Chapter Text
Hakamada Tsunagu entered Crimson Riot’s agency precisely twenty minutes before his interview was scheduled to begin. His interview suit was created for him specifically as a good luck charm by his elder brother; the black fabric was crisp against his body and a deep red tie highlighted the power he could control with his quirk. He gave a brief survey of the others in the lobby as he walked to check in with the receptionist. Chinen, his classmate from 3A, was present as expected, along with three other young men in suits also carrying their costume briefcases. Tsunagu anticipated that he would be the best dressed applicant, but could not fault these men for the quality of their suits. Not everyone came from a fashion empire family and he was nothing if not aware of how fortunate he was in comparison.
There was, however, a girl about their age who could not look more out of place if she tried. She wore a high school uniform of well worn fabric. Despite a clear lack of talent in makeup she attempted to apply some dollar value mascara and lipstick. He would have dismissed her as a fellow applicant except for the fact that she was present on the day Crimson Riot held his group interview for a sidekick position, and that she had a briefcase with more imperfections than her uniform.
The receptionist checked him in and asked that he take a seat. The lobby was not too quiet as the morning news played in one of the corners. Most of the other interviewees glanced back and forth between the tv and their phones. With no seats next to Chinen, Tsunagu exchanged nods with him and took the empty seat next to the girl. She watched him sit but made no sign of welcome. Was she one of those girls who thought every hero alive was a sexist pig? Who assumed she could not show an ounce of emotion for fear of not being taken seriously? He was an ally to all underrepresented groups, but it was more than a bit rude for her to start off on the defensive.
He decided to offer an olive branch. “Hey, I’m sure Crimson Riot won’t make a big deal of it, but here’s a bit of advice my school gave me before I came here today. For the next interview you have, try wearing your nicest business clothes? Wearing a school uniform is a good look when you interview for internships, but for real sidekick jobs most places expect a more professional look.”
Looking at her up close, Tsunagu could see heavy bags under her eyes and fairly pallid skin. Was it part of her quirk? Maybe something vampiric in nature? Her brown eyes were dull and flat, and she was fairly unattractive. He felt bad for her; it was harder to be an ugly woman hero than an ugly male hero in the public opinion, but it was not so important that Crimson was likely to hold it against her in the interview. She waited so long to respond that he was caught up in his own thoughts when she spoke, “Thanks for the advice. If I had clothes nicer than this, I would follow it.”
It took everything in him not to roll his eyes. There were tons of stores where she could have bought nice clothes for a cheap price. Even if she was as poor as she’s suggesting, she would have had the money to get something better than her school uniform.
Tsunagu didn’t deign to respond. If she woke up and chose violence then he wouldn’t stoop to her level. The last candidate arrived five minutes later, and at five minutes until ten, Whispering Crane came to collect the group. Whispering Crane was Crimson Riot’s first sidekick, and used his flying paper cranes for reconnaissance, distractions, and retrievals of small objects. “Welcome, everyone, to No Regrets Agency. I am Whispering Crane, and I will begin today’s interview on behalf of Crimson Riot and the rest of our agency.” Everyone gathered in front of him and he passed around a schedule for each of the applicants to take. “We will begin by taking a tour of the agency and then having lunch with Crimson Riot and the sidekicks on shift this morning. After that we will conduct the verbal portion of the interviews, and end with some workouts and sparring. Now, how about we go around and introduce ourselves using only the civilian names and schools?”
Whispering Crane nodded as each of the seven applicants introduced themselves. None of the names were familiar, but there was one Shiketsu student present and Tsunagu knew that was the closest place to a rival school against UA. As part of the Big Three at UA, Tsunagu was obviously the person to beat today. The girl, Aizawa Jakuchō, was from some nobody hero school in some small town in Iwate Prefecture. Tsunagu had at least heard of the other hero schools the other candidates attended. How had she gotten this interview? It was possible she somehow had connections to one of the sidekicks, or perhaps someone was moved by the letter each applicant had to include with their resume? He felt bad for the girl who had barely any social graces. Even her name, Jakuchō, meant silent, lonely listener, and based on how little she spoke it seemed appropriate.
Every applicant was in awe on the tour of the number three hero’s agency, except for Aizawa. Her tired face remained unchanged as they saw the various-sized conference rooms, the sidekicks’ bullpen and offices, the gymnasium, cafeteria, physical therapy room, and the locker rooms. Most agencies were little more than a collection of offices and a singular conference room. Only Endeavor and All Might himself likely had better accommodations for the physical aspects of hero work. It was like Aizawa had no appreciation for how well Riot treated himself and his sidekicks, and it made Tsunagu’s blood boil.
He calmed himself as they all took seats in the cafeteria. They had two or three applicants to a table, and one of the sidekicks came in and passed them each a large piece of paper and a pen. “Before we get started on the lunch, would you each please draw a quick schematic of the agency?”
An unannounced test on their recall? It was a surprise that hit a positive chord with Tsunagu. While this was not a mind game played by Crimson Riot’s agency, he could appreciate the sly nature in which they were tested. Heroes needed situational awareness and an unobservant hero was a dead hero. They only had five minutes to draw the schematics before the papers were collected, and he was silently pleased that his schematic was much better than the applicant next to him from Osaka.
Crimson Riot came in with fifteen of his sidekicks and introduced them all. Tsunagu had met Crimson Riot on two separate occasions, neither in a combat situation. The hero who Tsunagu worked under during his work study was an old sidekick of Crimson Riot, and introduced them one time at a police briefing. Riot never accepted work study or internships with provisionally licensed heroes. Most people would assume the hero who spoke at length about living a life with no regrets and manliness would love taking on interns, but Tsunagu was told by his work study mentor that Crimson had lost a student under his care once, years ago, and never extended another offer for an internship.
Tsunagu’s own work study had revealed some of the traumas he knew he would one day face. This year, the Hero Commision released statistics from the last five years. Heroes had a death rate of 3%, which didn’t seem like much unless you knew that out of seven thousand professional heroes, two hundred and ten would die on the job, and so many more would have career ending injuries.
Crimson Riot took close care of his sidekicks, and their agency had the lowest death rate out of all the agencies in its size bracket. Tsunagu was beyond impressed by the aura and figure cut by the Chivalrous Hero. He towered over most and was nearly three times broader than Tsunagu. Crimson Riot could let off small explosions on any surface within his sight, and did the remaining work in close quarter brawls. He was also unfailingly charismatic, and when he greeted each applicant by name they would light up under his smile. Even Aizawa could not keep a small smile off her face, and some of the cold lines about her eyes softened for a second.
Lunch was a delicious yakisoba, and they had the chance to ask questions from the sidekicks about what it was like to join the No Regrets Agency and how they liked living in Yokohama. Riot’s agency was the leading one in Kanagawa prefecture. They had regular patrol routes in the prefecture’s capital city, Yokohama, and handled many of the preplanned raids in the prefecture. They collaborated with smaller agencies, solo heroes, and worked with local police. As such a highly ranked hero, Riot helped in cases that took him out of the prefecture semi-regularly, so all of his sidekicks had the opportunity to travel for cases on occasion.
When they went into a conference room to begin the interview process, they found a middle aged woman sitting in the room already. Every other seat held a white board and marker, so the seven applicants took the hint to sit behind them. Whispering Crane and another man took up seats next to the woman, and Crimson Riot gestured to her. “This is Ueda-san, and we hire her often as she is licensed to use her lie prevention quirk. She also works with several of the police officers and in some national agencies as well. With your consent, we would like to conduct this portion of the interview under the influence of her quirk, so that no one can lie.”
Everyone, including Aizawa and Tsunagu, were surprised but agreed. Ueda nodded and her edges became softer, blurrier, but otherwise did not move. Crimson Riot asked that they attempt to lie about what they ate for breakfast, but the words stuck in Tsunagu’s mouth. It was almost as if part of his tongue was glued to the back of his teeth, and he could not speak a coherent word. All sounds seemed to die in his mouth. Everyone else appeared to experience the same problem, and now that they knew what to expect, the interview began.
There were a few rounds where they each had to explain a time they dealt with conflict in a group setting, say what they were looking for in an agency, and what professional challenges they anticipated in their first year as sidekicks. Riot played a few videos of hero and villain fights and asked what the hero could have done better in each one. Then it was time for the white boards.
“I would like to go over a few scenarios now with you all. I will ask the question, everyone will write the answer at the same time, and then each of you can explain as needed. First, a hypothetical: let’s say you were employed as a sidekick here but were visiting a different prefecture, and a villain burst out of the store closest to you carrying stolen goods and damaging the store. You see no professional heroes nearby, what do you do?”
It was not illegal for a hero to help if they were off duty, so of course Tsunagu would assist. One villain, property damage, but no hurt civilians? He wrote “Capture/Subdue villain” on his board. A few seconds later, everyone was finished and turned their boards around. Most had elected to write the same thing as him, but when he saw Aizawa’s board he wanted to roll his eyes. She wrote “subdue villain, call 110 for code 415 and provide hero number and current outfit description.” She had to write the code for off duty heroes on her answer? Anyone with half a brain knew that code.
“There is a specific code for being out of prefecture?” one of the other applicants asked. This man was from Seijin High School, and Tsunagu realized that school must have not taught their students anything useful about codes.
“Code 415 is for an off duty hero responding in an emergency. Providing the outfit description is just for the police to know who I am when they arrive on sight as I will be out of uniform,” she replied blandly.
“Excellent, Aizawa-san. Now let’s say that you are patrolling in your usual neighborhood and come across a group of eleven villains. They have two civilian hostages already, and they are clearly using quirks to break into a bank. What is your first step?” Riot asked.
Everyone erased their whiteboards and Tsunagu paused. Eleven to one were not good odds, even for him. Concentrating on that many moving people would be difficult, especially with the two civilians. He wrote “remove civilians from the area.” When they turned their boards around, he saw that Chinen had the same answer. The Seijin idiot wrote “engage with the closest combatant using stealth measures”, and the Shiketsu student wrote “gather further information.” The other two men had “asses” as theirs.
Aizawa had “Call for backup- at least one other sidekick patrolling, other heroes nearby?” Crimson Riot agreed with her, followed by Tsunagu and Chinen. Maybe that’s why he brought her for the interview: despite the personality of burnt toast she must be good at protocol garbage. There were a few more hypothetical questions, followed by a few on hero ethics.
“Last question for this session,” Riot said at last. “Why do you want to become a professional hero?”
One of the applicants started to sweat a little. Ueda’s quirk was still active, so no one could bullshit their way out of this question. But Tsunagu genuinely believed that he wanted to be a hero for the right reasons. His family were famous in the fashion industry, so if he was after fame or money he wouldn’t need to put his life on the line. He wrote what was in his heart, and turned it around to show Crimson Riot. The hero nodded at him, and Tsunagu explained, “When heroes help people, they often help the people on the worst days of their lives. I want to be a hero because people deserve to be saved, and they should be saved in a way that is elegant and will lift their spirits when they need it most.”
Chinen, he knew, came into it looking for fame, but lost a family member to a villain attack during their second year. He wrote “to do my part in saving people.” One candidate wrote “fame,” another “glory,” and two others wrote something to the effect of making money while helping people at the same time. Aizawa’s board said “to lessen the suffering of children.”
Okay, maybe Tsunagu judged her a bit too harshly. She couldn’t lie, so this was obviously her biggest driving factor to be a hero. Then again, if children were her focus she ought to go into social services. That was an emotionally taxing job and if she had no emotions it would be better for her to work in that field than a bright eyed, bleeding heart person, right?
They were dismissed to change into their hero costumes and regroup in the gym. The other male applicants took a second to chat as they got dressed, and it seemed like many of them were now concerned that Crimson Riot wouldn’t want to hire them based on their reasons for wanting to be heroes. He wasn’t particularly happy to hear one of them say that it wasn’t surprising for the woman to be in it for the kids, but Tsunagu did not react outside of a frown. That conversation was a bit condescending, and very unlike what Tsunagu thought.
When they arrived at the gym, Aizawa was already present and stretching. Her costume looked little more than a black Kevlar sweats, and she had her briefcase beside her showing a respirator and a nightstick. Whispering Crane stood beside her as she stretched, commenting on a few of the wards close to the agency, weighing costs and benefits. She seemed to listen intently while she stretched, showing an impressive flexibility.
Every applicant was given ten minutes to stretch and then Riot joined them. Whispering Crane explained that they would do two rounds of sparring—first with match ups created by Riot, and the second where each applicant could choose their opponent. Obviously they were to take careful note of all applicants in the first round to determine who they should fight in the second. Tsunagu would have to pick the best of the lot depending on which skills he wanted to showcase after the first round. Even though they were all granted the interview, there would still be a range of skills and he hoped Chinen would not be the strongest opponent. The first pair was not all that remarkable-the Shiketsu student had a quirk that allowed him to slick the ground with water at his discretion, causing his opponent with a metal manipulation quirk to slide around. Chinen and his airstepping quirk made quick work of a man with a quirk that grew roots from the ground.
Tsunagu sparred with a money seeker whose fingers turned into long knives. The man rushed at him, but Tsunagu merely used the fibers of the man’s costume to render him incapable of running before he jumped behind him and slapped on the practice capture tape. They had only danced around for about three minutes before Tsunagu had him captured, and he honestly wanted a better fight. How could he show his capabilities when his opponent wasn’t nearly as strong?
Aizawa stepped into the right with the remaining candidate, who wore a flashy light blue costume. What would her quirk be? He watched with casual interest as the man’s skin turned to stone and ran at Aizawa as soon as they were given the go ahead. Aizawa’s eyes flashed red and her hair seemed to float around her as she cut a very quick but indirect path at her opponent. She drew her nightstick and hit him once across his upper back. The man crumpled to the floor, and she was on top of him a second later, applying the capture tape. Her fight took less than twenty seconds.
She was unexpected—Tsunagu could admit that. There was no clear idea what her quirk was, but one thing was certain. She knocked a man with skin of stone to the ground and he was not prepared for the blow. She stood back and pulled him to his feet, undoing the capture tape and giving a comically short bow. Tsunagu glanced at Riot, and though the man’s face was blank his eyes seemed to have an amused glint to them. That was enough for Tsunagu to decide on his sparring partner.
Chinen, the Shiketsu student, and Tsunagu were all asked once or twice to be the sparring partner and he agreed to those requests. None of them ended in victory for his opponents, and when it was his turn he faced Aizawa. “Would you be my sparring partner?” He asked.
She shifted her weight from one foot to the other and he was almost concerned that she would refuse. “Of course,” she replied, stepping back onto the mats. He knew she had the advantage of knowing what his quirk was; even if she had not experienced it for herself. Tsunagu’s fingers twitched in anticipation, ready for the fight after the warm ups with the others. Was the stone skinned man unlucky? Would she be skilled?
“Begin!” Riot barked, and they both sprang into action. His quirk reached towards her immediately, ready to unravel the fibers of the Kevlar.
CRACK.
The sound thundered in his head and his vision immediately split into a kaleidoscope of colors. The black of her outfit, the blue of the mats, the white wall behind her, none of it made sense. His quirk couldn’t latch onto her outfit—he hadn’t even realized his quirk focused so heavily on sight when the room wasn’t completely dark to begin with. He tried to blink it away as he halted his steps, reaching out based on feeling rather than sight. It was an adjustment he had made on occasion—
There! He felt the Kevlar coming straight at him, and he began to unravel the fibers to ensare her inside it, but—something was wrong. The Kevlar wasn’t moving fast enough, and his fibers were not ensnaring anything—
CRACK.
His vision came in four times, each off-skelter in a different angle. His quirk was active on empty Kevlar and—
Something collided with his legs, knocking him off balance. The nightstick—but how?
He felt her collide into him on his unbalanced left side. She knocked him to the ground and as he tried to twine her in his Jean Kevlar blend she was clumsily trying to use that against him. She sat on top of him, and as he tried to wrap her hands in the fiber he felt the capture tape click into place and harden.
Tsunagu had lost to Aizawa.
He froze, quirk still active but no longer moving. What the fuck had just happened? He hasn’t lost so terribly since he went to UA.
He sent the fibers back to their original location and she cut the tape off him and stood up, offering a hand. Her face was impassive but he stood and gave her a nod. He wanted to be graceful in defeat but he was too much in shock. Apparently she had no expectations for him to say anything as she turned back to Riot.
She was the last to go—maybe she would ask Chinen? Tsunagu stepped off the mat in time to see Aizawa shuck on the Kevlar top over her sports bra and then bow to Riot. “You said we may pick our opponent. It would be an honor to spar with you.”
This arrogant bitch! She took less than a minute to beat him, and now she wanted to be the only one to fight Riot!
The Chivalrous Hero did not answer verbally, but only a second passed between her request and an explosion set off behind her. Aizawa jumped into action, quirk going off and—leaping behind the explosion? There was a little smoke, yes, but not enough to cover her entirely. And that’s when Tsunagu realized she was running away from Crimson Riot. Was she stupid or just insane?
Unlike her spars with Tsunagu and the other applicant, she did not go in for an immediate hit with the nightstick. It was obvious that both she and Riot were using this spar not as a mock villain battle, but rather to learn about the other’s fighting style and quirk. They ended up going for nearly five minutes, the longest of all the spars. Riot pinned her on the floor at last, and they congratulated each other on a good spar as Tsunagu seethed silently. Not for the first time was he grateful to have most of his face covered by a mask, and he willed his eyes to not portray his anger.
“Thank you all for coming to visit us today,” Crimson Riot said as Aizawa joined the group again. “Please, change your clothes and follow Whispering Crane to our front lobby. We will notify each of you with our decision within the next two weeks. Thank you!” Riot bowed, and all the applications bowed back. Anger coursed through Tsunagu, so he said nothing as he returned to the locker room to change clothes and waited for the others. He didn’t notice who was the last to change, but he dutifully followed Whispering Crane to the front and bid them a polite farewell.
It seemed that all of the other students were headed to the train station, but Aizawa was moving at a quick pace and left them far behind. Chinen came up and clapped him on the shoulder. “So, Hakamada-kun, how do you feel? You were asked twice to be a sparring partner! Clearly everyone thought highly of you.”
Everyone except for the arrogant girl from a joke of a school, he thought bitterly. “It doesn’t matter what they thought of me, just what Crimson Riot and Whispering Crane thought of me. What about you?”
Chinen shook his head. “Whatever that girl was selling, Crimson Riot bought it. I won’t be surprised when he picks you two.”
Tsunagu was a good guy. He tried his best to be kind and helpful. But he could barely manage to suppress a shiver at the thought of her being his coworker. The expressionless face, the smug superiority, the arrogance. “I would rather work with you, Chinen-kun. We will see what they decide.” They arrived at the train station, and as a train headed north slowly exited the station, he caught a glimpse of dark eyes meeting his gaze briefly.
Aizawa was on a train back to Iwate, and he hoped that he had seen the last of her.