The Yaoyorozu family's armored limousine glided down the avenue without hitting a single bump, thanks to a suspension system that cost more than a month's rent at the Midoriya apartment. Izuku stared out the tinted window with a strange sensation lodged in his chest, a mix of physical exhaustion and the confusion of not quite understanding how he'd ended up being chauffeured home in an elite private transport unit with a hero escort.
This is what happens when you climb onto a U.A. bus thinking you're heading to rescue training and step off being delivered door to door by a private security firm. The direction of my life has taken turns that definitely weren't in the student handbook.
Mineta, sprawled across one of the side seats with his head practically buried inside the minibar, looked up with an expression of offended disbelief.
"Yaoyorozu-san, does this thing have imported sodas? How does your family manage to score so many rare brands all at once?"
"My father has connections with several premium beverage importers," Momo explained, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear without giving it any particular weight. "If you want something, please help yourself, though I'd recommend avoiding mixing them because some have complicated flavor profiles."
"Wait, does that include experimental flavor sodas?"
"We save those for formal events, I'm so sorry."
Iida swiveled his torso from the seat next to the driver, his back ramrod straight and his eyes burning with regulatory indignation.
"Mineta-kun, I'll remind you that this isn't a sightseeing trip! Yaoyorozu-san is being extraordinarily generous in offering us transport to our homes, so the bare minimum gesture of respect we can show is refraining from acting like tourists on a cruise ship!"
"But she literally told me to help myself!"
"That doesn't justify inquiring about the most exclusive gastronomic options!"
Kyoka, sitting near Izuku with her feet propped on the footrest and her arms crossed, tilted her head toward him and dropped her voice.
"You've been staring out that window for like ten minutes without blinking. You gonna stay quiet through this whole luxury parade, or are you eventually gonna say something, Midoriya?"
"I was calculating how many years I'd have to work as a pro hero to pay the insurance on a vehicle like this," Izuku admitted, rubbing the back of his neck.
"And what's your number?"
"I gave up on the calculation when I realized it required factoring in my pension and three generations of combined family assets."
Kyoka let out a short laugh and turned back to face forward.
"At least you're honest about your finances."
Ochako, seated on Izuku's other side with her hands folded in her lap, leaned in with a smile.
"Izuku-kun, does your mom already know what happened? Mine called me like six times in a row while I was with the police officers and threatened to come find me herself on the bullet train."
My mom has probably moved past "worried" mode and is now in "preparing a surface to air missile to locate me by satellite GPS" mode. I don't even wanna imagine how many missed calls are sitting on my phone right now.
Izuku pulled the phone from his pocket and looked at the screen. The smile that had settled on his face slowly contracted.
"I have... quite a few notifications, yeah," he muttered.
"How many is quite a few?" Ochako asked, leaning over to peek.
"A quantity I'd rather not specify out loud so I don't scare the group, Uraraka-san."
Momo, paying attention to the conversation, folded her hands in her lap with impeccable posture.
"If you'd like, we could drop you off first, Midoriya-san. Your mother should take priority over the geographic order I planned at the start."
"I don't wanna mess up the route, Yaoyorozu-san. You've already got enough on your plate coordinating addresses for the whole class."
"I insist, it represents no additional inconvenience for me."
"I really appreciate it, but I'd prefer Uraraka-san go first because she lives closer to where we are right now."
"Izuku-kun, seriously, don't put yourself last out of politeness. I can wait however long it takes," Ochako said, frowning slightly as she gave his arm a small tap.
"It's not politeness, it's basic route math," Izuku replied, raising a finger. "If I got dropped off first, the vehicle would have to backtrack halfway across the city to reach your neighborhood. The logical move is to stick to the order Yaoyorozu-san already planned."
Momo nodded with a small tilt of her head, evidently pleased by the rational framing.
"Midoriya-san is correct. Optimizing the route will allow us to get everyone home faster."
"You always find such a nice way to explain things, Izuku-kun," Ochako commented, looking at him with a small smile.
What's really going on is that I'd rather delay the reunion with my mother as long as humanly possible, so she has time to shift from "total hysteria" mode to "firm but contained scolding" mode. Every extra minute at this stage helps me survive.
The limousine made a smooth turn onto a narrower street in Ochako's residential district, slowing without a single jolt until it came to a stop in front of the modest building where she lived.
"Yaoyorozu-san, seriously, thank you so much for the ride, and for the escort too!" Ochako exclaimed as she climbed out, immediately turning back to lean through the window. "Though honestly, I'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around seeing a pro heroine sitting up front next to the driver."
"My mother insisted way too much, I really do apologize," Momo replied, clasping her hands shyly. "The moment she found out about the attack, she sent an entire convoy to fetch me before even asking if I wanted to just walk off the bus."
Ochako gave Izuku a small wave before closing the door.
"Let me know when you get home, Izuku-kun, okay?"
"I'll let you know, Uraraka-san, I promise."
The door clicked shut and the limousine pulled away again, prompting Mineta to writhe with envy in his seat.
"This is a complete injustice, Midoriya, because Uraraka-san always says goodbye to you in such an adorable way while I sit here being completely ignored until the chauffeur dumps me at my house like an old package!" Mineta complained, crossing his arms in a sulk.
"There are still eight classmates left in the vehicle, Mineta-san," Momo said, glancing at him sideways.
"That just makes it way more painful, Yaoyorozu-san, because you just totally ruined my tragic moment!" Mineta protested.
Half an hour later, the limousine pulled up in front of Izuku's building. He stood, grabbed his backpack, and gave Momo a small bow.
"Yaoyorozu-san, I owe you a bunch of favors after this. Thanks for the ride."
"Please don't worry about that, Midoriya-san. For me it's a genuine pleasure to make sure all my classmates make it home completely safe," Momo replied, giving him a refined, kind smile.
"Watch out your mom doesn't kill you, Midoriya. It'd be a shame to lose the charismatic pervert of the group before the first trimester's even over," Kyoka commented, lifting a hand in farewell while she idly toyed with one of her jacks.
"I'll try to survive, thanks for the vote of confidence, Jiro-san."
Izuku climbed out of the vehicle and the limousine merged back into traffic. He stood for a moment in front of the building, taking a deep breath and looking up at the fourth floor window where a yellow light still glowed.
I've got three minutes before my arrival stops being a surprise event and becomes an official family emergency.
He climbed the stairs at a normal pace so he wouldn't make noise, pulled the key from his pocket, and slid it into the lock. The door barely cracked open before a maternal force identical to an emotional hurricane crashed into him. Inko wrapped him in a hug and let out a sharp sob against his shoulder without giving him so much as half a second to react before the door even finished opening.
"IZUKU! Izuku, my baby, my boy, I called you and called you and you never picked up, I saw on the news that there were villains at the USJ and I thought something happened to you and nobody would tell me anything and I almost left in a taxi to go there!" The words came out in one endless exhalation, her breathing broken up by held back tears.
"Mom, Mom, breathe, I'm fine, I'm in one piece, nothing serious happened to me," Izuku said, trying to return the hug without the backpack bouncing off his back. "I promise, I'm right here."
"Don't tell me you're fine after you stopped answering the phone for hours!" Inko pulled back to look at his face, her eyes puffy and her cheeks wet. "I called you ten thousand times, Izuku! Ten thousand times!"
"That's impossible, Mom."
"Don't correct me with numbers when I'm emotionally devastated!"
Izuku closed his eyes for a second and accepted the numerical defeat with dignity.
"You're right, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. The USJ signal was blocked because of the attack, and afterward I didn't have time to check my messages. I swear it wasn't out of inconsideration."
"When I saw on the news that the new villain league had attacked your class, I thought I'd never see you again! I thought something had happened to you and I was sitting here unable to do anything about it!"
"Mom..." Izuku hugged her a little tighter. "I'm here, okay?"
Inko let out a shorter sob, squeezed him again to confirm that her son wasn't a hologram, and finally let go.
"We're going to talk about this, Izuku, we're going to talk very seriously," she warned, trying to pull her voice together even though tears were still rolling down her cheeks. "But first I want you to come inside, sit down, and let me see that you really don't have any injuries hidden somewhere."
"Yes, Mom."
"And you're going to eat something because I know for a fact you haven't had a bite this whole time."
"Yes, Mom."
"And then we're going to call Ochako's mother so she also knows her daughter isn't the only one who made it home today."
"Yes, Mo... huh? Why do you have Ochako's mom's number? How? When...? W-what did I miss?"
A second figure came bounding down the apartment hallway with energetic steps and a yellow gleam lighting up her eyes.
"Izukun!" Himiko exclaimed, launching herself into the hug. "You're back! Inko-san was about to head out and look for you herself, you should've seen the state she was in!"
"Hey, Himiko-san," Izuku said, accepting the second hug. "Were you worried too?"
Himiko pulled back a little to look him up and down with an attention unusually meticulous for someone who normally operated in hyperactive puppy mode.
"Mmm, kinda, because I was pretty sure you'd come back in one piece. That time I tried to cut you, I realized you're way too slippery to actually catch," Himiko admitted, tilting her head with a wide smile. "And now that I've got you right in front of me, I have a super important question I need you to answer with all the details possible!"
Right on cue, the small chested girls really are evil. TOGA, YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE A LITTLE WORRIED ABOUT ME! AT LEAST FAKE IT, WOMAN!
"That question of yours worries me a lot."
"Did you see blood? Did you see lots of blood? From the villains or the heroes? Was there any of All Might's blood at any point? What did the blood of that creature on the news look like?"
Inko brought her hands to her face.
"Himiko-chan, please! I just had a complete emotional breakdown and you come asking him about blood right at the door!"
"It's important information, Inko-san," Himiko defended, without blinking once. "Because if I came back from somewhere and didn't tell you guys anything about that, I'd honestly feel like a really ungrateful house guest."
This blood obsessed lunatic just proved that if she ever got serious about being a criminal, she'd become a mafia boss in less than a week... what a genuine shame she's wasting her talent trying to live a normal life.
Izuku brought two fingers to the bridge of his nose and sighed, begging any available deity for patience.
"Himiko-san, we saw some blood, but it wasn't from the heroes or civilians, only from the villains when the teachers stepped in. There were no casualties and all the students made it home in one piece."
"But tell me the size of the puddles, or at least give me a rough estimate, Izuku-kun, because I'm seriously going to die of curiosity if you leave me thinking about it all night!" Himiko pleaded, giving a small bounce of excitement as she clasped her hands together.
"That's all the bloody intel I'm handing over before dinner, Himiko-san."
Himiko pouted, though her disappointment lasted shorter than a blink before the enthusiasm rushed back into her cheeks.
"Okay, fine, I believe you. Let's watch the news, they should be doing the recaps right now and I wanna see the villains' faces when they get cuffed."
Inko gently steered them toward the inside of the apartment, wiping her eyes with the sleeve of her sweater.
"We'll head to the living room, sure, but before any news, you're going to take off that uniform, wash your face, eat something decent, and then we'll watch TV together."
Izuku let out a sigh of family defeat and headed to his room. When he came back, already in house clothes with his face freshly washed, Inko had a plate of hot curry over rice and a glass of water waiting for him.
"Eat that first, then we talk," Inko ordered, sitting down across from him at the table.
Himiko was already in front of the television with the remote in her hand, flipping through channels until she landed on one where a serious anchor was reporting in a tense voice in front of a helicopter shot of the USJ.
"Here it is, here it is!" Himiko announced, turning up the volume. "They're starting the deployment recap!"
Izuku spooned a bite of curry into his mouth and turned his chair to face the screen. The anchor's voice filled the dining room with a professional tone.
"...and according to official sources within the Ministry, the coordinated attack against the U.A. Academy facilities was contained in its entirety by the teaching staff, thanks to a tactical deployment prepared in advance by the administration. The organization calling itself the League of Villains was completely neutralized in a matter of minutes, with no student suffering serious injuries during the incident."
Inko let out a deep sigh and pressed a hand to her chest.
Hey, what are you worried about? Your son is right here, I didn't die. Or do you think I'm a ghost and I'm lying to you?
"Thank goodness. Every time they mention the academy I feel like my heart is going to climb out of my throat."
"The exact details of the operation remain unknown, although leaked footage shows the Symbol of Peace, All Might, at the center of the confrontation with a creature of unknown origin. Police have confirmed that both the leader of the organization and his second in command are now in custody and will be transferred to the maximum security prison."
Himiko leaned forward with her elbow propped on her knee.
Inko took advantage of the pause to hand him the glass of water and silently order him with her eyes to drink at least half of it in one go.
"Principal Nezu's intervention has been described by several analysts as a textbook example of preventive crisis management. Preliminary data suggests the academy had prior knowledge of the threat and positioned its staff strategically in anticipation of the attack."
Izuku lowered the glass for a moment and watched the screen carefully.
If the Principal got to that level of planning just from what a perverted blood loving girl gave him, then I totally understand now why Aizawa-sensei always has those exhausted eyes.
"You okay, Izuku?" Inko asked, noticing the silence.
"Yeah, Mom, I was just thinking about something from the operation."
Izuku leaned back in the chair and kept watching the screen while the anchor went on detailing the recap of the operation. In his head, meanwhile, a second parallel agenda was starting to take shape, far more private and considerably more compromising.
Today I saw up close what happens when villains roll in with creatures designed specifically to kill the Symbol of Peace. Next time there might not be a Nezu with a perfect plan or an All Might available, and the ones standing in front might just be us with Quirks we're barely learning to use.
If I wanna be ready for that scenario, I need to multiply the group's capabilities. And to multiply the group's capabilities, my Quirk requires a level of... physical contact that doesn't exactly align with the academy code of conduct.
My professional conclusion is that, if the fate of the country depends on my ability to strengthen my allies in the shortest time possible, I have no choice but to embrace this calling with full responsible dedication, all in the name of heroism and national wellbeing. Someday, when I'm retired and reporters ask me about my training techniques, I'll be able to say with pride that I was the Thigh Symbol of Japan... ahem... the Symbol of Peace 2.0.
Izuku took another spoonful of curry with a perfectly neutral expression.
"Why are you smiling like that, Izukun?" Himiko asked, narrowing her eyes.
"It's the smile of someone enjoying his mother's curry after a complicated day."
"Himiko-chan, let my son eat in peace, please," Inko called from the kitchen, already composed and wiping her hands on a dish towel. "And you, Izuku, stop making weird faces at the TV screen."
Izuku let out a familiar sigh of defeat and turned his attention back to the television.
The armored transport rolled forward with a steady rattle along the perimeter highway.
In the back row of metal seats, Yu Takeyama kept her eyes locked on the blue haired man, his arms held immobile by heavy titanium cuffs that nullified any possibility of physical contact.
"It's creepy looking at him up close, mostly because of that dry, neglected skin of his," the heroine whispered, crossing her arms to fight off the chill from the air conditioning.
Nemuri lifted her eyes from the biometric monitoring screen and smiled, enjoying the obvious discomfort of her younger colleague.
"Don't tell me the great Mt. Lady is scared of a criminal sleeping like a baby thanks to my knockout gas," Nemuri said with a teasing smile.
"I'm not scared of him!" Yu shot back in an indignant whisper, turning so she wouldn't wake the prisoner. "It's just that this guy organized a mass attack on the academy, so you should be taking this more seriously."
From the rear of the van, Aizawa lifted his gaze from the reinforced container and let his eyes drop onto the two women, demanding silence.
"If you two don't shut up right now, I'll have you put off the transport and you can walk the rest of the way to Tartarus," Aizawa warned, returning his eyes to the prisoner.
Kamui Woods, seated next to him with his hands resting on his knees, nodded slightly in agreement with his colleague's reprimand.
"Colleague Eraser is right. We're entering the residential zone, and a single distraction could cost lives if these outlaws try to make a move," Snipe said from the passenger seat, never taking his eyes off the mirrors as he kept his revolver steady between his hands.
Yu let out a silent huff and leaned back against the metal headrest, throwing Nemuri a defiant look to prove she wouldn't be intimidated by the veterans.
"Relax, guys. I have everything completely under control~" Midnight said with a confident smile, making a small dismissive gesture with her hand. "If this young man manages to wake up and act out, my scent will send him right back to sleep in seconds."
Through the reinforced glass of the van, the exterior view revealed the enormous scale of the security deployment. A dozen police vehicles escorted the main transport in a geometric formation, accompanied by the constant hum of attack helicopters.
The dashboard radio emitted a brief beep of static before the voice of the commander in charge of the air bridge broke the silence inside the cabin.
"This is Escort to all ground units, we are fifteen minutes from reaching the Bronze Gate, and the outer perimeter of the island reports no incidents," the officer announced. "Guards Gyges and Briareos have already initiated the opening protocols to receive the high priority targets."
Nemuri glanced at Yu with a smug smile, ready to fire off one last teasing remark about the younger heroine's nerves.
The words froze in her throat, however, when the radio transmission was abruptly cut off by a distorted shout that came loaded with panic from the vehicle leading the convoy's vanguard.
"Attention, halt the convoy immediately!" the driver of the lead patrol bellowed, while the violent screech of tires burning rubber against the asphalt echoed outside the van. "There's someone standing in the middle of the highway, I repeat, there's a subject standing motionless directly in our path!"
*******
Chapter 49 now available at:
Patreon.com/shurazero