All For Them Ch. 39 (MHA/Dispatch) (Patreon)

(Every character depicted in the story below is a consenting legal adult over the age of 18)

A/N: Changing things up~

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Nothing ventured, nothing gained. In the end, as much as Izuku wanted and needed the Phoenix Program to succeed, it would only fail in the long run if not every single member was fully invested in it. If one of the women he was trying to turn into a Pro Hero wound up turning back to a life of villainy, that might be survivable even if it wasn’t acceptable. However, if more than one gave up on being a heroine, then the Phoenix Program would almost certainly be deemed a failure by the public.

Ultimately, it wasn’t just about the success rates and how well they were doing out in the field. It was also about changing hearts and minds.

With that said, Izuku begins to put his changes into place the very next day. He pairs Lady Frost with Blonde Blazer and Prism with Mirko to start, and then also pairs Uravity with Invisigal and Malevola for good measure. That leaves La Brava at his side like always, and though there’s some bellyaching and grumbling over the personnel swaps, it seems relatively good natured.

“Bah, breaking up the dream team, Dispatcher?! Well, I guess I can’t complain about getting to work with Mirko of all people.”

“Should I be complaining that you think I need this much backup? Malevola or Uravity, one or the other would be enough. All three of us is overkill for pretty much any situation that we could run into.”

Aside from those sniping comments from Prism and Invisigal respectively, everyone mostly just takes the reassignments on the chin without complaint. Soon enough, they’re all too busy to be complaining anyways. Izuku has had the fodder of his Red Ring start pulling jobs in broad daylight at this point, so there’s plenty of work for the Phoenix Program on top of any natural disasters or smaller incidents that need dealing with.

Of course, they have to share their covered area with some other Hero Agencies, but so far there haven’t been any incidents or altercations.

As everyone does their jobs and does them well even with the new teams, there’s a bit of a lull back at the office… which prompts La Brava to clear her throat from the desk next to his.

“Ah… Mister Midoriya?”

Glancing over, Izuku mutes his mic and gives her a smile.

“No need to be so formal, La Brava. You can call me Izuku at this point, I should think.”

Blinking those wide eyes of hers, the short stack bites her lower lip and looks back to her computer monitor for a moment. When she finally returns her gaze to him, she nods.

“Then… please call me Manami.”

Ah, progress. Izuku tilts his head in acknowledgment.

“Alright then, Manami. What’s up?”

“I wished to… thank you… and admit my indiscretions.”

Izuku arches a brow at that, already well aware of said indiscretions. A woman like Manami Aiba wasn’t going to be content with knowing the bare minimum. So of course, she’d gone ahead and investigated the Phoenix Program from top to bottom, both before joining it at Shroud’s request and afterwards once he’d taken her under his wing and let her into their computer system unchecked.

Obviously, he’d been anticipating that… so he’d left her plenty of juicy little morsels to find. Information that, if she’d gone ahead and sent it onwards to Shroud, would have forced Izuku to reevaluate his character assessment of her and change his long term plans around.

But so far, despite what she’d uncovered, Manami hadn’t contacted Shroud or tried to do anything with the information. Until now.

“Oh? What sort of indiscretions?”

Flushing, Manami averts her gaze, looking back to her monitor.

“… I’ve dug deeper into the Phoenix Program than I probably should have. And in doing so, I uncovered the truth about you. I know you’re the one funding all of this. I know you’re the one secretly in charge with Blonde Blazer reporting directly to you.”

She stares straight ahead, back ramrod straight and body tense as though she expects him to blow up at her for the invasion of privacy. But of course, this was all going exactly how Izuku had planned it so far.

“I see. I appreciate you being honest with me and coming clean, Manami. I wonder though… what will you do now?”

Manami’s head snaps around and she narrows her eyes at him, more confused than hostile.

“Wha- shouldn’t that be my question? I betrayed your trust. The moment you gave me even a little bit of rope, I used it to hang myself by hacking deeper into our systems than I should have!”

Izuku snorts in dry, derisive amusement.

“Tell me Manami… do you really think I would have given someone with your skill set access to these systems if I really didn’t want you to find out my secret? I’m not surprised, nor am I upset. After all, the motive is just as important as the action. Did you dig as deep as you did with malicious intent? Or were you simply ensuring you knew all of the facts… so that you couldn’t be hurt again?”

He deliberately softens his voice at the end there, but Manami still flinches. After a moment of silence she looks down at her lap and huffs.

“I suppose you know everything there is to know about me. Probably did a deep dive before recruiting me to the Phoenix Program.”

Humming, Izuku gives her a knowing look.

“There’s certainly a file on you, as there are files on every member of the Phoenix Program. Files you’ve read, I suspect.”

Manami blushes harder at being called out, but she doesn’t try to deny it.

“I’m sorry for your loss, Manami. Based on everything I know, the man known as ‘Gentle Criminal’ was not a bad man.”

Eyes narrowing, Manami frowns at that.

“He committed crimes… we committed crimes together. We were villains, there’s no denying that.”

Izuku inclines his head again, once more acknowledging her point.

“And yet, no innocents were ever physically harmed by your actions. At the end of the day… you both just wanted to be seen.”

Manami freezes up entirely at that, looking wide-eyed and shocked by Izuku’s words. It’s obvious he’s struck a nerve, because after a moment she shakes a bit and her eyes glisten with unshed tears as she sniffles. To her credit, she holds it in, not outright breaking down even as she wipes her eyes.

Still, it takes another moment before she finally responds.

“… Yes. Gentle… all he wanted in life was to be a hero. But that was taken away from him. So he turned to villainy. And I joined him because… because I didn’t have anyone or anything else. Maybe it’s rather pathetic of us, but we both just wanted people to acknowledge we existed… to know we were there. We just wanted to matter.”

Reaching over, Izuku places a hand on Manami’s shoulder.

“I think he would be proud of what you’re doing now, Manami. You’re making a difference here with the Phoenix Program. You matter… and I acknowledge you.”

Manami stares up at him for a long moment, mouth open and big eyes wide again. For a split second, Izuku thinks she might confess to him right then and there and he spares a minute amount of focus on making sure the comms are all muted and nobody is listening but the two of them.

However, in the end… she lowers her head.

“Thank you… Izuku.”

And that’s it. To be fair, Izuku doesn’t blame her. After all, the true file he has on her is a lot bigger than the one in the Phoenix Program’s computer system. It goes a lot further back and tells the full story. Manami Aiba has long suffered with depression and latching onto Danjuro Tobita, aka Gentle Criminal, had been her way of dealing with that depression.

However, after his death, she’d obviously fallen back into despair again. It was, quite frankly, impressive that she’d managed to keep puttering along all this time, but either she didn’t have the appetite for suicide or she was continuing on purely in Danjuro’s name, to honor his memory.

Either way, it was obvious Manami was depressed even now… and depression oftentimes didn’t make sense or have a clear cut solution. Izuku could tell that Manami wasn’t fully on Shroud’s side because if she was she would have probably sent over the contents of the Phoenix Program’s systems to him before now.

But at the same time, the depressed hacker wasn’t entirely willing to close the door on Shroud either. She and Izuku were clearly developing a rapport, but she was either afraid of Shroud or afraid of what Izuku would do if he found out she was working for Shroud.

Either way, he doesn’t try and push… there’s no point to any of that really. In the end, it’s better that Manami come to him in her own time, just like all the others. And Izuku has faith that eventually that time will come… he just has to keep working on it all.

The rest of the session goes well, with no major mishaps between the new teams. Izuku probably shouldn’t have been worried at the end of the day. Even if Prism and Frost had become codependent on one another, one day apart wasn’t going to cause them to go off the reservation… especially not when they were teamed up with Mirko and Blazer respectively.

And where Invisigal, Malevola, and Uravity were concerned… well, Invisigal was right. The three of them were pretty much overkill for any mission he could send them on.

Eventually, the day winds down and Izuku is pleased with his choice to shake things up so far. It’s all working out rather well, in the end. Only, just as that thought is passing through his mind, he gets a private ping from Invisigal of all people.

“Invisigal? What is it?”

“Hey, meet us in the gym, Midoriya.”

Us? Izuku furrows his brow, but the call quickly disconnects before he has a chance to interrogate Courtney further. Were her and Malevola going to be waiting for him in the gym? Izuku gave it fifty-fifty odds that if they were, it was going to be a sexual proposition of some kind.

Sighing, he pushes away from his desk, sets his headset down, and starts making his way to the building gym. As he’s going, he passes Blonde Blazer in the hall and stops for a moment.

“Blazer, how do you feel today went?”

To his surprise, she looks a little red in the face when she looks at him. Had she overexerted herself today? Could she overexert herself?

“Ah, um… it went well. The changes you made were… interesting. Lady Frost comported herself well enough, though her communication skills could use a little bit of work.”

Izuku nods, largely in agreement with her assessment. He graces her with a smile.

“Thanks for being so adaptable, you continue to lead by example.”

The red on Mandy’s face graduates into a full blown blush at that and now Izuku can smell it, even if it surprises him… Blonde Blazer is aroused. For a moment, he tenses up, half-expecting her to make a move… but she catches herself and lets out an explosive breath.

“I-I do my best. Talk to you later?”

“Sure… talk to you later.”

She rushes away from him, power walking towards her office like a woman both on a mission and fleeing from something she knows she can’t have. Izuku stares after her, a little caught off guard. Sure, Mandy is absolutely gorgeous, but he’s never looked at her sexually before… nor has he considered her a particularly sexual person. She’s the type of Pro Hero who is larger than life and dedicates themselves entirely to the pursuit of justice… or so he’d always thought.

Now it seemed like she’d developed a bit of a crush on him… which definitely wasn’t part of Izuku’s plans. Was this because Courtney had spilled the beans about their sexual relationship? He knew the two were roommates, but Izuku wasn’t trying to turn the entire Phoenix Program into his harem or anything like that… that would be ridiculous!

Reaching the gym at long last, Izuku steps inside while still shaking his head a little bit at the idea. Then, he pauses when he sees who’s waiting for him because it’s not just Invisigal and Malevola… its Invisigal, Malevola, and Uravity.

All three are dressed down, having changed into extremely form-fitting workout attire. Courtney and Malevola are helping Ochaco with weight-lifting, spotting her and giving her encouragement. Izuku tries not to linger too hard on how good they all look or how the sweat clinging to their skin glistens, but it’s a little difficult given he just got blasted by Mandy’s arousal back in the hallway.

When they finally notice he’s there, they quickly finish Ochaco’s current set and then put the weights away and stand her up. Izuku can only stare as Courtney and Malevola basically sandwich Ochaco between them, wearing matching wicked grins as they present her to him like a well plated meal.

“Finally here, eh?”

“Like what you see, Izuku?”

Blushing crimson, Ochaco squirms for a moment before ducking her head. Izuku just stares.

“Ah… Invisigal and Malevola have told me a lot about you… I want in.”

What? No seriously, what? Why was this happening?! This wasn’t a damn porno!

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A/N: Remember to Vote, leave a Like, and let me know what you think!

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Google Doc Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/19w5fa8aZEqZpN20HYy6qr1sMy04hlvinv2fGwcgrdNU/edit?tab=t.0