. We rely on networks of information, healthcare workers, police officers, and information gatherers to do our jobs. Don’t let your egos get in the way of what’s really important.”
*
It was the third floor, where they had everything stored. The stairs were in such terrible shape that Amajiki had to lift Fat up the stairwell with a tentacle. This floor was far more intact and clean than the first. There were even some chairs and an old folding table, and amusingly, a scented candle – to cover the smell of sewage. Cases upon cases of Trigger were stacked against the far wall. Empty capsules, waiting to be filled, sat in padded cardboard boxes on the left, and next to them an enormous metal vat, which rose all the way to the top of the ceiling.
“What is that?”
Tetsutetsu asked, his voice a bit raspy still. He took a step toward it and reached his hand out.
Fat’s face took on a dark look.
“Stay away from that, Real Steel. I’ll bet it’s raw Trigger.”
Amajiki audibly gulped. Kirishima felt the breath leave his body. Fat had called this group a small-mid size operation. This was what a small-mid size operation looked like? The idea was terrifying. Fat moved toward a beat up file cabinet in the corner and slammed it open. The loud metallic noise it made startled Amajiki, who jumped.
“Not the brightest, are they? Looks like they’ve been keeping sales records. The cabinet wasn’t even locked.”
Fat pulled out a file and began to flip through. He sighed. Kirishima and Tetsutetsu moved beside him to look over his shoulder. The records were sloppy, but they mentioned the age of buyers. Kirishima had noticed that the vials he was given were smaller than ones he’d seen before.
“Do they keep track of age for dosage?”
“Yes, it’s easy to overdose on Trigger, especially when you’re young, and your quirk isn’t fully developed. But make no mistake, they only keep track to ensure they have repeat customers, not out of any kind of concern. If they had any concern at all, they wouldn’t need to keep track, because their customers would be adults.”
Kirishima scanned the file and saw that most of the ages began with a one, almost no one older than twenty was listed. Fat snapped the folder closed and whipped it down onto the filing cabinet in frustration.
“Today’s punks won’t have been all of them. I’ll station some sidekicks here to pick off stragglers who show up over the next few days. And to keep an eye on that .”
He grimaced, and gestured to the vat of Trigger.
And then, just like that, it was over. Fat dispatched the appropriate authorities, and Sewer Man, ‘Jun’, and his companions were swiftly arrested, but the police came out of uniform, and in unmarked cars. They seemed to know Fat, and deferred to him for all decisions. They must have worked together before, on other drug cases Fat had handled. Some city authorities came to cordon off the open sewer line behind the building, but Fat convinced them to leave it for now. He wanted to leave the base mostly untouched, as a trap for stragglers to fall into. As he put it to Kirishima:
“Even if we clean up the mess they left behind, as long as the rats are still around they’ll keep making new ones.”
As they all trudged back into Fat Gum Agency, all the sidekicks and staff pinched their noses at them. Tetsutetsu was whisked away to have his throat looked at. Amajiki, Kirishima, and Fat all retreated to the bathroom showers at the agency.
Kirishima was certain his costume would never smell the same again. He peeled it off and tossed it into a bag he’d been given by one of the staff at the agency. Apparently, the costumes were being sent off for special cleaning. Again, Kirishima had his doubts.
He stepped into the hot water, and the steam briefly made the smell worse, before he attacked his entire body with soap more aggressively than he’d attacked any of the villains that evening. He knew that, regardless of how clean he was after one pass, he’d have to do at least three more to feel even close to normal again.
As he scrubbed at his fingernails, and lathered up his feet, he wondered about the records they’d seen in the building.
Thirteen, fourteen. fifteen, fifteen, sixteen, eighteen, all the way down the ledger. He remembered growing up, when people had told him that his quirk was weak, and that he’d never be good enough to really be a hero. In middle school, he had been insecure about it, and sometimes even cowardly because of it. Even now, like during the fight earlier, he could be disappointed in his own strength when compared to others.
He wondered if, at a different time in his life, or in a different world, he could have been more than just a decoy name on one of those ledgers.
The final round of soap ran down his body and swirled around the drain. His skin was pink from the heat and scrubbing, and the water was starting to run lukewarm. He stepped out of the shower, and his eyes were suddenly itchy and aching with fatigue. He pulled his phone out of the pocket of his civilian clothes and saw that it was nearly midnight now.
On his phone screen, he also saw a single notification, from Bakugou.
“Text me when you know you’re not dead, Shitty Hair.”
Kirishima chuckled, and typed out a response.
“Pretty sure I’m not dead, but you never can know for sure. ;)”
“I can. Bring me back some snacks from your bosses stash again and I’ll know that you’re really alive.”
*
The next day, Kirishima didn’t peel himself out of bed until almost ten in the morning, which was late for him. Even then, he had wanted to go back to sleep, but was only cajoled out from under his warm blankets by an even stronger desire – to decimate any food he could find in the dorm kitchens.
There was something about doing a mission, even if no one really got hurt and it all went off without a hitch, that made him ravenously hungry, and tired in the way where your limbs feel extra heavy and sleep feels like the best thing since sliced bread. He left his pajamas on though, no point in getting dressed if he was just going to go back to his room later. Fat had given them all the day off anyway.
After satisfying his appetite, he wandered into the common area of the UA Class A dorms. The whole building was practically empty, everyone else had gone to their work-studies today. However, he found two surprising figures standing by the entrance to the building.
Amajiki and Tetsutetsu stood by the doors, both dressed in casual clothes, the former looking put upon, and the latter looking absolutely ecstatic.
“There you are!”
Tetsutetsu shouted.
“We’ve been waiting for you for ages! Go get dressed already!”
“Why? Did something happen? I thought we had the day off.”
Tetsutetsu was shaking with excitement.
“Well, something didn’t happen… I mean it did! But it’s not bad! Look!”
Amajiki held out a card glumly, with the Fat Gum Agencies logo on it. Kirishima took it, and opened it up. Inside was written, in Fat’s messy scrawl:
“Good job last night! I’m proud of all of you! Go have some fun, and make sure you drag Tamaki with you.”
Beside the writing, there were three day passes to the local amusement park.
Amajiki groaned.
“See, you read it! This is targeted harassment! And now I have it in writing, so you can see exactly how Fat tortures me.”
Tetsutetsu retorted.
“Don’t be stupid! This is amazing! You have to come with us!”
Kirishima stared at the tickets for a second longer.
“Well, are you coming or not? They open in like an hour bro!”
“You kidding?! Of course I am! Let me just go get changed!”
Yeah, he kind of had the best boss ever.