Mind Games - Chapter 66 (Patreon)

“-so, in conclusion... sometimes you do everything right and things still go to hell,” I explained with a shrug.

“Truer words about the hero profession have never been spoken,” Thirteen stated bluntly.

The remainder of 1-A... and 1-B all winced as I shrugged my costume back on and sealed my scar behind it. Normally, the wound would have completely disappeared due to my rather unique meta-physiology, but as it turned out, holding back my healing factor meant actual scar tissue had emerged.

Of course, owing to that same issue...

It was a beautiful, almost artistic scar in the shape of a shooting starburst.

It was all... very sidereal.

“Due to... certain incidents,” Eraserhead stated, stepping up next to me, “we thought it best you hear from one of your own classmates that the profession you're going into is a dangerous one. Hopefully, this drives home exactly how dangerous. Vlad?”

The other teacher grunted, stepping forward. “We'll be moving out in teams of four. Given 1-A's size, we're blending the classes for this exercise so that you can get familiar with each other-”

Himiko's hand slowly rose up.

“-and the assignment will be random, Toga,” Vlad King replied with a low rumble, my girlfriend's hand drooping as she pouted behind the lip of her hood. “We'll be setting each team up at the start of a disaster course, have you run it, and then reset the course for the next group. We've got the entire day, barring lunch. We'll hold a quick review of your actions after each zone to tell you what you did right and what you did wrong.”

“You'll be looking for injured civilians during the exercise,” Aizawa picked up. “Your job today will be to plant homing beacons along each injured dummy that you come across. During a later simulation we'll cover treating someone for medical emergencies to whatever degree you're able, but the idea here is that you'll have emergency responders behind you to pull the people you mark out of danger.”

“You'll have communicators,” the Space-Hero Thirteen announced after a brief pause, stepping forward in her suit. “If you have any questions or if any of you get injured yourselves. As you heard with Bootstrap's story just now, even if you do everything we ask of you correctly, you can still get hurt doing field work. You're still students, don't be afraid to ask for help.”

There was a pause.

“Let's crush this course! For Bootstrap!” A member of 1-B shouted, the cry rising up amongst the rest of the class as well. Or, at least, most of it.

I sighed, my shoulder's drooping as my own girlfriend betrayed me.

“Listen up!” Thirteen shouted again, muffling the lunatics as she held up a clipboard. “Group assignments will be as follows, Group One...”

I popped my neck and calmly moved to stand beside the rest of my class, ignoring the looks from 1-A.

“You're sure you're okay to be here doing this, Shinso?” Sakae asked, leaning over to me in his costume.

“Clean bill of health, promise,” I nodded.

“Cool,” Sakura hummed on my other side. “It'd suck if you were out for longer. Things were lame without you there.”

“Remember that when I run you through the next set of exercises,” I told him firmly.

“Yeah, yeah... I've been practicing,” he muttered, looking away.

I nodded wordlessly. I could tell. His posture was better, there were fewer signs of dependency and addiction in his body language, too. His movements were smoother, less shaky. He was more confident, as well, what slouch he still had coming off more as coiled energy rather than simple laziness. “You're getting fewer cravings, aren't you?”

Sakura twitched as his name was called out by Thirteen, then nodded as he reached up and rubbed his chin. “Yeah... how's that work anyway?”

“I know what it does to your body,” I replied bluntly. “There are ways to replicate... not the chemical itself, but the effect it has on you. Stimulate the right muscles, the right nerves, you can create an artificial high. That feeling slowly erodes the drug-induced high and replaces it with something else.”

“So I'm just going to-” Sakura cut himself off, scowling.

I clapped him on the shoulder as my name was called out for the last team. “We'll talk later. Do your best.”

I paused, sliding a look around at my classmates. “All of you.”

Neiko rolled her eyes and gave me a single-finger salute, but stood a bit straighter given the way I'd spoken to her. So did the others, even if Yoake looked nervous and Sakae seemed unsure of himself.

Eh, they'll either get over it or they won't.

I'd offered them help here and there, each of them, but at the end of the day it was up to them to pass the course. Holding their hand too much would just make them dependent on me, and that wouldn't help any of us.

I mean, if I wanted to cultivate my own suicidally-loyal cult...

But, no. Those were sidereal thoughts, and thus not to be trusted.

As I made my way towards the group I'd been assigned – a five-person squad – I confirmed what my half-hearted understanding of the listed names had already told me. I was with only 1-B students, none of them were Himiko, and the specific assortment had the pawprints of an indeterminate rodent species all over them.

“Yo,” I held up a hand with a nod at the small assembly.

“Hrm,” the lone girl of our group nodded back, clearly scowling at me.

“Ah, hey Bootstrap!” Ooishi Tsuki smiled awkwardly looking between his two classmates anxiously.

“Oh, um... hello,” a brown-haired guy smiled, seeming to be preoccupied by looking anywhere but his classmates.

“Bootstrap! I'm your biggest fan!” The last guy cried, dipping into a low bow as I fought the urge to rub my forehead. “I'm here at UA because of your training tips, thank you so much!”

I took a big breath, “Cool.”

….

We were given a few minutes to get to know each other and exchange details about our quirks while a tram was called up to take us to the first testing site. That alone testified to just how large the Unforeseen Situation Joint was. I had no doubt that we could cover the distance by foot, but the fact that they even had an internal transportation system... this was a big-ass dome.

I disengaged my oni-mask and lowered the fabric one beneath it, taking a breath of fresh air. “My name is Bootstrap. Shinso Hitoshi if you have to, but I'd prefer you call me by my hero name.”

“Ooishi Tsuki, ah... hero name Moon Mirror,” the white-haired boy nodded with a slight bow. He was wearing what looked to be a jester's outfit, reinforced and armored in various places, but made up of all bright colors and a few bells. Thankfully, he'd added an equipment pouch to the design.

“Kitaru Kaguya,” the girl answered shortly. Black hair, blue eyes, a focused look on her face wearing an altered kimono cut to allow her to move and fight. “Hero name Wonder.”

“Tanaka Kan!” The final guy stated. He had dark black hair and was wearing a bunch of military-surplus gear that had an urban camouflage pattern on it. A crowbar was strapped across his back and his eyes were obscured by a pair of high-end goggles. “Hero name Wildman!”

There was a pause.

We all turned to our last member.

“Oh, um...” He stuttered, blinking as sparkles of light erupted around his eyes. “Hitoboshi Hikaru.” His costume was a match for the girl's oddly enough. A traditional Japanese shrine overseer's outfit, if cut back and abbreviated for the sake of everyday wear as well as reinforced against ripping and tearing. The way he carried himself told me that he had little in the way of actual armor or protection. “Hero name... Stellar.”

“Alright then...” I looked them over, then nodded at Ooishi. “You're in charge.”

All three of them stiffened in surprise as I yawned.

“Wha-” // “Who decided-” // “No way, you should-”

Hikaru was back staring at nothing.

I held up a hand.

Even Kitaru quieted as she glared at me. “Okay, the short version. The teams are not random. If they were, at least one of them would have two members of my class instead of us being spread out across. Class 1-A was specifically divided to learn how to play nice. The individual teams were also made intentionally.”

I looked around at them and pointed at each one in turn. “You're a huge fan, so you'll agree with anything I say if you're the leader. You seem to hate me for some unknown reason so you'll fight me at every turn if either he or I are the leader, and if you're the leader you'll probably still not want to work with me and it will affect team dynamics. And he... doesn't seem to care.”

I allowed Hitoboshi a moment to speak in his defense, but he passed on it.

“Moon Mirror is the only logical choice,” I finished. “He has no reason to be biased against anyone – that I know of – and would spend the entire exercise running interference between us even if he wasn't the lead.”

The members of the team blinked and slowly nodded, even if Kitaru didn't look all that happy because of it.

“Ugh... okay, okay... let's do quirks then, I guess?” Ooishi stated, looking at 'his team.'

Thankfully, I got away with a bare bones explanation of my own quirk. Specifically, I'd called it a psychic-type ability that would be useless in the exercise since it required an enemy to target with it. Moon Mirror's quirk was illusions, Wonder's quirk was twenty seconds worth of precognition, Wildman's was the entire suite of enhanced senses, and we eventually got Stellar to explain that he was capable of light manipulation. Depending on how it worked, he might be the most busted of us on the team.

Besides me, of course.

But I wasn't playing fair.

By the time we were done, we'd arrived at the first area, the ruins zone.

“Someone from each of the teams come up and get a radio,” Thirteen called out. “These will connect you to individuals playing emergency responder coordinators. They'll be instructing you on the best guesses we have as to where survivors are located in each zone. They'll also be able to offer general information and advice if you have any questions. Your first simulation will be here in the ruins zone, where we're dealing with the aftermath of an earthquake.”

Thirteen's black globe turned to Vlad King, who stepped forward and raised his voice. “Many of the structures in this area are constructed in such a way as to collapse in a controlled fashion if too much force is applied. While the school has taken measures to prevent injury in such a situation, keep that in mind while you're moving about. If you're pinned by debris, your team will be docked points while the rest of your group completes the exercise. If you knock over one of the buildings, that's a further deduction.”

Finally, Eraserhead's quirk flared as he looked us all over. “Conduct yourselves as if you were walking into a real disaster zone. People need your help and they're depending on you – heroes – to get the job done. This isn't fun and games or a chance to show off. Use your radios if you have questions. Until the exercise is over, your teachers will be stepping back and only intervening if there's an unexpected crisis.”

Wildman ran over to get our radio and brought it back in short order.

“What should we do now?” Moon Mirror asked, looking at us.

“We should come up with a plan,” Wonder responded instantly, looking sure of herself as she turned towards the ruins zone. “We can see at least some of the area. If we work out where to start, we can gain some visibility and scan the rest of the area. That should be our priority.”

I inhaled deeply and sighed, holding out an open hand to Wildman, who immediately handed over the radio. “If I could have permission to contact our civilian liaison for this exercise?”

“Go for it, dude,” Wildman grinned.

Wonder looked irritated, no surprise, as she scowled at me. “We're the heroes here. If you want to waste your time talking on the radio, feel free. I suppose it will give you something to do since your quirk is useless.”

Wildman looked like he was about to attack, but Moon Mirror stepped between them before nodding. “If you could take that responsibility, ah... Bootstrap? That would help.”

“Roger that,” I nodded, taking a step away from the group and taking myself out of the mix as I watched Moon Mirror coax Stellar into a more active role. Without me in the mix, the chemistry immediately changed and became more productive, as I'd known it would.

I clicked the radio on.

“This is Team 5 communications liaison,” I spoke into it with my impromptu title. “You're speaking to Bootstrap.”

“Hello Bootstrap,” the voice on the other end spoke up. A familiar voice at that. “This is Hado Nejire, I'll be running the console for you during this exercise. What can I do for you?”

“They got upperclassmen to fill the roles, huh?” I asked with a nod.

The reply was... not toneless, but devoid of any enthusiasm or energy. “They did, yes. It gives us a chance to see what things are like from the other side of the equation. You won't always be doing fieldwork during your career, after all.”

I hummed. “If you could fill me in on what you're allowed to tell me? General situation, time and date of the disaster, overall condition of the site, that sort of thing?”

There was a quiet, dry laugh on the other end. “As expected of All Might's Babysitter-”

I refrained from sighing, that was going to be my 'hero title' wasn't it?

Bootstrap: The Babysitter Hero.

“-asking the most important questions no one starts out with,” Nejire hummed, then I heard the sound of flipping paper. “Alright, looks like the earthquake struck at ten fifteen in the morning. Your run at the disaster zone is set to begin at eleven thirty, so it will have been just over an hour after the quake struck. Official evacuation has already happened along with the first survivor sweep. You're set to play the part of the secondary sweep looking for those who were missed by the first.”

All good information, and there was more to be had with a few quick questions. I ran through the usual gauntlet, querying her about the weather, about the time of year, the population of the city-segment we were searching, and finally...

“Any chance we could get a map?” I asked hopefully.

That same dry laugh. “Actually, I've been informed that there are a trio of civilian volunteers in the area with maps containing more information. I think you should see them from where you're standing? One of them is wearing all black with a gray-white scarf around his neck.”

I snorted, letting the radio pick it up. “Thank you kindly, console. I'll get back to you with more questions once I talk with my team.”

“Of course, Bootstrap. I'll be here if you need me,” Nejire replied, and the signal cut out.

I shook my head and turned towards Eraserhead, walking over with a smile and making sure none of the other students were in earshot when I cleared my throat. “Hello nameless civilian disaster relief volunteer. My console contact told me you might have a map for me?”

Vlad King's shoulders slumped and Thirteen began to laugh behind her voice modulator. Eraserhead, on the other hand, simply grinned that demonic grin of his and pulled a piece of paper free from his clipboard. “Here's your map, kid. Good job.”

“The heroes of Japan thank you for your service, random civilian volunteer,” I stated formally, the man's shoulder's bunching as I turned away.

…

“Pay up.”

Sekijiro Kan growled as he dug out his wallet, pulling a few bills free and handing them over. “No one asks for the map, Shota. How'd you know?”

“Bootstrap leaves his ego at the door,” Eraserhead stated bluntly. “He cares about what works, that's it. If getting help will make the situation easier, he'll ask for it in a heartbeat.”

Thirteen's body language shifted as her laughter abated. “He's an interesting one, alright.”

…

Kitaru Kaguya – the student-hero Wonder – felt like strangling the dark-clad bastard as he handed over the map with a sly smirk.

“A-and you just asked for it?” Ooishi asked, looking at the paper in disbelief.

“Why wouldn't they just tell us that?!” Kaguya spat, outraged as she turned towards the teachers before forcing herself back. “Are you sure this isn't special treatment-”

“Hey, my man Bootstrap would never-!” Tanaka cut her off, making her turn on the sycophantic fanboy.

“They're not going to just give us everything upfront,” Bootstrap – Shinso's – voice cut through the argument. “We have to ask for it. That's part of what we need to learn. We aren't operating as individual heroes in this exercise. We're part of a team and that team is part of a larger search effort coordinating with local and national officials.”

“R-right,” Ooishi muttered, Kaguya taking a deep breath to try and calm herself as he spoke. “I've seen stuff like this on TV. Disaster rescue gets coordinated at multiple levels, of course there would be resources. Ugh, and I didn't even think to ask for them...”

No one did.

Kaguya ignored the traitorous little voice of reason in the back of her mind as it pointed out that maybe – just maybe – Bootstrap might deserve at least some of the praise and notoriety he'd received.

But he still caused Simon to be kicked out of the hero course...

She couldn't ignore that. If Shinso Hitoshi really was the type of hero everyone thought he was, if he really had earned his place in the sun, then he should have been able to stop her friend from failing out, being expelled, and only just recently readmitted as a general education student.

“So, I also asked console about some other stuff I think you should know,” Bootstrap continued, and Kaguya grit her teeth as he went on. “We're part of the second wave of searchers in this scenario. That means most of the 'easy' rescues will have been performed. We're searching for people who have gotten overlooked by the evacuation and the first wave. I asked for date and time and was told that it was a school day at roughly ten in the morning. That means we need to be sure to hit up the school campus here-”

He reached out and tapped the map where a school had been labeled.

“-and other commercial or industrial zones,” he finished. “Since it was a workday, the odds of finding people at home who didn't evacuate and weren't caught in the first sweep are low. However, if we want to make sure those get covered, we can negotiate with the other teams about where to search.”

Kaguya bristled while Tanaka looked at his idol with stars in his eyes.

Hitoboshi, meanwhile, stared at nothing.

“This isn't a cooperative exercise!” Kaguya hissed. “We aren't supposed to give or accept help from the other teams!”

Shinso turned to her slowly, cocking his head slightly and she tried to ignore how the affected look of mild confusion made him cute- “When did our instructors say that?”

She opened her mouth.

Her mind raced.

They... had? Of course they had. Why would they divide them into teams if...

“Five minutes until the first team makes their run!” Thirteen called out, making her pulse quicken.

“We could just ask, you know?” Shinso offered with a grin, holding up the radio. “I'm sure our contact will tell us to what degree we're allowed to coordinate with other search parties.”

He was right.

Damn him.

And after a quick consultation with the voice on the other end of the line – an already-licensed senior – they put Bootstrap's scheme into place. Ooishi took point – at Shinso's insistence – and opened negotiations with the other teams about where to search and how to go about it. They weren't able to get much done in the time they had left, but it was better than nothing.

At some point, Shinso had replaced the villain-like oni-mask he wore.

Kaguya was convinced that the only reason he'd done so was to hide the damnable smirk on his face as the rest of the students danced to his tune.

…

Nezu's grin showed too many teeth for a human to be comfortable with as he watched the first USJ run of the incoming students.

He popped a few nuts into his mouth and pondered how he should react to the increased competency of this group of students. They'd entirely bypassed the stumbling confusion so many year-groups experienced as they let 'disaster survivors' die due to a lack of coordination and forethought. Oh, they were still clumsy, yes, but it was a world of difference. They were actually trying!

“Should I allow them to have their moment of success?” He wondered allowed. “Or should I commensurately increase the difficulty of the exercise?”

Come down too hard on them, and he could break their spirit and defeat the purpose of the lesson. Allow them to relax, and they could grow overconfident in their success.

“Why not both?” He finally chittered.

He'd let them have the ruins zone as an easy win.

The next zone, though?

The Principal of UA picked up his phone. “Thirteen? Yes, they're doing very well. If you'd upgrade the downpour zone to a full typhoon? Oh, yes. I'm quite sure. They've earned it, after all.”

~~~

This chapter gave me some trouble. It was really hard to get it started, for some reason. But once I got it going, I was able to power through the entire thing really fast.

Weird.

Anyway, hope everyone enjoys getting back to see what Hitoshi Shinso is up to. Initially, I was going to go straight to some vigilante shenanigans with his alter-ego, but I decided to break things up a little bit with a short two-chapter arc at UA. Nothing major, just a look at how the USJ class was 'supposed to go' had villains not attacked in canon. That said, I like the way this one came out and hope you do too.

Next update will be The Hand We're Dealt. Expect that by the end of the week. After that? Not sure just yet. I do want to get a chapter of the Marvel side of Industrious and Nexus Event - it's been a while for that one - in at some point soon, though.

At any rate, thank you again for your support and patience. I really appreciate both.