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Something lumpy smacked Izuku's arm. He didn't jump or spin around, but he did start walking a little slower, watching Kacchan's shadow, waiting for it to even out with his.
"Oi!" Kacchan said, nudging his shoulder, half gauntlet edge and half crinkly lump. "I'm trying to give you something."
Izuku looked. Kacchan's glove held a white paper bag.
"Huh," Izuku said. He stuck his hand in the opening and pulled out something round and warm. "Anpan!"
"Someone made a bunch for the agency," Kacchan said, drawing his arm back. With one hand, he worked to fish the other bun out of the bag. "How's patrol?"
"Good," Izuku said. No villains had attacked, so he'd mostly been chatting with civilians and helping out with menial tasks. Kacchan would have hated it, but it was exactly the kind of day Izuku enjoyed most. "How's Jeanist's office?"
"I'm handing out pastries," Kacchan said, managing not to sound completely underwhelmed.
Not wanting to press the issue, Izuku nodded and brought up his anpan bun to take a bite. In that exact moment, it was snatched out of his hands.
"Kacchan!" Izuku blurted.
Kacchan took off running.
"Give that back!" Izuku yelled, running after him, "Kacchan!"
"I didn't take it, idiot!" Kacchan shouted over his shoulder.
Izuku's eyes narrowed. Just ahead of Kacchan was a running child, short and wild-haired. There was no obvious indication of her quirk, which meant it was probably an emmitter.
In the time it took to notice, Kacchan grabbed for the girl's arm, the hand with Izuku's bun. Then the girl pivoted hard to the left around the street corner, and Kacchan swore, stumbling as he fought his own momentum. Normally he used explosions to make quick turns, but his right arm still wasn't up to it.
Izuku rounded the corner first and nearly ran into someone. "Sorry!" he blurted, darting around. There was a crowd here coming up from the subway entrance. That gave the child the advantage, since she could slip more easily through tight spaces. But Izuku was nimble too, and strong enough to shove.
The girl cleared the edge of the crowd first and set off like a comet.
"Wait!" Izuku shouted, dodging an old man, "Let's just talk! You aren't in trouble!"
"Speak for yourself!" Kacchan yelled. His voice came from behind—his gauntlet must be making the crowd more difficult.
Izuku came out into empty space just as the girl ran up the steps to a building, pulled open the heavy door, and hurried inside. Izuku ran after her, catching the door as it closed and yanking. Behind it was a business foyer, a few people standing and talking near the desk.
Izuku stepped inside, sweeping his eyes over the room. Down a hall to the left, the girl ducked around a corner.
"Excuse me!" Izuku shouted, running forward again. He turned left where the girl had and was met with a short, empty hall, another corner at the end. Izuku followed it, turned right, and was met with another, nearly identical hallway. At the end of that was a left turn that opened onto yet another hall, this one much longer. It looked like there was another turn at the end.
Izuku bit his lip, but didn't slow. There were no doors or other branching corridors. The girl couldn't have turned anywhere, so she must be just ahead. Still, this was a really bizzare floorplan for an office building.
Katsuki shoved through the last stragglers of the crowd just in time to see Deku disappear into a random business on the side of the road. Their thief must have realized she'd get caught immediately on a straightaway.
When he burst into the foyer, every eye turned to him.
"Where's Deku?" Katsuki snapped.
Several of the office workers just stared at him, still caught off guard, but the rest pointed forward and left to a short hallway. Katsuki didn't wait for additional confirmation.
At the end of the hall was a room full of cubicles. People were sitting at desks, staring at computers. One lady near the water cooler saw Katsuki and dropped her paper cup.
"Where's Deku?" Katsuki demanded again.
Heads turned as more people realized something was happening, but there was no clear consensus like in the previous room, only louder murmurs.
Katsuki rolled his eyes and stalked over to water cooler lady. "Did you see Deku come through this way?"
"No," she said, shaking her head, "How long ago?"
"Maybe thirty seconds," Katsuki said, grinding his teeth.
"He didn't come this way," a man in a nearby cuticle said, "I was looking across the room, and you were the first one to come in."
"Thanks," Katsuki said, glad at least one person was competent. Then he spun on his heel and headed back toward the foyer where the false-direction civilians stood. On the way he dug his phone out of his pocket.
Peer pressure had successfully coerced Deku into taking his phone with him on patrol so his friends could track his location. Katsuki could just look up which way he went. It would probably be faster than asking these extras.
But when he got the messaging app open, Deku's location was off.
Katsuki swore and slammed the button to call Deku, ready to chew him out. The call went immediately to voicemail. So Deku hadn't turned off his location, he was somewhere with no cell service.
"Oi!" Katsuki shouted, looking back for the one extra who had been at all helpful, "Is there a dead spot for cell reception around here?"
The man frowned, turning away from his computer in his rolling chair. "No, it always works fine for me. Do you need to hop on the wifi?"
"No," Katsuki said, stomach sinking, "What about a back exit?"
"There's one for emergencies, but the alarm will sound."
Katsuki nodded. Then he glanced around the short hallway he was in, the only thing between the front foyer and the back offices. It was maybe five meters long with a bulletin board on one side. There were no doors, no suspiciously trap door shaped lines in the ceiling. Deku had been right here when he vanished.
Swiping his thumb down his contact list, Katsuki scrolled until he found Jeanist.
By the fourth turn, Izuku had a feeling something was up, but he kept going until the eighth, where the hall split off in two directions. He hadn't managed to see which way the girl went, and he didn't want to get lost in here, so he turned around to retrace his steps.
Two hallways back, the corridor turned right instead of left. That was disconcerting, but he'd been moving pretty fast. It was possible that he'd remembered wrong.
Five turns back, the hallways split into two again. Izuku frowned, rubbing his chin. He'd been specifically looking for branching halls, trying to make sure he didn't lose his target. He should have noticed this. He didn't remember which hall he'd come from.
There weren't any stand out landmarks in this section of the building. The walls were a shade of off-white that was basically yellow, and the ceiling had an occasional fluorescent light. There wasn't anything obviously wrong. Izuku should have chosen a hall at random and wandered until he found someone who could give him directions. Instead, he deliberately scuffed his iron sole against the baseboard where the halls split, leaving a small mark. Then he went right.
The corridor went on normally for a while, stretching out then turning left. Then it turned left again, and again and again, each hall shorter, until it spiraled into a dead end. Izuku turned around, still thinking hard. He definitely hadn't come from this direction.
When he made it back to the place where he had left the scuff mark, it was gone. The hallway intersection had also turned into a four way stop, each corner a right angle.
"Okay," Izuku muttered, rubbing his chin again, "This has to be a quirk."
"This mystery must be unraveled," Jeanist said, hands on his hips. He was standing in the short corridor, staring at the blank piece of wall, "We'll start by checking the quirk registry to see if we can locate any loose threads. Do you know who Deku came into contact with today?"
"We pushed through a crowd right before he came here," Katsuki said. Anyone in the city could have used any kind of quirk on him. "Teleportation quirks are rare. Someone should wait here in case he reappears."
Jeanist looked at him, and Katsuki realized simultaneously that he was still pretty much on desk duty and that if he left this spot he wouldn't be able to focus on anything else.
"I'll stay," Katsuki said.
Jeanist nodded. "I thought so."
As soon as he realized he couldn't do permenant property damage, Izuku started punching the walls. They were flimsy, enough that he could break the drywall without using the ember. It was a much easier mark to see than a baseboard smudge.
It would have been more convenient if he had measuring tape, and the curving hallways were really annoying. But even with those limitations, Izuku was able to figure out that this area was only stable within a radius of about fifteen footsteps. Outside of that, the walls changed.
Luckily, Izuku's notebook wasn't affected. He had already filled a new page with his thoughts. Quirks usually had limitations. Likely, this one could cover only a small area and its user was working within that to mimic a large labyrinth. Izuku could think of two possible methods the user might implement. Either he was completely stationary, and the area moved around him, or else the user had a mental map of a larger area but could only activate a certain portion of it at a time.
Evidence favored the first option, but Izuku was hoping for the second. Because if he was in a large area, it was possible for him to find his way back to the entrance. If the fifteen step radius was all there was, then the exit didn't exist.
Unfortunately, Izuku had only been paying partial attention when he first ran in here. If it was possible for him to get back to the entrance, then he only had the vaguest idea of which way he needed to walk. In any other situation, the smartest thing would be to sit down and wait for a rescue team to find him. But Izuku couldn't be certain that a rescue was coming. Kacchan would definitely notice he was missing, but the quirk might only allow one person inside it at a time, or it might slot each person into their own seperate space. He had to assume that no one was coming for him.
Izuku walked while he muttered, trying to move in as much of a straight line as possible. If he could systematically traverse the entire mental map of the quirk user, then he would find any exit that existed. The trick was not getting turned around.
Suddenly, Izuku rounded a corner and came upon an open space. The floor was the same mottled beige carpet, the ceiling still lined with rows of fluorescents, but even this one change in layout was startling after so much monotony.
That, and the fact that someone was sitting out in the center.
"Hello?" Izuku asked, stepping forward. Incredible relief washed over him. This meant more that one person could enter, that his friends might actually come for him.
The figure was facing the other direction. He had broad shoulders and long, stringy hair. Maybe he had been trapped in here for a while.
"It's me, Deku," Izuku said, approaching slowly, scuffing his heels on the carpet. He edged left, trying to get a glimpse of the man's face. "I'm a pro hero. What's your name?"
The man didn't turn around, but as he got closer, Izuku could see his chest move slightly as he breathed. It also sounded like he was chewing on something, though the sound was hard to hear over the lights.
"Are you lost?" Izuku asked. It was starting to feel eerie that he hadn't gotten a response yet, but there were lots of reasons that might be. "I'm trying to find the way out. Maybe we can work together?"
The man looked up, turning his shoulders a little, and his face came into view. Or it should have—his hair and beard were in the way. Over his lap, he held Izuku's anpan, half-eaten. His nails were long, which might have been another result of being stuck here, except for the glossy, greyish color. That was either related to his quirk, or a secondary mutation like Izuku's hair.
Izuku held out his hand. "Sorry to disturb you. I know you've probably never heard of me and weren't expecting anyone. But I promise—I am here to help."
The man blinked, swallowed. Then he pounced.
"Normally, I wouldn't let a kid hang out here after hours," the guy in the suit said jovially. He rocked on his heels, hands in his pockets. "But in your case, you'll probably make the place safer! Ha!"
Katsuki took a breath, ready to say something obnoxious, and his mind went blank. His heart wasn't in it.
Suit guy wiped away a fake tear, like he'd been laughing at his own joke. "Anyway, I'll lock the doors, but they should still open from the inside. You can let in whatever backup comes to replace you."
Katsuki nodded. Jeanist probably would send backup so he could go home and sleep. Privately, Katsuki hoped he'd forget.
"Good luck with whatever you're doing!" suit guy said, giving Katsuki a thumbs up. Then he turned and pattered across the tile floor to the exit.
The lights were motion activated. Katsuki's only movement in hours had been to shift his weight, stretch his arms, and practice the occasional exercise for his hand. Now that he was alone in the building, it took about a minute for the whole place to go dark.
Katsuki sighed. There was probably a way to flip them permanently if he searched, and he needed to drag over a chair to conserve energy anyway. He pushed away from the wall, ready to stride into the back office.
The lights flicked back on autonomously. Across from him stood the anpan thief, eyes wide. She stood in the mouth of a hall that shouldn't exist.
Katsuki snatched her by the arm and dragged her close.
"Let me go!" the thief shrieked, clearly terrified, "Don't kill me!"
"Kill you?" Katsuki said sternly. Did she think he was sloppy enough of a hero to let her die?
"You—you're Dynamight," the thief stammered. She was small enough to fit entirely in Katsuki's shadow. "You—love murder. You always say—"
"Listen kid," Katsuki demanded, not wanting to enter yet another discussion about the proper public presentation for hero personas, "You'd better bring Deku back right now."
Thief kid made a face like she was going to be sick. "He—did he—go in there?"
"It's your quirk he's stuck in, right?" Katsuki said, pointing up at the impossible hall.
"You should—just kill me," the thief said, "I don't want to go to Tartarus."
"I'm not gonna kill you, idiot!" Katsuki shouted, shaking her a little, "And you aren't going to jail over a stupid pastry!"
The kid went rigid, face still pale. She didn't seem reassured at all. If Katsuki wanted to win, he needed to try something else. So he dropped to his knees. Then he let go of her arm.
Instantly, the kid took of running for the door.
"Wait, wait!" Katsuki yelled in spite of himself, "I need your help! Please!"
For a moment he thought it wouldn't work, that he'd need to choose between following her and jumping into the quirk corridor. Then her footsteps slowed. She stopped in the middle of the foyer, looking back at him.
"I was mad about the anpan because it was Deku's," Katsuki said. He set his palm down on the ground where it couldn't aim. "He's my friend, and now he's stuck in there, right? But if I go in after him, I'll just get stuck too. I need your help with the door."
Slowly, the kid edged closer. "You won't tell anybody?"
Katsuki shook his head. "I told you—I don't care about the anpan."
"Not that," the kid said, nervously rubbing her arm, "About—my quirk."
"You aren't in trouble for that either," Katsuki said, forcing himself not to rush, "You didn't trap him on purpose. Deku ran after you all on his own."
The kid shook her head. "No. I meant—the other guy."
"Izuku," Mom said. Her voice was static, like she was calling from a place with one bar. "Izuku, do you hate me?"
Izuku staggered forward, shoulder bumping the wall. The lines at the edges of floor and ceiling were blurred, the same white-yellow as the lights. The man trapped here with him had an emitter quirk. Izuku was figuring it out.
"I'm too kind to ever tell you," Mom went on, though it wasn't really her, "But I don't have much in my life. My parents are dead, and my husband lives far away. I don't have friends—I devoted everything to raising you. All I want is for you to be safe and happy, but all you ever do is run into danger. Why do you kill my dream for yours?"
Izuku pushed off the wall and kept moving. The fact that he had found someone else after so long was more evidence in favor of his mental map theory. That would mean the distance he traveled did matter. He needed to find the exit. He needed to put as much distance as possible between him and the other occupant.
The floor in front of him caved in. Flecks of carpet cascaded into oblivion like kicked up dust. Izuku startled, stepping back. Then he thought a moment, fixed his eyes on the wall ahead, and walked forward.
His feet landed on solid ground. That meant he was right about the emitter quirk alternating perception. He started walking faster, hit the wall again and rebounded. Then he turned left to follow the hall and nearly ran into a tall skeleton.
"Young Midoriya," the skeleton said, eyes glowing, "I lost something. Would you help me find it?"
Izuku brushed past. These were detailed hallucinations, containing information the quirk user couldn't possibly know. So it wasn't an illusion quirk like Mahoro's or Camie's. Instead, it affected his mental state, and from there his senses, like hacking into a computer. He should be careful not to depend too much on his own reasoning.
"There was something entrusted to me," All Might continued, voice coming from behind, "Something I spent my life building? Where is it?"
There were bugs crawling over him—he could feel it. Izuku grabbed at his chest, trying to crush them. He knew they weren't real, but it was harmless, the one reaction he could allow. If he answered the phantoms of his loved ones, he'd only give away his position. He needed this quirk to wear off before he could fight.
When he rounded the next corner, a figure stood at the end of the corridor. Izuku squinted, trying to see if it was the quirk user, but his vison remained blurry, flaked with static. Still the silhouette of the figure didn't seem to have long hair.
"Midoriya," the figure called, voice hoarse but recognizable
Izuku sighed, starting forward again. It wasn't anything real.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Todoroki said, voice moving closer, "I told you everything about my life, even the unpresentable parts. Didn't you want to be friends? Or was that a lie too?"
Izuku made the mistake of looking up from the carpet. Todroki's clothes were in tatters, and his skin was mottled, like the scar on his face had swallowed up the rest of him. It's not real, Izuku told himself. Then he pushed forward, and the fake Todoroki phased through him like smoke.
"Deku," Uraraka called. She was standing just ahead beside the wall, bleeding from her stomach and mouth, "Why'd you let this happen to me?"
"You wanted—" Izuku started. Then he stuck his hand over his mouth.
"I was nice to you even when you were useless," Uraraka gurgled, "When all you could do was scream and cry, I treated you like a person. And when everything fell apart, I still had to protect you! What kind of a hero—Deku, don't leave me!"
Izuku had passed her by now, but he was having trouble focusing on the hallway ahead. Her footsteps were behind him, gaining on him.
"Deku!" Uraraka exclaimed. She ran around him and stopped in the dead center of the hall, right in his way, spattering blood on the carpet. "Do you think I'm cute?"
Izuku threw an arm out—the vision might break if he clipped through it. Instead, Uraraka's face melted away. Her smile widened, sharpening.
"Hi Izuku," Toga drawled, drawing a knife out of her sock. Then she jumped forward.
Izuku scrambled back. He felt drywall snap behind him, gritty dust in his grip, and he fell back onto the ground. He must have used the ember by accident.
Toga was still rushing him, and he closed his eyes, certain that she only existed in his own vision, that he could make her disappear. Instead, Toga charged with the backs of his eyelids behind her, at home in his mind's eye.
The knife swung at his shoulder, but Izuku ducked. He pushed off the ground and ran forward, eyes wide.
"Is this your best, hero?" Shigaraki sneared, floating in the corner of the ceiling. His hair and cloak waved, too light, as if they were in water. "You're gonna bring to light the outcasts of society, huh? You're losing to an office building."
Weirdly, that snapped Izuku out of it. He slowed to a stop, taking careful breaths, remembering what had been at the back of his mind.
"No quirk is cruel on its own," Izuku muttered, "These hallucinations are a weapon. But the hallways are normal—eerie, and definitely a trap—but they aren't meant to be harmful."
Shigaraki scratched at his neck. "Weren't you trying to be quiet?"
Izuku nodded, distracted. "It also must have taken considerable thinking to use a quirk which can only generate a room's worth of space at a time to mimic a large maze. If this is the girl's quirk, then she likely came up with this before today."
"Hang on," Shigaraki said, smirking. He reached out his hand, palm down. "Hold still."
Izuku dodged. "And she didn't activate it right away—"
"Faker," Shigaraki said, "You didn't take my hand."
"Actually, you're fake," Izuku said, but he turned and walked backward, facing Shigaraki as he went. "And you were trying to destroy me. Anyway, I bet she couldn't open the entrance right away, when we were on the street, because she'd already set her quirk here. She already had someone trapped inside it."
"This is boring," Shigaraki said, hovering closer.
Izuku's heel knocked into something that felt slightly squishy, but with no resistance. He stumbled backward and over, frowning with confusion. It was black, mostly, and lumpy—it was Kacchan.
Izuku jerked his head up, and his face settled neatly into Shigaraki's waiting palm. For a split second his whole body filled with panic, the instincts of a life-and-death battle. Then the Shigaraki hallucination snapped out of existence.
"She trapped him on purpose," Izuku whispered, slowly turning around. He kept his chin level, terrified of looking down. "And she's bringing him food—she doesn't want him to die."
There was no one here to explain it to. Izuku could see the implications already. He definitely needed to save her.
Katsuki probably wouldn't have gotten anything useful done if it hadn't been for the bloody handprints on the walls.
This entire place was empty, the color of ancient paper. Deep red was a sharp signpost. Katsuki made out the direction of the staggerer from the orientation of the prints and followed. There was about one mark for him every hallway, and nothing else of note whatsoever.
Eventually, he heard a stream of consiousness that was as familiar as it was obnoxious.
"Oi!" Katsuki shouted, rounding the corner, "Deku, turn around!"
Deku continued stumbling down the hall, facing away, as if Katsuki wasn't even there.
Katsuki rolled his eyes. Then he ran forward, easily outpacing his friend. "What's your problem?" Katsuki asked, planting himself right where Deku was trying to walk.
Deku kept moving, shoulders hunched, until he bumped into Katsuki with the saddest excuse for a headbut that had ever existed.
"Earth to Deku," Katsuki said, flicking him in the skull.
Deku straightened up. There were gashes across his chest, but they didn't seem deep enough for the amount of blood that was there. He blinked once, extremely slowly. "Kacchan?"
"No, I'm All Might," Katsuki said, punching him lightly in the shoulder. "Obviously it's me. Sit down a minute."
Deku burst into tears, but he managed to do it almost silently. That was a somewhat recent growth point in his self-control. "Kacchan—there's a quirk. The walls move."
"Bet they do," Katsuki said, amused. Then he set a hand over Deku's shoulder and pushed.
Deku took the hint and plopped down cross-legged. "Actually—two quirks. The other one—I wasn't thinking as well then, but—"
Katsuki crouched, tuning out the rest. He could definitely get Deku to repeat anything important, since talking about quirks was something Deku did non-stop anyway. It was easy enough to reach up under Deku's mask and unzip the front of his costume.
Without bloody fabric in the way, the wound looked like shallow knife cuts, or claw marks from someone with a quirk. Parts were clotted already, minutes old. Other sections were still bleeding. Katsuki frowned, puzzled. Then Deku reached up and tore at his own injury.
"Oi!" Katsuki blurted, yanking Deku's wrist away, "Don't do that!"
"Oh, good idea," Deku said, wresting his hand free. This time he retrieved a notebook from some hidden compartment and held it out. "The first quirk is the last page."
Katsuki took the book and flipped through the pages until he found the most recent entry. He scanned over it, confirming that it had been written by a coherent Deku. Then he had to stop and push away Deku's arm again.
"I think it's skin contact," Deku said, "That's how the second quirk activated, when his nails touched me."
"Could also be blood," Katsuki said. He flipped open the pouch on Deku's belt and thumbed through the contents. Disinfectant wipes were in the back.
Deku shook his head, brow furrowed. "No, I'm not injured."
"Okay," Katsuki said, stomach sinking. He snatched the packet and ripped it open, accidentally tearing the wipe as well, "Got any more wrong theories?"
"Where's the turn?" Kacchan shouted, staring at the dead end in front of them.
Izuku held on to Kacchan's elbow, his other hand clenched around the notebook. There were stag beetles on his stomach again, pinching and poking, but he couldn't brush them away anymore. Kacchan had done something to his chest, and he didn't want Izuku to mess it up.
"There was a hall," Kacchan insisted, talking to himself, "I left a scorch mark." Then his shoulders tensed. He looked back and down, at the notebook in Izuku's hand.
Izuku bit his lip.
"Shut up," Kacchan said, snatching the notebook. It was already folded open to the right page. His face smoothed out as he focused, reading it carefully.
Turned back like this, Kacchan's teeth were visible through the gaping hole in his cheek. His ribcage was open, bleeding, heart pulsing erratically inside, just like it had been in the body on the ground.
"I didn't say anything," Izuku said, voice steady.
"Shush," Kacchan said, already turning to the next page of Izuku's notes. "Fifteen steps, huh? You know Deku, you're a total waste of resources. You had the strongest quirk in the world and you couldn't even keep me from getting hurt."
"I'm sorry," Izuku said, automatically. Then he realized his mistake, "Um, did you—say something?"
Kacchan was staring now, face doing something hard to parse behind the blood. "Izuku, don't worry about it. You tried to tell me, and I ignored you." Then he set his palm on the wall behind him.
When the dust cleared from the explosion, there was a person sized hole carved straight through.
Kacchan stepped over the bottom lip into the hall beyond. "Come on," he said, reaching back to grab Izuku's arm, "Think I remember the exit."
"Is that him?" Katsuki asked.
Deku squinted over Katsuki's shoulder, peering down the long hall at the figure, dark against the pale walls. Katsuki didn't think there was more than one villain trapped in here, but if Deku could recognize this guy, then Katsuki could fight expecting a touch-activated emitter quirk.
"Uh," Deku stammed, fingers clenching around Katsuki's elbow, "I don't—see anything?"
"Hah," Katsuki said, "Well you're useless."
Deku ducked his head, and Katsuki instantly regretted it. Normally, Deku would have known what he meant, but the quirk he was under had put him in a weird mood.
"Me too," Katsuki said, pulling Deku's hand off his arm and guiding it to touch the wall. "Stay there."
Deku nodding, sliding his hand down to a more comfortable spot. "Don't let him touch you."
Katsuki rolled his neck, ears scraping the metal brace of his costume. Then, with great effort, he formed the fingers of his right hand into a circle, brought them up to his left palm, and fired off an armor piercing shot.
It went perfectly over the villain's shoulder, knocking him down with edge of the blast. He'd be singed, but not seriously hurt.
Deku hadn't been coherent enough to run his theory by, but it didn't matter. Katsuki could notice things too. There was no way Deku had done anything other than hold his hand out to this villain, so why had the punk still put a harmful quirk effect on him? And if the kid's quirk really could form any kind of space, then why had she come up with this endless office building, like she wanted someone to go to work forever, to never get finished and come home?
While the villain picked himself up, Katsuki stalked closer, trying to plan how he could restrain without touch. The last thing he needed was to go as loopy as Deku.
"Dad!" the kid shrieked, voice coming from a hall to the left.
The man jumped up, head whipping around. "You little—" he started, but then his face went blank, eyes glazing over.
After a moment, Shinsou came around the corner, still staring down his target. "That's what I thought."
"Tell me you know where the exit is," Katsuki said.
Slowly, Shinsou looked up at him. "Wow, thanks Nighthide," he said in Katsuki's voice, "That was such a great capture! You totally saved our skins. You're a wonderful hero!"
Katsuki turned around and stalked back the way he'd come. "Oi, Deku!"
Deku was squinting right at him, hand still on the wall. "Did you say something?"
"Our backup finally caught up," Katsuki said, grabbing Deku by the arm.
Deku flinched. Katsuki let go like he'd touched a stove.
"Is Midoriya okay?" Shinsou asked, stepping around his captive. He must have seen the blood Deku got everywhere.
"Is he ever?" Katsuki said, motioning him over.
"Sorry," Deku said, but his shoulders straightened, and it didn't sound like an apology, "Kacchan, is that you? What's going on? You said someone's there?"
Katsuki grabbed Deku's hand and set it down on his shoulder, next to the brace. "Yeah, a villain and backup. Don't worry about it."
"Deku," Shinsou said, finally catching up to them, "What happened?"
Katsuki waited, sure this conversation would be even more obnoxious if he tried to rush it along. But Deku clenched his jaw and didn't respond.
"Try touching him," Katsuki said.
Hesitantly, Shinsou reached out and tapped Deku on the arm. Deku jumped again, and his eyes swung over, narrowing.
"It's dead-eyes, you goober," Katsuki said.
"Shinsou?" Izuku gasped, "Really? But how'd you get here?"
"Dynamight called for backup before he came inside," Shinsou started.
"Unlike some people," Katsuki muttered.
Shinsou cut his eyes, but kept going. "Creati set up coms and we fanned out to search the area. Now that I found—"
"What about the little girl?" Deku blurted, "Where is she?"
"She's fine," Katsuki said, trying to sound confident, "She opened the door for me and for the others. I'm sure she's with them now."
"I'm glad," Deku said, tapping at his ear, "But I was wondering if we could ask her to change the halls."
Up ahead, the hall stretched directly forward until it faded out into white mist. Occasionally, other hallways joined from either end like tributarys. From the ceiling, thin black tendrils hung down, full of eyes. Izuku was pretty sure he was the only one seeing that last part.
"I bet she's can't change this pocket dimension while it's in active use," Izuku explained, "But right now she's commanded it to constantly shift around—so technically, this isn't a real change."
"Nobody cares," Katsuki sneered, "You've never once had something worthwhile to—"
"Sorry, I'm still talking," Izuku interrupted. He knew Kacchan hadn't said it, not like that, though it was possible he'd been saying something else. "Did you guys get to speak with the man who was trapped in here before Nighthide captured him?"
Shinsou raised an eyebrow. "So now you care about villains?"
Izuku sighed. He was fine just ignoring the fake mean comments, but now that his friends were really here, he'd love to hold an actual conversation.
Voices echoed ahead, a little muffled by the carpet. Izuku ignored them, sure that this was also part of the quirk effect. Then Uraraka and Asui came out of one of the side halls, looked around, and waved. That was atypical for his visions so far, and Shinsou had said the rest of their class was here.
Izuku opened his mouth, half raised his arm, then realized he was going to look really stupid if he was in fact seeing things.
"Oi!" Kacchan shouted, pointing his thumb at the man trailing behind them, "Dead-eyes got the villain!"
"Nice work!" Asui croaked.
Izuku dropped his arms and bit the inside of his cheek. With so many people, he wasn't sure he could talk without explaining everything. And if his friends knew what he was seeing, that they couldn't do anything to stop it, they'd just be sad for no reason. It would be better to wait and listen for a while.
When they made it to the exit, half the class was already there, along with Jeanist, Aizawa Sensei, and a cluster of other pros. Katsuki went straight to Jeanist—he had a hunch his work study partner was not feeling up to a debrief.
"Dynamight," Jeanist said, "It's good to see that you're well. You've handled this situation admirably."
Katsuki ground his teeth. He didn't love that the shortened version of his hero name was catching on with so many. "There was a villain inside the girl's quirk who attacked Deku, but Nighthide got him."
Jeanist nodded. "The girl's father. The threads of his misdeeds are finally coming to light. I'm glad you were able to avoid the effects of his quirk."
"Deku got hit," Katsuki said, looking back.
Deku wasn't trailing behind him like a lost duckling. Katsuki felt a jolt of adrenaline, and he flicked his eyes over the room, terrified that they'd somehow managed to leave him behind.
"Really incredible application of your quirk," Deku was saying. He was crouching near the wall, facing the thief kid and smiling, as if a quirk wasn't currently scrambling his brains, "You stopped him without letting him get hurt. That's the way a hero thinks."
"Guess he's fine," Katsuki said, mostly to himself.
"He should be spooled up in visions of terror," Jeanist said, his one visible eye narrowing, "Are you sure he's been targeted?"
"Definitely," Katsuki said, clenching his fist. It was just like Deku to leave out relevant information like that. "Tell me everything we know about the quirk."
When Izuku finished with everything he had planned to say, he left Yukimu, the girl with the pocket dimension quirk, in the care of Todoroki. It was only a matter of time before he reacted to something that wasn't there, and he didn't want to trouble Yukimu, particularly since she would probably recognize her father's quirk.
Izuku hadn't seen much of this building during his first visit, since he'd almost immediately stepped into a portal. And, in fact, he still wasn't really seeing it. In his mind the walls were broken, rubble strewn around, rain slipping in.
"Deku!" Kacchan shouted, "Where're you hiding, you piece of garbage!"
Izuku bit his lip. He'd only stepped around the corner on the other end of the hall, where Yukimu couldn't see him. But the real Kacchan might not be able to see him either. If he was the one calling, Izuku didn't want to worry him. If he wasn't, Izuku would worry everyone by responding.
"He's back this way," Jirou said, voice close, though Izuku couldn't see her.
Toga came around the corner, a knife in her hand. "There you are."
Izuku managed not to jump, but he still went rigid, every muscle tensed.
"Deku?" Toga said. Her head tilted, bangs falling over her cheek. "Is everything okay?"
Kacchan rounded the corner next, shoving her out of the way. When he grabbed Izuku's shoulder, his hand had real resistance.
"Hi Kacchan," Izuku said, but he had a feeling it was already too late.
"So were you gonna tell us about the hallucinations?" Kacchan demanded, blood spitting from his mouth as he spoke.
"I'm kind of confused right now," Izuku said, purposefully not looking at Kacchan's injuries, "But I think you knew that already."
Kacchan's grip tightened, relaxed again. Then he said, "What do you need?"
Unfortunately, Izuku had been thinking about that for a while. "Sorry, but we just have to wait for the quirk to wear off. If you could do something, I would have told you."
There were more people in the room now, they'd been filing in down the hall while Kacchan spoke. Izuku guessed they were more of his classmates, but he'd also been trying not to look at them too closely.
"Hey, Midoriya," Shinsou said, raising his hand, "Want to fight?"
"Oh!" Izuku said, eyes blowing wide. Then his limbs grew heavy, his mind foggy. He blinked, and the world was black, off-grey particles floating in the air.
Shinsou stood there, facing him. "Huh," he said, glancing around, "This is bizzare. Midoriya, you're a weird guy."
Izuku couldn't react, couldn't move. The only thing that changed was the flicker of heat, the moving flame between his palms.
Shinsou's eyes flicked back, over Izuku's shoulder, and narrowed. Then he threw his scarf and grabbed something in the space just behind, where Izuku couldn't see. It caught and pulled taunt, but when Shinsou tried to yank it back, the scarf returned empty. There was a faint hissing sound, like drops of water on a hot stove, air slowly leaking from a balloon.
Izuku gasped, eyes snapping open. He was outside of his mind, the place the vestiges had abandoned. He could see the world normally again.
"Did it work?" Kacchan demanded.
"Nighthide, that was amazing!" Izuku said, raising his fists in excitement, "Have you tried releasing other kinds of quirk effects, or does it only work for mental quirks?"
"I haven't tried before," Shinsou said, rubbing at his neck, "But you make a terrible test case. You've always reacted strangely to my quirk."
"We can test it," Izuku said. He reached for his notebook, but his hand hit empty cloth. "Um, you should try it on someone else who's been hit by a mental quirk, and if that works—oh, thanks Kacchan!"
Kacchan had pulled Izuku's notebook out from under his arm and held it out. Izuku grabbed it, but Kacchan didn't let go.
"So what did we learn?" Kacchan said.
Izuku glanced around the room, wondering if he could read the answer off his friends' faces, or else get them to pressure Kacchan into releasing the notebook. But nobody mimed anything helpful.
"Shinsou can end quirk effects," Izuku finally said.
Kacchan rolled his eyes. "You aren't the only one who can do quirk analysis—especially when you're under a mental quirk yourself! You've gotta communicate!" Then he let go.
"Oh," Izuku said, feeling sheepish, but not enough to keep from flipping through the notebook, scanning for a mental quirk they could use in the experiment. "Sorry Shinsou, I shouldn't have underestimated you!"
"It's fine," Shinsou said, "I'm glad you're alright."
"I'm right here!" Kacchan said, "Don't underestimate me either!"
"Your heart rate got slower," Jirou said, wrapping one earphone jack around her finger, "What kinds of things were you seeing?"
Izuku shrugged. "A lot of it didn't make sense, kind of like the changing halls. I'm glad you guys came to help me, or I might have been stuck in there forever."
"You're welcome," Kacchan gloated. He shoved Izuku's head with his hand, but not enough to knock him over. "And next time watch where you're going!"