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Heart pounding and blood roaring in his ears, Shouta burst into the alleyway that the random note had designated as the drop-off and exchange point. He'd taken off for this location as soon as he'd seen the message, only bothering to alert Hizashi and Nezu, trusting that those two would take care of any backup he might require in the extremely near future.
Glancing around, he sees nobody in sight. They're hiding, then. Or it's a trap. Probably both.
Recalling the directions in the note, he places the suitcase of support equipment on the crate in the center of the alley, then backs up three paces and waits. Soon enough, four of his daughter's kidnappers show themselves.
"You actually came," one comments.
"I told you," says another. "He'll do anything for the girl."
"Then why don't we just keep her as a bargaining chip?" a third voice suggests.
The second figure shakes their head. "No. He won't properly cooperate if we don't give her back, and then he might try to take her by force."
The fourth person cuts in. "Let him, then. We have more than enough of us here to overpower him, even with his quirk."
The first one shakes their head viciously. "You can take him yourself, and die a painful death in the process. We'd lose too much if we tried to go up against the heroes."
By this point, Shouta's had enough of listening to these villains argue about his and Eri's fates. "Where is she?" he demands. "Where is my daughter? Where is she??"
The second villain lifts their hood just enough so that Shouta can see a sly smile spread across their face. "Oh, patience."
But Shouta has none left. Not after the panicked search, the decoding of their stupidly cryptic note, the time it took to get here, so close to Eri. He's so close. He knows it.
"Where."
His eyes glow red as his quirk activates, but the villain only laughs. "Your tricks won't work on me, little hero. And, to answer your question, she's right in there." They point straight at the crate that the case of — extremely volatile technology —sits upon.
He's about to lunge for the latch on the top, about to wrench it open, suitcase be damned, when two others hold him back.
The second villain makes a tsk-ing noise. "Ah-ah, only a quirkless person can open it without blowing up the entire alleyway and everybody in here."
Shouta almost wants to call their bluff — who knows if Eri even is in this motionless crate that's nearly too small to plausibly contain a toddler — but something tells him he isn't being lied to.
He pauses. Only a quirkless person can open the crate…
If this is really the truth, then that villain is the only person who can get her out.
He clenches his jaw. "What… what do you need me to do, then."
"Oh!" the villain seems delighted with his easy acquiescence. "It's quite simple. Just let us take your quirk, and you can walk away with the child. We don't really care for her, now that Trigger's formula has been fully perfected and tested amply."
Shouta should hesitate. He doesn't.
"Fine."
Two things happen almost simultaneously at that moment. The quirk-erasing bullet tears through his upper arm, sending streaks of white-hot pain and a sudden emptiness shooting through his body. And an amplified cry of "SHOUTA, NO!" tears through the alleyway as Hizashi arrives from behind.
Without wasting a moment more, he bolts toward the crate, wrenching open the lid to reveal a curled up, shaking, silently sobbing Eri. Her face scrunches in horror when she realizes quickly what he's done, but Shouta has no regrets.
As the battle rages on all around them between the villains and Hizashi's backup, Shouta feels only relief as he cradles Eri in his arms and whispers reassurances to her.
"I've got you. It's okay. They can’t hurt you anymore. It's okay."
Whether or not Eri can Rewind him is entirely irrelevant. Even if he doesn't have his quirk, he has his daughter, and that is all that matters by far.