Triumvirate Knights: Chapter 38 (Patreon)

Chapter 38:

Izuku:

It was somewhat unclear whether Aizawa’s look was pure annoyance, stoic calm, or exasperated irritation.

Possibly all three.

His teacher let out an aggravated sigh, the back of his throat rumbling with the exhale.

“Problem child.” He heard the scraggly haired teacher mutter under his breath, his hands rising to rub at his temples.

Izuku tried not to wince.

Beside him, Asui raised her hand.

“I was there too- Ribbit.”

Izuku didn’t have the nerve to say thanks and risk spiking Aizawa’s annoyance- but he hoped Asui could feel his gratitude regardless.

“Problem. children.” The Eraser Hero amended- still rubbing circles at his temples.

Asui nodded, seemingly satisfied as she let her hand fall and waited patiently beside Izuku for Aizawa to gather his thoughts.

Finally, the older man let his own hands drop, straightening as he looked at the two of them.

“Where’s the girl now?”

“At home with mom.” The green haired boy answered quickly.

“Police report number?”

Hastily reaching into his pocket Izuku was only slightly surprised as Tsuyu did the same, beginning to rummage through her backpack.

After a moment the both of them presented slips of paper, each having scrawled the police report number in their own distinctive handwriting. His was a mess of sharp angled chicken scratches and hers a had more curved, elegant loop.

Aizawa took both slips, looking at them before sighing again and placing them both in his pocket.

“I’ll follow up on this.” He assured them. “If it all checks out, you’re excused  for your absence today. But don’t let it become a trend.” Came the immediate warning afterwards.

Asui nodded beside him. “Yes sir.”

“Ummmmm.”

Izuku winced as Aizawa’s eyes swiveled over to him.

The green haired boy had to steel his nerve, cringing under the weight of that baleful eyed glare. “A-actually sir… I ummm… I need to ask a big favor.”

Aizawa’s glare didn’t let up in the least.

(X)(X)(X)

“You wish to bring her here?”

Nedzu’s voice held a curious lilt in its tone, the tiny tea-spoon clink clinking against the glass of his cup.

Izuku sat at the other side of Nedzu’s desk, Asui was in the chair to his right, Aizawa was leaning against the wall behind him somewhere.

He nodded. “Yes sir.” He forced his voice to be firm and stronger than he felt. “E-Eri needs help, but right now, my home and my mom are under a protection detail.”

“You would like to get your mother out of danger. Not every criminal and Villain cares about the precedent established of leaving civilian and families out of conflicts.” Nedzu concluded, taking a sip of his tea. “As a Hero school, Eri being here with you makes targeting her much more difficult and the prospect of attacking your mother far less likely since it wouldn’t directly get them what they want and would risk exposing them to the greater Hero community including All Might’s agency… Hmmm.” Nedzu seemed to be thinking on it.

Regardless, Izuku repeated his previous confirmation with another nod. “Yes sir.” He bowed low where he sat, which was a little awkward. “Please sir. I want to help- and still will regardless of your answer, but I’m the one that wants to be a Hero, my mother shouldn’t be put at risk because of that.”

“I understand.” Nedzu’s perpetual smile and placid voice didn’t seem to even twitch on his furry face. “I will look into the matter with the police report number you gave and I will discuss things with All Might. But if all works out, I see no reason why we can’t accommodate your request and allow this girl to be with you during school hours.”

“It goes without saying what she does here and how she behaves will be your responsibility” Aizawa cut in behind him. “This is still a school for training Heroes, not a daycare. You’ll manage her and be expected to keep up with your classwork without issue. Understood Midoriya.”

He nodded, the coiled knot of anxiety coming unwound in his chest. “Yes, of course. Thank you Principal Nedzu, Mr. Aizawa.”

Asui’s larger hand patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, Eri knows me too, so I’ll help.”

“Then the same warning goes for you.” Aizawa cut in again. “Now- for the next matter-”

It took a moment for Izuku to realize what they were discussing, then it clicked.

Right. His fight with Bakugo.

“Asui- if you’d wait outside for us please.” The Eraser hero asked, stepping out of the way of the door.

The Frog girl did stand, but tossed a hesitant glance his way, Izuku tried to offer a reassuring smile; but he wasn’t sure how convincing it was.

“Don’t worry Miss Asui.” Nedzu said. “I assure you it’ll be nothing too severe.”

His friend didn’t look very convinced, but regardless she didn’t have much choice, her eyes passed from Nedzu back to Midoriya- her characteristically blank features looking slightly worried before- “I’ll be right outside.” She promised with a faint ‘Ribbit’ before she began walking out of the office.

Izuku listened to her footsteps getting further and further away. He took a deep breath, trying to square his shoulders and make himself ready to accept whatever punishment he was to be given head on.

As soon as the door closed with a resounding ‘clack’ Nedzu spoke, tea spoon once more clink clinking along the rim of his cup.

“Now, I’m sure you recall your rather serious altercation with your classmate Katsuki Bakugo yesterday during the final examinations, yes Midoriya?”

“I do sir.”

“And professor Aizawa did warn both you and Bakugo-san that if you let your rivalry get out of hand again that there would be consequences- yes?”

“That’s correct sir.”

“Good.” Nedzu nodded, settling his cup on the desk again after taking another sip. “Now, as you know you and Bakugo were told to come here this morning to air out the situation with me. Obviously you missed that meeting but given the circumstances you’re excused for such.”

He tried not to fidget where he sat, fingers kneading the fabric over his knee. “Thank you Principal Nedzu.”

Nedzu nodded. “I spoke with Bakugo-san earlier of course, and asked him why he escalated things so much so quickly-”

Izuku’s heart skipped a beat.

Had Bakugo told them? Told them he suspected that Izuku got his quirk from All for One?

His palms felt sweaty anxiety making his whole chest tighten up, like his ribs were squeezing his lungs.

“-Unfortunately, Bakugo-san refused to elaborate.”

And just like that the relief hit him like a brick to the face, and it took a monumental effort to not let his shoulders sag.

It had been a long time since he felt he had reason to thank Bakugo for anything and in this context it was just downright bizarre but the feeling of gratitude for the blonde bomber’s silence, if not his lack of trust was definitely there.

“His punishment has already been decided on. But I’d like to ask you- is there any reason you can think of for his actions.”

Nedzu’s dark eyes stared straight at him, and the thought of lying to the mouse principal made his throat feel dry.

“I…” He hesitated. “Forgive me sir. I believe that’s private.”

He winced, feeling Aizawa’s burning stare at the back of his neck.

Nedzu however continued to stir whatever remained of his tea, taking the last sip.

“I see.” Nedzu nodded. “Well… if neither of you is willing to clarify the circumstances I’m afraid that we can’t eliminate the possibility that you chose to escalate back. Since your past records are all there is to go off of, they are quite damning.  Thus, you must also be held to account for failing the standard your teacher established at the schoolyear’s start.”

“I understand.” He answered. If it meant keeping the secret- he’d take the punishment.

“You’re in detention-” It was Aizawa who answered. “For a month, minimum.” He said. “You’ll be on janitorial duties after class and any further altercations with Bakugo will result in immediate expulsion.”

Izuku wondered if perhaps Aizawa’s constant threats of expulsion had diminishing returns, on the anxiety they caused as all he could feel was the lingering relief that All Might’s secret his secret was still safe and that Bakugo’s suspicion hadn’t caused his old rival to toss his entire reputation into the gutter.

“Yes Mr. Aizawa.”

(X)(X)(X)

All Might:

“Thank you all for coming.”

The room was a miniature auditorium, with semi circular seats rising in stacks one after the other.

Toshinori’s voice carried up to the highest seats easily,not only were the acoustics designed to work in that way but he was naturally ‘loud’ in his All Might persona.

Seated throughout the room were the heads or close representatives of at least seventeen major Hero agencies.

Endeavor, Yoroi Musha, Best Jeanist, Ryuukyu, Gang Orca, Shishido, Fatgum, Gunhead and a dozen more besides them were each waiting on his address, watching with either curiosity, respect, or in a select few cases, annoyance.

Behind him, Sir Nighteye, Mirko, Hawks and Edgeshot were standing beside the projector image, a unified front Bruce and Nighteye had insisted was necessary.

His agency was placing all their power and resources into this endeavor. It needed to be shown and presented that way immediately.

The Symbol Of Peace cleared his throat. “As all of you no doubt recall, little over a month ago, the UA sports Festival was attacked by All for One, utilizing a small army of villains and all of his Noumu in a public terror attack. It was repelled and since then we’ve all been hard at work attempting to track him down-”

“We all know what we’re here for All Might.” Endeavor rumbled. “We don’t need a summary. Tell us your plan. If it's a good one let’s put it to use. If not, let others do your job for you.”

Most of the others shifted uncomfortably at the disrespect, Toshinori himself didn’t care. Endeavor had always been that way and that in and of itself he’d learned, was just as useful, if not more so than blind reverence.

He opened his mouth, ready to speak when suddenly-

“AHHH HOLY HELL!”

The frightened scream brought all eyes to the right of the room, where another Hero, a young woman, Bubble Girl if he recalled correctly nearly tripped over her own feet in the sudden rush to get away.

All Might smiled.

—-----------

Terry had hoped to go most of the meeting somewhat undetected- alas, he hadn’t quite mastered Bruce’s capacity for stealth it seemed.

Though he’d made it undetected into the room full of Heroes, it wasn’t very long before he’d picked his spot and had crossed his arms to listen in. No, he wasn’t nervous at all standing in a room full of Japan’s best Pros. Then a blue skinned girl had leaned over to grab something out of her bag when she spotted him behind her.

Hence the startled scream.

All eyes snapped over to him, a dozen quirks activated, and a half dozen hands reached for weapons before they each noticed who exactly was standing in the room and all the Pro-Heroes went utterly still, freezing with a very different array of emotions across the spectrum.

Bruce had wanted him to be here. All Might was flesh and blood; Known.

The Bat. The Bat was a myth stepping out of a book.

With him backing the plan, if there were any doubters they’d stay quiet.

Even so, he wished they’d have spotted him towards the end of the meeting, not the start. Now he could feel all eyes on him.

“Smooth.”

It wasn’t Wayne’s voice that crackled in his ear, but Rivu’s.

“Quiet.” He whispered, the full facemask hiding his moving lips and the sealed helm smothering his voice to the outside world. “Gave you access so you’d know what we’ll be dealing with. Not to provide a peanut gallery.”

“Noted.”

“Batman.”

All Might’s voice was loud and silenced the rapidly growing murmurs of the group as a whole.

The Big Man gave a single firm nod in Terry’s direction. “Thank you for coming.”

For a brief moment, Terry opened his mouth to answer before he remembered the general ‘presence’ Batman was supposed to exude.

Calm, stoic and quiet.

So instead he just nodded.

Beside him, the girl, who’s face he could now see and his visor HUD helpfully informed him was the pro-hero ‘Bubble Girl’ nervously wiped down her costume from imaginary dust and gingerly re-took her seat, tossing side eye looks every few seconds as Terry crossed his arms behind his back in a silent show of attention and request for the meeting to start.

All Might, thankfully, obliged.

With the click of a button, the projector flickered on, a map of japan now superimposed over the far wall.

“Unfortunately, our informants and networks have yet to produce any actionable information on All for One’s whereabouts or that of his more sensitive operations. As such, it’s nearly impossible to strike at him directly or by proxy.”

Another press of the button. And the colors on the map shifted- Kanji going along with the colors.

“Is that-”

“Gang territories.” He deduced before she could finish.

“The plan-” All Might continued. “Is to apply lateral pressure.” He said. “Someone knows where he is.”

“You want us to hit as many other crime syndicates as possible-” Terry recognized the speaker by reputation more than anything else. Yoroi Musha, one of the few Pro’s that had been active when Wayne and Nana were in their prime.

“An unremitting ceaseless offensive campaign on all fronts.” Nighteye took the opportunity to insert himself into the presentation, adjusting his glasses. “The… agreement -for lack of a better term- is simple. Tell us where to find All for One-”

“And the Heroes stop going after the other villains so hard-” Rivu’s voice in his ear sounded off, like it was caught between an aghast sort of disbelief and stupefied shock.

“You want us to make a deal with villains?” a large, rotund man spoke, towering over his side of the room. He looked like a giant gumball. His HUD again helpfully provided his name- Fatgum. Because of course he was.  “Letting someone walk away after they hurt others. That’s… that’s not what heroes do!” The man protested.

There was a swell of voices rising in agreement. Terry could see why Bruce wanted him here, backing this plan in order to sell it. It seemed the idea of making any agreement, implicit or otherwise with the organized crime organizations didn’t sit at all well with many of the heroes in here.

It spoke well to their ethics, if not their pragmatism.

“I’m in.”

The statement stilled everyone in the room, all eyes swiveling around towards the No. 2 Hero, Endeavor as the fire wreathed mountain of a man stood from his seat, leaning over hands pressed over the table in front of him as he panned his eyes left and right to glare at those beside him, cowing them into their seats.

“All For One-” Endeavor snarled. “Was within arm’s reach of my son… I don’t like this plan. In fact, I hate it. But he doesn’t get to threaten what’s mine and get away with it! If I need to scorch half of Japan to draw him out I’ll do it. If I need to make a deal with villains I’ll do that too. Once we finally bring this bastard down, everything else can be settled later.” He declared, turning his blue eyes back to All Might. His lip curled in a spectacularly disgusted sneer. “I’ll help you this one time; Anyone who doesn’t like it can get the hell out. We’ve got a war to plan.”

No one moved, but Terry noticed more than a few eyes turn his way, looking for guidance.

…

Alright then.

His arms uncrossed, and Bubble Girl almost jumped in her seat beside him as he began to move, descending the stairs one silent footstep at a time.

All eyes followed him, he ignored All Might and his sidekicks, stepping in front of the projection. His eyes narrowed as he picked out the Kanji designating the largest swathe of controlled territory across the North Western chunk of the island, bathed in purple.

He deactivated his helmet sound muffling, allowing his voice to snarl through the speakers.

“I’ll take the Yakuza.”

There were no walkouts to the plan after that.

(X)(X)(X)

Inko:

As the day wore on, Inko’s heart broke for little Eri, her mind wandering in a dozen different directions on what exactly must’ve happened to this poor girl to leave her like this.

She was young, it was true, but it became readily apparent that Eri had been deprived of a great many things.

The way her face had lit up in abject wonder at the taste of chocolate milk, or the first time she all but glued herself to the Mouseketeer Channel, or how she struggled to use utensils of any kind: pencils, chopsticks, even plastic spoons. How frightened she looked whenever the sounds of her neighbors walking across the outside hall to reach or leave their apartments-

And worst of all… the fact that she never, not once, smiled.

There was just an abject, ever present sadness in her eyes. Like she was just watching the world around her, afraid that it would all crumble away in a second if she ever deigned to enjoy it even a little bit.

It told Inko that the poor girl had been so horribly abused, that she’d all but given up on feeling happy. Even in just these few hours, all she wanted to do was reassure Eri  that everything was alright now and she didn’t have to be afraid ever again.

“Where’s Zuku?” Eri asked.

“He’s in school sweetheart.” She’d answered.

“What’s a school?”

“It’s-” She hesitated. “It’s where young people go to learn things, and be with their friends.”

She’d never been good at thinking on her feet, and the second she said it she realized the mistake as Eri looked down, an entire story playing out behind her eyes as she wondered why she didn’t go to school, why she was different.

Poor girl.

Shortly afterwards, Inko marched into the kitchen, slicing up some apples and preparing a bowl of purple grapes. Who knows what those monsters must’ve passed off as food for her. The poor thing needed some vitamins and minerals

Marching back out into the living room, she tried to smile a bit, marching over to the curious girl who turned her attention away from the cartoons to look at Inko coming closer.

“I thought you might like some fruit?” She said, kneeling down to place the bowls beside Eri, then settling herself to sit next to the girl to watch some cartoons with her.

She noted very quickly now sitting at the girl’s left side that the horn on Eri’s head had grown just a bit. Not much, but whereas before one could barely call it a horn, more of a bump on the head- now it had the beginnings of curvature to its form.

“Oh. Eri!” She called. “Your horn grew sweetie.”

The young girl startled, a spark of lightning flaring at the horn’s highest, blunt ridge.

(X)(X)(X)

“Still at it?”

Nana’s voice made Bruce turn his eyes away from the screen, smiling softly as his wife of nearly thirty years marched into the computer room, holding a large, steaming mug of coffee in one hand.

Grasping it by the rim she offered it to him. “I thought Terry would be attending the meeting with Toshinori today. Did something happen? Has the plan changed?”

He smiled, grasping the handle and taking the offered mug. “Thanks. And no. Terry handled himself well from what I heard.” He leaned over towards the keyboard, clicking several keys with very loud clacks of the mechanical keyboard before the image shifted.

Nana startled, surprised. “Who’s she?”

“She stated her name is Eri. Young girl, kidnapped, held somewhere. Rudimentary evidence suggests quirk harvesting surgeries were done to her-”

Nana’s face darkened. “I see.” She didn’t growl, though if you put her against Terry’s voice changer she may have just won a contest.

Crossing her arms, the woman known as Titania glared at the screen. “This a case Terry’s working on?”

“It’s complicated.” Bruce answered before explaining. “Midoriya, Toshinori’s successor-”

“Hmmm?”

“-He’s the one who found her.” Bruce specified. “He called Toshinori for help. Toshinori in turn called me and so I called Terry.”

In spite of the situation, Nana smiled at her husband. “You know, some men get their boys together to build a boat, or build a back porch for the house. Only you would bring your boys together to solve a kidnapping and illegal quirk harvesting case as a bonding side project for the weekend.

Bruce rolled his eyes, refusing to deign the ridiculous notion with an answer as he brought the steaming mug to his lips, only to wind up startling himself.

“Hot Chocolate?” He asked, flabbergasted.

Nana snorted. “It's late Bruce, you’re coming to bed. I’m not giving you coffee this late!”

“It’s not even six pm yet.” He protested.

“It's close enough to six pm that your left leg is gonna start to ache once it settles in your stomach.” She sniffed, fists against her hips. “So hot chocolate for you. Now-” She pointed at the screen. “-back on point. The girl?”

Bruce grumbled but wisely sipped his beverage and obliged.

“It's curious.” He admitted. “According to everything we can extrapolate from her in terms of her emotional and psychological responses, along with the clear gaps in her knowledge base of basic cultural and social norms, I have very little doubt she’s been held captive for most if not all of her life until now.”

“That’s horrible.”

“But physically the quirk extraction only has very basic signs. Mostly standard 21 gauge or 1.5 inch needles really. A DNA test revealed nothing overly special at first glance.”

Nana raised an eyebrow. “You think something’s off?”

“I know something’s off.” Bruce retorted. “All quirk extraction processes use needles, but also scalpels, and extensive damage is done to surface and deep tissues in order to extract what the criminals want. Quirk Factors can be present in any or multiple parts of the body.

“Hmmm.” Nana shifted her weight onto her backfoot, clearly racking her brain. “Have you called Sorahiko? He’s been in Japan this whole time, so maybe he knows something local that we don’t.”

It was a testament to how much this was irritating Bruce in that he simply nodded at the suggestion. “I’ll call him soo-”

There was a knock at the door.

The Wayne couple turned again, Nana’s smile returning full force. “Mel-sweetie. We didn’t hear you come in.”

Melissa smiled at both her parents, flicking on the light in the room, the cool blue of the massive computer screens, yielding against the bright yellow of the lightbulbs.

Bruce almost hissed like the animal he took on as a symbol. Nana blinked a few times before recovering her eyesight, along with her smile and marching over to give her daughter a hug.

Melissa returned the embrace happily, lingering perhaps a moment longer than strictly necessary.

That delay was of course, explained by her very next statement.

“Ok… So… don’t freak out.”

Bruce’s attention swiveled entirely onto her, computer screen forgotten.

Nana giggled. “Oh. I know that voice. You take your dad’s car for a joy ride and crash it?

Melissa offered her mother a deadpan look with a roll of her eyes. “The only time that happened you encouraged it and we wound up crashing into an open gate!”

“Was fun tho right?”

Melissa sighed. “Mom, I'm being serious.”

“Melissa.” Bruce’s voice cut through the room easily enough. “You’re here, you’re obviously safe, everything else is secondary so we’re not going to freak out.” He shrugged. “Tell us what’s wrong.”

“Well… nothing’s wrong per se. It… I’m probably just misremembering something.”

“Well now you’ve got us curious so you gotta tell us anyway.” Nana reassured, taking her daughter by the hands and tugging her into the room where Bruce sat back down into his chair and Nana leaned on the desk, their daughter forming the third corner of their little triangle. “So what’s up?”

Melissa straightened, taking a deep breath as though bracing herself.

“Yesterday-” she began. “When I went to get on the train; the machine to recharge the metro-card was broken. A woman loaned- well she gave me her card since she could kinda tell I was gonna be late if I had to run to the next machine a terminal over.”

“That was nice of her.” Nana said, though, if it sounded like her voice became a tad less easy going and a bit more wary- that’s because it had.

Bruce didn’t move where he sat.

“I thanked her as much as I could but when I left… she said my name.” The blonde girl shook her head, hands rising to rub down her face. “I- maybe she heard it from Rivu and Mei; they were both with me and she couldn’t have been far. She must’ve heard it from them-” She reasoned.

“Maybe.” Nana consoled gently, one hand rising to rub her daughter’s shoulder and back.

“I know we have to be cautious with… everything-” The teenager hedged. “I just- don’t wanna feel like I have to constantly be looking over my shoulder and I’m just hoping it was just someone doing nice and not… something else.”

“This was yesterday?” Bruce asked. “At the station by your school?”

The girl nodded, staring at her father.

“Physical description?” It was less a question and more of a demand, one the girl knew not to protest.

“American to start with.” Mel answered immediately. “Perhaps just a bit taller than average; auburn hair, caucasian and green eyes.” She nodded. “I remember that.

Bruce sat still in his chair, his face devoid of all emotion, but if Mel had been paying attention to Nana, her widening eyes belied her less practiced poker face.

Bruce nodded. “I’ll double check things.” He promised. “For now- if you see her again-”

“Stay away.” Melissa nodded, the answer emerging practiced and rehearsed. “If I feel I’m being followed, call you or Terry.”

“Good girl.” He praised, taking his large mug and drinking a sip.

Nana patted Melissa on the back. “Why don’t you go upstairs and take a shower. Your dad and I can get started on dinner.”

Melissa nodded with a smile. “Sounds great mom.”

As the blonde teenager turned and marched away, she could be excused for missing the worried glances shared by both of her parents.

(X)(X)(X)

Izuku wasn’t used to rushing home;

But when you get a sudden phone call from your mother asking you to come home quickly and you were just this morning discussing the very real possibility that she might be targeted to get to the young girl you rescued… well… rushing is definitely warranted.

To the point that Aizawa-sensei, Present-Mic-sensei, and Midnight-Sensei had all come with him, moving to make certain that the “problem child” wasn’t about to walk into an ambush.

He didn’t bother with the elevator, green lightning sparking across his whole body as he rose up the stairs like a flying lightning bolt, Aizawa and Midnight keeping pace right behind him with their capture weapons.

He was pretty sure Present Mic stopped to catch his breath somewhere around the third floor, muttering something about ‘fitness freaks’

Reaching his door, he fished for his keys. “Mom!? Mom!”

“Izuku?”

He heard his mother’s voice, relief shooting through him at the sound.

Aizawa’s hand stopped him from turning the knob with the key.

“Careful” His teacher hissed as he pulled down his Erasure Goggles.

Midnight gave Izuku a determined but reassuring smile as she unfolded twin bladed fans.  “Just because she’s talking doesn't mean it's not a trap. Which is why we’re here.”

He nodded, the lightning once more surging under his flesh, One for All ready to be used as he turned the key and shoved open the door.

He expected, and hoped, that there would of course be no ambush and he’d simply find his mother in some sort of hapless emergency, maybe with Eri’s quirk having destroyed part of the house or some other accident.

That he could have handled.

Even seeing an actual ambush was ‘expected’ to a degree, so he could have handled that too.

Opening the door to find a very thin young woman that could have been his mother’s younger sister was not something he was expecting.

Then, seeing her cradling a sleeping Eri in her arms, dried tear streaks on the girl’s cheeks, Izuku felt his whole body freeze as he realized this wasn’t his mother’s “younger sister.”

This was actually his mother!?!?

What!?!?!?

…

WHAT!?

His… mother kept rocking Eri. “I think I know what her quirk does.” She whispered. “Super diet zap-ray.”

Izuku stared, and barely even heard Present Mic panting like a winded dog as he came round the corner.

“What’d I miss?” The blonde hero asked.

Midnight was barely keeping herself from laughing.

Neither Aizawa nor Izuku answered him.