All For Them Ch. 46 (MHA/Dispatch) (Patreon)

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

A/N: Hashing out the details.

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Crossing her arms over her chest, Himiko huffs.

“What exactly am I doing then for you all? You want me to spy on Shroud and the Red Ring in exchange for clemency or something… but what do you want me to find out?”

Ochaco looks to Midoriya as Invisigal does the same. They both know he’s in charge here. Their dispatcher considers Himiko’s question for a long moment before coming to a decision.

“Focus on us, the Phoenix Program, first. Why is Shroud so obsessed with us? Just how many agents has he really inserted into the program? Knowing that is more important to our continued survival at the moment than anything else is. Taking down Shroud and the Red Ring would be quite the feather in our cap eventually, but for now… I want to know what Shroud wants with us.”

Crossing his arms over his chest, Midoriya gives Himiko a level look.

“If you can figure that out, we’ll be on our way to something actionable, I believe.”

There’s a pause as Himiko turns over the idea in her head. Ochaco waits with bated breath, hoping that the blonde won’t be in one of her more… argumentative moods. Given how the last forty-eight hours have gone, Ochaco wouldn’t put it past her.

But finally, Himiko just nods her head.

“Alright. Fine. I’ll try and get some idea of what Shroud wants with the Phoenix Program. Sounds like a plan.”

Smirking, Midoriya corrects her.

“Less of a plan and more of a mission. The plan will be something we develop together after you come back with the information we need. I want to be clear, Toga… we’re not going to betray you.”

Ochaco freezes as Himiko shoots her a look, clearly thinking that it was the brunette who had spilled the beans about her worries and concerns. But the thing is, Ochaco didn’t! She hadn’t said a thing about any of that! She tries to convey that with her eyes, making Himiko frown and look back to Midoriya. This time it’s the blonde who crosses her arms over her chest as she tilts her head to the side.

“Yeah? I guess I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t believe that. Still hard for me to trust that you really think I’m worthy of redemption though. You know I’ve killed people, right?”

Izuku doesn’t smile at that, nodding solemnly instead.

“I know your past is… blotted with unfortunate circumstances, Toga. In fact, your current employer has gone a long way to exposing the truth of what was done to you. You’ve committed some terrible crimes… but I don’t think you wanted to do some of the things you did. I think, deep down, you feel some remorse over your actions.”

Himiko scowls at the certainty in Midoriya’s voice. He keeps saying ‘think’ but its obvious he believes his own words wholeheartedly.

“You sound so sure of yourself.”

Ochaco kind of has to agree with Himiko. She’s really not as confident in her best friend’s remorse as Midoriya seems to be. And yet… the dispatcher just smiles softly… encouragingly.

“I wouldn’t be a part of something like the Phoenix Program if I didn’t believe in second chances and redemption, Toga. Why should they all get this opportunity and not you?”

Himiko’s eyes narrow and she scowls.

“Probably because this would be like the eighteenth chance for me, rather than the second. You’re really willing to overlook my past crimes, just like that?”

But Izuku shakes his head.

“Not overlook… forgive. Forgiveness is a powerful tool, Toga. And it is in vanishingly short supply in our modern society. Groups like the Hero Commission have done their best to kill the concept of forgiveness while attempting to force their own view of order upon us all.”

Ochaco watches something predatory light up in Himiko’s eyes at that.

“You don’t sound like you like the Hero Commission very much. Or are you just trying to lean on what you heard about me on TV? Is that it?”

Invisigal bristles at Midoriya’s side but before she can speak and make a tense situation worse, he holds up a hand and stops her in her tracks. And then… he does something truly unexpected. Ochaco blinks owlishly as Izuku Midoriya reaches up and begins to unbutton his shirt.

The action is so odd that not even Himiko knows how to respond. Her eyes narrow and her tongue traces out to lick her lips as she shifts from foot to foot. Until eventually, Izuku pulls his shirt off altogether. Ochaco can’t help but stare right alongside Himiko. Even Invisigal is staring just a little bit.

Of course, it’s not the toned musculature or compactly built frame that has their attention. No… it’s the scars. Izuku Midoriya’s torso is littered with more scarring than Ochaco has ever seen in her life. He looks like he’s been put through a shredder and somehow came out the other side alive.

And then… at her side, Himiko’s breath hitches.

“Holy shit.”

Midoriya smiles thinly and nods.

“Thought you’d notice quickly enough.”

“… You’re Vigil. The vigilante.”

Ochaco’s head whips between the two of them in shock, not having expected that one bit. Judging by the way Invisigal reacts to Himiko’s words, she’d already known but definitely wasn’t expecting Himiko to call it out so swiftly.

“That’s correct. Well spotted.”

How had Himiko known, exactly? Ochaco wracks her brain trying to find the answer, only for Himiko to point at him… specifically at a certain scar of his. When Ochaco follows her finger and looks at the scar, her eyes widen.

“Tch. Of course I’m going to recognize a scar that I made myself.”

That’s right. It was a few years back, but Ochaco remembered it clearly now. The two of them, out on a job, running into Vigil. He hadn’t been their assignment, nor had it seemed like he was after them… but Himiko had been in one of her moods. She’d decided they were going to hunt the Quirkless Vigilante. For sport.

The ensuing chase hadn’t gotten serious until Himiko had finally scored a hit along Vigil’s ribs with her knife, drawing blood for the first time. In an instant it had been like a switch had been flipped. The moment Himiko had his blood… was the moment Vigil had stopped ‘playing around’.

She hadn’t even gotten the chance to use it before he’d taken her down. Ochaco had swiftly followed. He’d dismantled them once he started actually taking them seriously instead of merely trying to get away from them.

Waking up in the alley where he’d beaten them rather than in a jail cell had honestly been a shock afterwards for both Ochaco and Himiko, and she knew it had kept Himiko a bit more cautious for months after.

Now, in the present, Himiko growls.

“Why the hell would you show us this? You’re giving us leverage against you.”

Midoriya just shrugs as he puts his shirt back on and buttons it back up, hiding the immense scarring from their eyes once more. To think that all this time the Phoenix Program’s dispatcher had actually been Vigil… it sort of explained how they were doing so well, Ochaco supposed. What better dispatcher than someone who had spent a decade on the streets?

“To level the playing field. You’re only here right now because Ochaco is a part of the Phoenix Program. In a way, you’re only here because you feel that we have leverage over you.”

Ochaco blinks, caught off guard a bit by the sudden description of her personhood as ‘leverage’. And yet… the way Himiko shoots a furtive glance her way makes it clear that Midoriya is right. She really is the only reason Himiko is even considering this whole crazy double agent scheme.

“Now though, things are more equal between us. We have no intention of using Ochaco against you in any way. Just as I hope you have no intention of using my secret against me.”

Shrugging again, Midoriya smiles coldly.

“If nothing else, we have a common enemy in the Hero Commission, Toga. I don’t intend to sic them on you… will you be siccing them on me?”

Himiko scoffs.

“Of course not!”

Then, she hesitates for a moment… before finally nodding.

“Fine… fine! You’ve got yourself a spy in Shroud’s inner circle. I mean, I was already in but… ugh, let’s just end this before you start stripping again. You’re not that hot, okay?”

The attempt at humor falls a little flat in Ochaco’s estimation, though Midoriya politely chuckles all the same. Himiko’s eyes narrow like she can see right through him… but she doesn’t comment. And with that, their little clandestine meeting comes to a close.

Everyone splits off to leave, with Invisigal and Midoriya going one way and Himiko going the other. Ochaco… is left to go her own way, not really feeling right following either group. Himiko has to go back to Shroud and the Red Ring, after all. Meanwhile, Ochaco would be lying if she said she didn’t feel like a third wheel where Midoriya and Invisigal were concerned. Especially after that Vigil reveal.

And so she heads home all on her own, to the apartment she’d moved into after she and Himiko were originally split up by Shroud with her joining the Phoenix Program and Himiko joining the Red Ring.

… The apartment has never felt emptier or lonelier and as she sits there after getting home, the full weight of the last two days really begins to hit her. Last night, Ochaco had at least had tonight’s meeting to look forward to. But now… well, now it all starts to come rushing in.

She’d almost died yesterday. That hadn’t really truly dawned on Ochaco until now. She’d almost died and… and the only reason she hadn’t was because Himiko thought better of it. The blonde had knocked her out and very nearly turned her over to Shroud and Ochaco knew that the villainous mastermind would not have shown a lick of mercy to her for her actions.

No, he would have tortured her for all she knew and then offed her and dumped her body in a landfill or river or something. The only reason Ochaco still drew breath was because Himiko, her closest confidante for several years… had changed her mind at the last second.

A whimper leaves Ochaco’s lips as she sits there all alone. Wetness blossoms into being on her face as tears stream down her cheeks. She hiccups a little bit, biting her lower lip. She didn’t want to die, but until now she wasn’t sure she’d ever come close enough to truly internalize that.

Being a fake hero with the Phoenix Program had been… easy enough until this point. In fact, she’d gotten so comfortable and content in the role that she’d gone ahead and started thinking of herself as a real hero at some point. Her, one of the larger stains on UA’s honor given she became a villain after graduation, as a real Pro Hero.

It was almost as laughable as Himiko Toga becoming a Pro Hero in all honesty. And that… that brought Ochaco to another problem. How was Midoriya really going to make that happen? He wasn’t even on the right side of the law himself! The Phoenix Program’s dispatcher was a fucking vigilante who had spent the last decade skirting the law and thumbing his nose at the Hero Commission!

Breathing harder, Ochaco starts to hyperventilate just a little bit. Was the entire Phoenix Program doomed to failure? If it came out that half of the women were Shroud’s spies, the program was screwed. If it came out that their dispatcher was secretly a vigilante, the program was screwed.

Fuck, next there would be some scandal involving Blonde Blazer of all people and they would be triple screwed!

It was all just… too much. Ochaco needed to talk to someone about it, but who the hell could she talk to? Himiko was right out, obviously. If she raised all of her concerns with the blonde, she would only spook her. Not to mention some of Ochaco’s concerns were with how readily Himiko almost turned her over to Shroud.

At the same time though, everyone else Ochaco currently interacted with was part of the Phoenix Program. She hadn’t spoken to her parents since she went villain. And obviously all of her former friends were right out as well, even if she technically was a Pro Hero like most of them now. They wouldn’t understand the problems she was having. And she couldn’t tell them most of it anyways, not without making more issues for the Phoenix Program.

She… wait… or could she? Ochaco blinks as she realizes there’s one woman who actually does meet the criteria for what she needs right now. A shoulder to cry on that won’t ruin everything. In fact… in fact, just maybe… she could help.

After all… Momo Yaoyorozu was the owner of the Pro Hero Defense Network, of which the Phoenix Program was a subsidiary. And she had also been Ochaco’s friend a long time ago, before her life had gone to absolute shit.

If anyone deserved to know what was going on, it was Momo. And if anyone could help Ochaco make sense of everything that was happening… it was Momo.

Mouth dry, Ochaco picks up her phone and hesitantly dials a number she hasn’t dialed in ten years. It rings twice before the call picks up and a familiar voice can be heard on the other end.

“Hello?”

Swallowing thickly, Ochaco brings the phone to her ear.

“Momo… it’s Ochaco.”

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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/1wizjgUMV5xrmVb1VokQ8-1nzo_1S4AxEreTRt410954/edit?tab=t.0