Chapter Text
The Ballad of the Frog and the Siren
*THUNK*
“I don`t think that was entirely necessary, Kero.”
Asui Tsuyu`s room was by all standards fairly dull. Outside of a higher amount of forest green than your average person`s furniture choice, it didn’t contain much more than a desk, a bookshelf with photos and a few books, and a bed. Not much more than that was necessary for her, considering she never really spent that much time in it. At least, until recently.
“Uuuuuugh.”
The room`s second occupant lifted his head from the (Thankfully undamaged) wall he had seconds ago bashed it into, before flopping onto the bed, grip never lessening on the small but dense file he held in his hand.
To Tsu, Hitoshi was as much an enigma as he was a kindred spirit. They met at the entrance exam, working together to equally secure enough points to just about sneak into the hero course. The pair had hit it off quickly, with Hitoshi visiting her house frequently. The pair shared common interests in media, the same dry sense of humour (although Tsu had been hard at work to drain Hitoshi`s self-deprecation, it was a hard job), and Hitoshi`s lack of a distinctly pleasant home life meant that he took every scrap of attention Samidere and Satsuki gave him. He was good company in dealing with her spirited classmates, even if she had already formed a strong bond with a few of her classmates, especially after the USJ, But…
“Don`t you think it`s a little early for us to be having a crisis of faith, Tsu?”
Tsu continued pacing through her room, deep in thought. Although all the duo wanted was to get in some practice for the upcoming sports festival (A fairly boring affair. Hitoshi would brainwash her and get her to do increasingly straining physical acts. An exercise in control and endurance, but considering Hitoshi intended to flunk out on the second round for secrecy, it was more for her than him), the letter Ochaco had slipped Hitoshi, with which he was to read with her, had put those plans aside.
Reading up on a few of the Hero commissions projects had been… enlightening.
(They had split the given files in half. They both read all the files in the end, but Hitoshi wouldn’t let her look at the pictures of Hawks as a child. “You need a cool head right now, and those pictures are too close to Sami and Suki, even for me.” Even the text angered her.)
“There’s still one file, at the back, Kero. What`s it say?”
Hitoshi sat up and pulled out the final file, a black, almost blank page with a few lines of text, which he read out dryly.
“If you wish to change… seek out Hestia`s guidance. There`s an address here.”
Tsu pulled out her phone, plugging in the address.
“It routes to an old abandoned warehouse, near Takoba, Kero. Owned by now defunct… Vesta shipping. Subtle.”
“Huh.”
The silence was palpable, but not unpleasant as both parties thought for a moment. Hitoshi `s eyes widened quickly after a few seconds.
“Wait. Why did Uraraka even have this?”
Tsu stopped her pacing, sitting herself down on her desk chair. Why did Uraraka have all these files? Better yet, why give them to the pair? Unless...?
“Do you think… Uraraka has some plan to do something about this?”
Hitoshi leaned back, grunting.
“I mean, I guess? You and I were with Midoriya during the U.S.J, but we saw how fiercely she protected Thirteen from the strays. Wait…don`t Midoriya and Uraraka have the same foster?”
Asui pondered the idea.
“Both Midoriya and Uraraka are very proficient fighters, Kero. Especially Midoriya. If it wasn`t for him, that Shigaraki person would have gotten me and Sensei… and both of them are very enthusiastic when we talk Hero politics.”
Hitoshi sighed as he looked at the page.
“It seems the only way we`ll get logistical answers for this is if we go to this address, and if the answer is what I’m starting to think it is-“
“We`d probably cut out any chance of us being normal pro heroes, unless whatever plan is going on succeeds, Kero.”
“Hai.”
Hitoshi kicked off the bed, plopping onto the floor, his ideal thinking spot. Tsu quickly took his spot on the bed, stretching out silently.
“…What do we have to lose, Tsu?”
Tsu remained silent, gesturing for him to continue.
“I mean… my whole life I’ve know that there`s something wrong with the way things are. The world seemed to practically beg for me to be a villain with a quirk like mine, and no offence, but you got lucky with your relative humanness. What would the odds of you getting through heroics be if you looked more like your old man? I know for a fact that uncle Ganma has to fight tooth and nail to keep his place at work, too. I wanted to be a hero to help that, but looking at this-“
“It seems a little unviable to hope for a world where my siblings can live the life they want right now.”
“that`s about right”
Hitoshi sighed, pulling his fingers through his hair, threading through old scars.
“Pretty much the only thing not being a hero would lock me out of would be getting to learn more from Eraserhead, and I Like the guy, but he has some issues when it comes to teaching, and it`s not like it’ll cut us off right away, neh?”
Asui only contemplated for a moment longer before getting up and throwing on her jacket. She moved to the door of her room.
“Only one way to find out.”
Hitoshi groaned as he stood up, but he followed, nonetheless.
“Only one way to find out.”
The warehouse the pair arrived at did not look particularly abandoned, in Hitoshi`s opinion. A few minutes walk from the largely clean beach, it stood out amongst the fairly messy area, having been renovated recently, seemingly by professionals. The walls clean of graffiti, alarms and security wire lining the walls, and a refurbished front entrance indicated that the warehouse was freshly repaired.
Despite this, when the pair walked up to the front entrance, it opened quietly, inviting them in.
While Hitoshi stood at the entrance, Tsu walked in quickly.
“You only live once, Kero.”
Why did Hitoshi have to make friends with the people that kept running into things? “I don’t think that`s motivating in this case, Tsu!”
Nonetheless, he stalked after her.
The interior of the warehouse appeared… homely?
The previously large room filled with shipping items appeared to have been partitioned into a larger set of smaller rooms that they could not see. The front entrance resembled the entrance of a traditional office room. With concrete walls painted a dull but homely white, the room had a small carpet, a staircase leading to an upper floor, and an unmanned front desk. Closer analysis from a security perspective showcased that the desk had no chair and was less desk and more cover. A camera in the room`s corner seemed to track their movement.
Before Hitoshi could analyse the room further, a door at the rooms furthest end opened, leading to a hallway with a set of closed doors leading to other rooms. Out of the door stepped Midoriya Izuku, with a smug look on his face and strapping on a jacket over what looked to be… All Might pyjamas?
“Like what Nine and Cheek Girl did with the place? It was a pain in the ass to track down a concrete manipulator that wasn’t Cementoss, but the lady we hired was nice and not a snitch. Traded the repairs for the locations of a few rapists, too, so a win win!”
Hitoshi looked at his friend in confusion. Midoriya seemed to lack his standard mannerisms, and his eyes appeared a blood orange colour.
In a moment, Midoriya straightened himself. “Right, you`re probably are confused out of y`all minds. Let me give the wheel back to Nine. Catch y`all later, probably!”
As Midoriya rapidly shook his head, his eyes reverted back to their standard colour.
“Shinso! Tsu! Hi! Sorry ab-about Banjo, he`s a bit… eccentric? I`ll explain that later, come over here!”
Midoriya quickly made his way over to a door on the other side of the entrance room, which seemed to lead to a small conference room. Hitoshi shared a look with his companion. They shared a shrug and walked in.
As Midoriya placed himself into a chair on the opposite end of a small table, he spoke up.
“As Banjo was saying, this is our… base? I suppose that`s the right word. It`s where me, Dad and Ochaco have been staying. Theres plenty of extra space for more rooms and supplies. As of now, the only other regular guests are La Brava and her… boyfriend? I`m not sure, and Double Trouble, a friend of ours. But they’re both busy with their current projects, so I doubt you`ll see them around for the next while… if you choose to stick around here, that is! Now…I’m sure you two have questions. Go wild!”
Tsu (Thank hell) spoke up before he had too.
“Thank you, Midoriya, Kero. You know I’m pretty blunt, so I`ll lead with the important questions. Putting aside what happened there, what are you all doing here?”
Midoriya scratched the side of his head with an airy chuckle. “I suppose that wasn`t particularly apparent in the letter Ochaco gave you, huh. Well, as thanks for showing up, I`ll be honest with you both. We`re… recruiting.”
Hitoshi and Tsu`s eyes widened, but they let him continue.
“Just under a year ago, now, I met Toshinori-san, who`s my dad now. He introduced me to some of the things you saw in those letters. Further investigation revealed the rest, and I can tell you there’s still a few more projects that I don’t have the documentation for but I know exist. The trigger studies alone…but that’s beside the point. After I met Toshinori-san, we decided to work together. If we wanted to take down the Commission, we`d need to defend ourselves against a lot of powerful people, including a lot of top heroes and unranked Commission soldiers, and take physical action, up to and including getting the public on our side through outreach. Namely… vigilantism. In other words… we`d need training and allies. That`s why I went to U.A. a few months before the entrance exam, we met Ochaco, and I figured out how to use my quirk... and here we are.”
Silence permeated the room. That was… a lot. Hitoshi could tell his friend entirely genuine, too. The Midoriya they had come to know was still here, just… out in the open. He bit the bullet.
“So why us? I get that neither of us are fantastically heroic looking, but I think at least Tsu made her motivations pretty clear.”
Midoriya smiled at the pair. “it`s exactly those motivations that led me to asking you first.”
Hitoshi raised an eyebrow. “Hah?”
“At the U.S.J, I got to see the two of you fight villains. I remember one of them talking about ‘why that freaking mind dude is on the heroes side.” I saw the pair of you scoff at him when Bakugo blasted him away. I can tell the two of you want to be heroes more than anything, want to prove the world wrong. But I think you can see that…it wouldn’t be enough. What we’re doing here, should we succeed, will hopefully create a society that`s better than this one. That`s all we want, really.”
The room returned to silence as Midoriya let the two think. No words were exchanged between the pair, but none were needed. Instead, the two nodded. Hitoshi let Tsu take the lead.
“Kero. If we choose to join you, what would it entail? Would my-our- families be safe?”
Midoriya became more serious as he leaned up straight. “of course. Should you join, not much will change for the next while. We might ask for your help on occasion, but other than that and attending the occasional meeting, your lives should continue on as usual. You`ll be free to visit this place whenever you wish, so long as you aren’t followed. As of now, our goals are simply to gain connections and new members, until myself, Ochaco, and any other members of our class who join us acquire provisional hero licences. Typically, that would be in the second year, but if these villain attacks continue, there’s a high chance they`ll have us push for licences in September, so we`ll likely act in November, around when this year’s hero billboard is announced. After that… I`m trusting to have formed enough protections to get any family into a safe place. More likely than not, U.A.”
Tsu and Hitoshi shared one last look. Plenty of time to prepare, a place for Hitoshi that wasn’t Tsu`s house, at least two reliable allies, and efforts would be made to protect Tsu`s family. There wasn’t much doubt left for either of them. Tsu gestured for Hitoshi to answer for both of them.
Sighing sufficiently dramatically, Hitoshi provided the answer.
“Throw in a bag of the blend you know I like, and you have a deal.”
At that, three teenagers (much too young to be having serious meetings like this. They should be going out with friends, but fate was not kind to them.) laughed.
“Of course. Now then, Hitoshi-san – can I call you that? How do you feel about learning espionage a little early?”
The alleyway, if one looked at it in the morning, looked straight out of a warzone. Cuts and burns lined the brick walls and path, and the dumpster that previously sat on the side appeared to been thrown, slashed and bashed into simultaneously. The three people in the alleyway were each panting for breath. Two masked figures stood on one side, the dark concealing their identifying features, and on the other side, the Hero Killer panted for breath.
There would be no Nomu, no heroes, and no cameras to interrupt this clash. Sleeping gas similar to the R rated hero`s pumped into the pipes of the neighbouring buildings secured that. They would feel bad about that later.
The taller of the two figures spoke first. “Theres nowhere for you to run now, Stain”.
The Hero Killer took a step forward. “As if I`d surrender to fools like you. You may fight well, but I will not bow to anyone!”
The shorter figure wheezed, then chuckled. “Of course not. Thankfully, this was just for some petty revenge, honestly. Your real downfall is over there.” They pointed a shaking finger behind their opponent.
“I WOULD SAY THAT’S ABOUT ENOUGH, CHIZOME!”
Chizome snapped around, staring at the giant figure that stood on the roof behind him, looking down. His eyes bulged in recognition of the voice and figure.
“All Might!? Ho-“
Whatever the man wished to say was cut off as he froze, feeling a foreign force taking control.
Loud laughter seemed to shift as Hitoshi took off his voice modulator, jumping down to meet with the others, Giant All Might cut-out in tow.
“Aw man, the cut-out really worked. I owe Toad 2000 Yen.”
An airy laugh came out as a fourth figure emerged, emitting a pale gas that knocked out the Hero Killer fully.
“I must give my thanks to Toad-Chan for the idea. Creating such a complex piece was an interesting experience, but the result was excellent.”
“Having the man himself to get the voice from helped a whole lot, I can say that much.”
The group laughed as Tenya finished removing the Hero Killer`s many knives and tying him up with an extra flourish. The bow was Tenya`s personal touch. Having friends at least got him out of his shell a little.
Izuku clapped his hands. “Right! Engentive and I will head over to the police station and drop this guy off. I`ll have Lovely do the standard news leak so they can’t let him back out again. Miss Everything, Brainy, do you remember the address for the bar Spinner lives above?”
Hitoshi smiled underneath his mask at that. “Of course. A deal`s a deal. He gave us Stain`s route home, we give little miss Eri a playdate. Not that I’m complaining about it.”.
Izuku smiled at that.
“Alright everyone, good work on our first job as a team! Once you’re done with Eri, go get some sleep. Holidays are almost over, and there’s a new member coming in tomorrow through Dad, so we need to look vaguely respectable!”
The group split up. As Tenya and Izuku took to the nearby roof, Hero Killer in tow, Tenya took off his mask and smiled at Izuku.
“I can`t thank you enough for this, my friend. It will bring me great peace to see this man come to justice.”
Izuku took off his own mask and returned the smile.
“Of course. What are friends for?”
(Two apartments worth of people woke up to having slept far better than usual, and to a fairly gaudy All Might cut-out that was only around for a few hours before the police seized it. It was confusing, but in a quirk filled world, weirder things could happen. They were quick to move on.”
Pride of the Monkey, Honour of the Strong
Ojiro Mashirao, as is his nature, can consider himself fairly humble. Raised in an environment where martial arts were equal to breathing, honour, ethics and skill were taught to him at a young age.
At the same time, he is happy to admit that by definition, Mashirao is the strongest fighter within 1-A.
‘Sure, Bakugo can blow things to hell, and Todoroki can freeze and burn to his hearts content. But Ojiro? Ojiro can fight.’
In terms of fighting without quirks, the only people who could possibly rival him are those with mutant quirks, Sato with his massive size, and Midoriya, who`s quirk meant he trained quirkless for most of his life.
None of them could actually beat him, though. Most were also afraid to try. No one else got dumped into a zone during the U.S.J incident on their own.
Even in quirked fights, he held his ground. Securing third place alongside Uraraka at the sports festival was a point of pride for him.
Unlike most people his age, Mashirao had learnt that proper strength came from effort, rather than your quirk.
So, the disappointment for the level of quirkism he encountered during his internships was… palpable.
He had received plenty of Internship offers. Not nearly as many as someone in third place with a flashy quirk would have, sure, but still many more than a lot of his classmates.
There was Gang Orca, who was tempting, but Mashirao wanted to avoid the top ten, considering how naturally prideful they tended to be. Even if Gang Orca was an exception, he was still too high on the rankings to risk it.
The number 32 Hero, Wildebeast, a spotlight hero with a low degree mutant quirk like his, granting him large, retractable horns, checked enough boxes for him to accept the offer. The man`s agency in Hotho ward was quiet, but looked productive on the surface, and yet…
The 5 sidekicks stationed there seemed to spend a whole lot more time lounging than working, which concerned him. The off-putting speeches from the hero more so.
So when the man seemed to say ‘leave that one to the other heroes’ for any crimes that didn’t involve a flashy quirk (or a flashy camera), Mashirao was decidedly bitter.
Thus, when he and his ‘mentor’ visited Gunhead agency for a meeting, Mashirao was quick to seek out his friends.
As he entered a small waiting room, he felt like he was in a scene that looked like something out of a comedy film. A sentai ranger, a karate master, and a construction worker, except their all heroes. His mother would find that funny, at least.
Iida noticed Mashirao walk up to the pair quickly.
“Tail-man! It`s good to see you!”
Mashirao smiled to the taller boy.
“Ingenium II, Weight-Shift. It`s good to see you both as well, even if briefly.”
Uraraka smiled at him cheerily. She looked out of breath, but she raved about Gunhead martial arts the night before, so he wasn’t worried about her.
“How`s your internship been going, Ojiro? We`ve been super busy the whole time here!”
Mashirao attempted to hide his cringing but failed miserably.
“Can you keep a secret?”. At that, Iida and Uraraka`s faces seemed to become more serious. The pair nodded.
He let out a sigh. “I can`t deny that it has been… difficult. I`ve barely got to do any proper training, the sidekicks never seem to leave the agency, and I`m almost certain Wildebeast is deliberately targeting high degree mutants and flashy villains, but he`s subtle enough about it that I can`t prove anything! It`s just… frustrating.”
Both Uraraka and Iida seemed to wince at the end there. The pair looked to the door of the room the trio were in, before nodding to each other. Before he could ask, Uraraka spoke up.
“Ojiro-san…Does the hero who`s looking after you smoke?”
Mashirao raised an eyebrow at the question, but he answered it, nonetheless.
“Uuuh...yes? Fairly often, at that. He always carries around a specific lighter with a weird emblem on it. When I asked him about it he said ‘you`ll probably find out about it in a few years’… why is that…”
He watched as both of both failed miserably at schooling their emotions. They shared another look, this time of concern rather than hesitation. Iida quickly pulled out his phone, seemingly typing a fairly frantic message to someone.
As Mashirao stood there, fairly bewildered, Uraraka led him to a chair before putting a hand to his shoulder.
“Ojiro-san…this hero who`s looking after you…do you think he`s a good person?”
Mashirao was quiet. So, this was serious then… he`d question it later, but for now.
“I don`t think so, no. He doesn`t showcase the honour I think heroes in his position should have.”
Uraraka smiled faintly, holding her other hand to Iida. The boy produced a small USB drive out of a small compartment on his belt, and handed it to Uraraka, who presented it to him.
“If you want to do something about this, stick this into as many computers in the Wild Agency is you can for 5 minutes each. You`re welcome to read the results before we go back to school, but I`d recommend only doing so only when internships are done. You`ll be-“
Uraraka was interrupted by the door opening, revealing the two pro heroes. His mentor had a smile on his face, but Gunhead seemed to walk behind with a scowl. They clearly weren’t fond of each other. Iida spoke up first.
“Ah, it would appear we`ve run out of time, Tail-man. it was good to talk to you!”
Mashirao bowed lightly, sneaking the USB into his pocket. After the U.S.J, he couldn’t not trust his friends. It felt dishonourable, but if it was for a good cause…
“Right. I`ll see you both back at U.A”.
Uraraka smiled brightly at him. “Oh course, Ojiro-san! We`ll talk then!”
Mashirao left the agency with more questions than he`d had going in, but he intended to find the answers.
“Alright, you all. Pair up for sparring. We`ll be going for an hour, so pick someone who you can keep up with!”
Ochaco locked eyes with Ojiro. He nodded to her faintly and began walking to the mat furthest from their teacher. Ochaco was grateful that he had taken the initiative.
In truth, since she had snuck Ojiro their reading device, she had been racked by nerves. She trusted her judgement to a degree, but there was still a chance Ojiro would rat the pair out. The pair hadn’t spoken since then, and Ojiro had been tensed when they arrived that morning. She wondered what he had found.
The two wordlessly arrived at opposite sides of the mat, bowing, before rushing in.
Ojirou dodged a slap from Ochaco and spoke up.
“How many are in on it?”
Ochaco weaved back to dodge a kick. Looked like he read the files he had found.
“Enough to manipulate the rest. Four in the top ten, five if you count Endeavour, but he`s a special case. Thirty in the top one hundred.”
Ojiro dodged a series of punches. He let out a disappointed grunt at the numbers.
“How many of you?”
Ochaco jumped over a tail swipe, deliberately slow to keep the match going.
“Five students, with three more likely to join somewhere along the line. One main adult but support from a few others.”
Ojiro voluntarily stilled, letting Ochaco slap him, ending the match. He held a hand to her to help pick him up.
“Me?”
Ochaco grinned. Looks like she had succeeded.
“Talk to Midoriya. He`ll get you the files you need to read and a burner with the rest of the details.”
Ojiro smiled. “Do you think he`ll accept a request?”
“If it`ll help you or the cause, probably…”
Ojiro bowed to her, whispering.
“Very well. Thank you for trusting me with this, Uraraka. The might of the Ojiro will be by your side until the end.”
Ochaco returned the bow, returning to a fighting stance for the second round.
“We`re happy to have you.”
(It was in Mashirao `s nature to fight for a just cause, no matter how high above the enemy seemed. All that changed was that the mountain got a little taller, and now he had climbing partners. Thus, the choice for him was easy.)
Cramping together eight students into one room was always difficult, but this time it was (definitely not) necessary as the excited group all sat in Mashirao`s room, clumped around his Television.
It had taken months of effort on the side, thirteen anonymous email accounts, a countrywide conspiracy, bribes to the principal, and an obscene amount of money that was definitely legally acquired, but
-A loud *SMASH* was heard from the television as A large hulking figure threw himself, as well as the number one hero, out of a window of a large tower. The people in the room cheered, ironically enough for the villain. His loss was all but guaranteed now, so they had their fun –
The fall of Deika city had begun in earnest in October.
As Endeavour sent another ball of fire at The Meta Liberation Army`s leader, Hanta scoffed. “You know, after everything you told us about your old man, Shoto, you`d think he`d be on their side!”
Shoto nodded. “It`s a superiority thing. They believe everyone should be able to use their quirks. The old man`s always though that only the strong deserve the right.”
Hanta sighed. “Of course. Hey, at least it means the old bastard has one last use for us before next month, huh?”
The group laughed at that, and Mashirao smiled. It had been a selfish request, but it had turned out well for the Hearth as a whole. While there was nothing inherently wrong with the ideology of the M.L.A, it had been twisted over time into something vaguely resembling Eugenics and reeked of quirkism. His mother had been a runaway from the group and was always nervous of their return. He was grateful for their defeat.
The battle seemed to reach its conclusion as the army`s various members were rounded up by the police. The news relayed the belief that most of the members could be rehabilitated, but any heroes and higher ups would likely be in prison for life.
Hitoshi scoffed at that. “Good riddance, old bags.”
Denki turned to Izuku, who was sitting towards the edge of the group.
“Hey, boss? What did you even pay Nedzu to get him to set this up? It must have cost a fortune!”
Izuku chuckled at that, before smiling darkly. “Oh, right, I never told everyone. I provided Nedzu with information on a traitor!”
The room`s occupants all looked at Izuku in shock.
“Not one of ours, of course. The guy was selling information for quirk traffickers once his contact with the League was arrested. You know that big glue guy from 1-B? Bondo? That guy!”
…
The room was silent for a second as they took that information in.
Rikkido spoke up before anyone else. “Really? That guy?”
Izuku laughed at that.
“I know, right?”