Chapter Text
Ayano was smiling brightly at the camera while hugging her child’s shoulder. Chuuya could feel the itching coming from the ruffled part of their dress, but tried to force a small smile. Fortunately, Masa-san didn’t seem to notice the half-hearted smile as she checked the lighting of the photos.
*Snap* “Stay still… and done!” The journalist saved the photos in the camera’s file before giving them back to the intern.
“Please send those to me later, and thank you so much, Masa. I know how busy you are. It’s nice that you joined us today.” Ayano said.
“It’s fine, I’d have to come here to write an article about it anyway.” Masa replied, “I was surprised when you told me that your daughter would participate in the event. I haven’t heard anything from Osamu, and he always talks about Chuuya nonstop. But he has been oddly quiet this week.”
The female journalist thought about it, “It’s strange that he decided to stay home today. I’ll have to call him later. He has been sulking all week. That boy really needs some fresh air.”
“Higashi-san, we need you to check the video crew.” Someone from the news station called Masa. The cool-headed woman excused herself before heading outside the stage area.
“Come here, Chu-chu. Turn around so that I can check your outfit.” Ayano made Chuuya spin around to check the stem on her dress. “This was added quite last-minute, so I had to rush it quite a bit. Even so, you look amazing in this, honey.” She pinched their rosy cheeks.
“Ugh… don’t treat me like a toddler, Mom.” Chuuya pouted.
“Alright, alright. I’m sorry. Don’t want to embarrass you in front of your friends.” Ayano chuckled, “Let’s finish the final touch. Mistuki, hand me the accessories box, please.” She called her assistant from the studio, who was a tall blond woman with a spiky hairstyle.
Chuuya was given a small fedora hat to match their outfit. As their mom was fussing over her kid, on the other side of the room, a certain pink-haired girl was having a mental crisis.
“Only an hour until the performance. Ugh!! What am I doing here? I can’t do this! I’ll fail, and they all will see how much of a loser I am. Then all my fans will abandon me.” Pop Step mumbled while curled up in a chair.
“Relax, you’ll be fine,” Koichi said unhelpfully.
“Relax? RELAX?! Like I can just order my body to do that!” Pop was literally panicking so Koichi needed to come up with something quick.
He turned his head around and saw Chuuya, “Oh! Isn’t Chuuya’s mom the one who made your outfit? How about we come over and say hi?”
“Huh… right… We should thank all the people who support the show.” Pop Step said uncertainly, but she still walked toward them. Koichi was relieved that Pop was able to be distracted by this, even if it was just temporarily.
“Um, excuse me, madam. You’re from the fashion studio that made the costumes, right?” Pop asked politely. “I want to say that these outfits are wonderful, thank you for making them, and I-uh I will do my best to be worthy of my outfit.”
“Oh my, such a delicate young woman. Is this the friend that you talked about, Chu-chu?” Ayano turned to her kid and received a nod, “My daughter has told me that she joined this because of her new friend. I should be the one to thank you instead. It has been so long since I saw my kid wearing this type of clothes. Doesn’t she look adorable?”
Ayano sighed, “I wish she would wear these more, but it's hard to find occasions to wear elaborate outfits. I even tried to sign her up for a beauty pageant in the past so that I would have an excuse to dress her in cute clothes, but sadly, she was eliminated and banned from the contest.”
“Eh? Banned from a beauty contest? How?” Koichi asked.
“They didn’t appreciate my talent show,” Chuuya said calmly.
“She had her friend, Dazai, tied on the target board, and she threw real knives at him.” Their mom said with an even tone as if that wasn’t such an unusual thing when it came to her kid.
The other two Vigilantes looked at Chuuya, but the redhead shrugged like that was nothing.
“In my defense, that wasn’t the reason they kicked me out. A judge told me to stop my show, and I held a knife toward his fake wig, making it stick into a wall.”
“...”
While the other Vigilantes questioned the Double Black’s morals in silence, the door of the performance’s green room slammed open.
“YO YO YO! Are you ready to rock?!” A man with a ridiculous haircut screamed as he entered the room. “The afternoon show was a blast! Can’t wait for the evening performance.”
Following him was a woman in a very inappropriate outfit. “Oh ho ho! I like what I am seeing.” She licked her lip. “Youth is truly a beautiful thing.”
Chuuya realized that this was the female Hero back at the police station, and she wasn’t the only one they recognized.
“Excuse us,” The blond Hero who drowned in jeans bowed slightly to greet them. “It’s a pleasure to be here.” Next to him, there were also a few other Heroes.
Koichi covered his mouth as he named each Heroes. “That’s President Mic, Midnight, Best Jeanist, and over there is Death Arms and-”
Chuuya ignored his fanboying and chose to observe the Heroes instead. After a moment, they noticed something. All Heroes here had attended the Instant Villains conference, besides that loud blond guy. Of course, a few were missing, like that flaming jerk, elbow engines, and Mackerel 2.0. Still, Chuuya couldn’t help but feel that the Heroes, who agreed to join this festival, had a hidden purpose to come here. They probably suspected that there was a high chance that Instant Villains would appear today.
“So anyway, where’s Aizawa?” Midnight asked President Mic. “You passed along the invitation, right?”
“Of course, I did! He said ‘I’ll come if I can.”
“So he’s not coming then,” Midnight said, unsurprisingly.
President Mic gasped, “How can you doubt our friend? Shota might be an introvert, but he won’t ditch us unless it’s necessary. He is just finishing his patrol right now.”
The room was getting more and more crowded after the Heroes joined in. Chuuya couldn’t hear anything besides the overlapping of dozens and dozens of conversations happening at the same time. They turned to their mom, who was busy checking other performers’ outfits and decided to head outside to get some snacks before the evening show began.
The rooftop area was filled with mostly families who came to visit to enjoy the shows and the new food stations. Chuuya bit into a juicy meat skewer and tasted the spicy seasoning. Glancing over a sweet dessert station, they thought about a certain mackerel’s sweet tooth. Maybe Chuuya should buy something for him. Dazai wasn’t the most athletic guy out there. After this, he would complain endlessly about having to do too much, which served his right for slidelining them.
Before the redhead could decide whether to head to the sweet food court or not, someone bumped into them.
“Ah! I'm so sorry! I’m just trying to-” The boy, who bumped into them, got cut off by an adult.
“Where are you going? Don’t you care about humanity’s future?” The man said warily. He wore a business suit with a flower-shaped pin on his front pocket. With just a glance, people would assume that this was a businessman, but the thick book in his hand showed that he was likely some kind of missionary.
“Give me a minute to explain. Everyone should know about the disease that will destroy-”
“Oi!” Chuuya blocked between the boy and the man. “Do you have permission to promote it here? This is a sponsor event, ya know?”
“I don’t need permission to enlighten humankind.”
“And I don’t need permission to kick you out because this is private property. Security!” Chuuya shouted, but the man ran off before the store’s staff arrived.
The redhead finished their stew and turned to the boy. “Next time, just ignore those people. They just try to scare you and then sell you some overpriced guidebook or fake medicine. Fucking scammers.”
“Where are your parents, kid? I’ll walk you to them.” The boy was probably around Chuuya’s physical age, but the habit of acting like an adult was hard to replace after such a long time.
“I- You… Ah… Um-” The boy tripped continuously over his words.
Chuuya tilted their head in confusion and observed the kid to see why he was having trouble speaking. This boy had green, dark curly hair, freckles, and an average thin figure. Everything about him screamed normal. The only abnormal thing about him was his face, which was currently red as a tomato. Was he sick? A Quirk effect? Chuuya wondered.
After the ‘Ah’ and ‘Um’ number n, Chuuya sighed and told him. “Look, if you can’t speak, just point the direction.”
The broccoli-haired boy pointed in the direction with his shanking finger. Chuuya led first and told him to follow them. They then ended up at the table area where people sat down to eat. A glance over the area, Chuuya pulled the flustering mess toward a table where a middle-aged lady, whose features were similar to his, was sitting with a few others.
“Izuku! There you are! I was so worried.” She fussed over the boy while tearing up.
“Ahh- I’m fine, mum. Oh… uh… this is-”
“Alright, I’m out. Stay safe, kid.” Their work was done, and Chuuya needed to get back to the green room. However, an annoying brat had to open his mouth and bark.
“Did you need a kindergartner to escort you, Deku? That’s embarrassing, even for you.” A boy with blond spiky hair and red eyes said rudely.
“K-Kacchan… I.”
“Who the fuck did you just call kindergartner?!” Chuuya snarked back. They were having a terrible week due to the fight with Dazai and the whole deal being left here to sing and dance in an uncomfortable outfit. Chuuya knew that they should be better than this, snapping in front of strangers because some kid couldn’t keep their stupid mouth shut, but it was like the final straw on a camel’s back.
“You, duh! Are you deaf, carrot head?” The blond brat couldn’t even pretend that he was able to act like a decent human. The brown-haired man next to him, probably his dad, was trying to stop his potty mouth, but with little to no success.
However, Chuuya wasn’t afraid to put spoiled children back in their place, with or without the parents’ presence. “You bark a lot for a cheap copy of a pomeranian. Are insults the only vocabulary in that tiny brain of yours? It must be hard to live with so few brain cells to spare.”
“DO YOU WANT TO DIE BITC-” “SHUT THE FUCK UP, KATSUKI!! WE’RE IN PUBLIC!” A blond woman ran up and smacked the rude kid’s head. “How many times did I tell you to watch that mouth of yours?”
“You can’t tell me what to do, old hag!” The kid, Katsuki, screamed. The woman held his neck down as if she were holding back a rabid dog.
“That’s enough of you! Now apologize to… Oh, you’re Ayano-san’s kid!” The woman realized them at the same time that Chuuya also realized her. She was their mom’s assistant from the fashion studio.
The redhead bowed slightly, “Nice to see you again,… Mitsuki-san, right?”
“My surname is Bakugou, but feel free to call me that, sweetheart. Sorry for my brat’s behavior; he can be difficult to deal with.” She grabbed her kid’s head, making him bow down. “Apologize, Katsuki!”
“Why should I?! I don’t want to be here, but you dragged me anyway. Why the hell did we have to come all the way here to see the All Might knock-off version?”
While the mother and son were having a shouting match, the father walked to Chuuya.
“Sorry about… everything. It’s nice to meet you, your name is Chuuya, yeah? Your mom talks a lot about you. She even has multiple photos of you framed at her workplace.”
“Nice to meet you, too, Mister.” Chuuya shook his hand, “Do you also work at my mom’s studio?”
“Yes, we work in different departments, but my wife works directly under her.” He explained.
Chuuya gazed over the mom and son duos, one was sitting awkwardly at the table, while the other was one step away from a fist fight. Those kids sure took after the mothers, Chuuya thought. If Dazai and they had kids, sure hoped that the kids wouldn’t take after the Mackerel too much, it would be a nightmare to deal with.
… Hold on, what the heck would I imagine something like that? Chuuya shivered. Intrusive thoughts were such scary things.
“I have to go now, the show is about to begin.” They needed some distraction before their brain wandered to more weird places.
“Ah, wait!” The green-haired boy stopped them, “Uh- ah… T-thanks you.” He managed the spell two words out while being the most anxious broccoli ever. His mother was looking proudly at her boy and mumbled something about how her kid could talk to an actual girl, which was… concerning.
“Yeah… whatever, man. I really need to go. So see ya.” ‘Never,’ Chuuya turned around, but a flash of light captured their attention. The redhead saw something similar to a lightning bolt lit up from a distance, following it was a bang.
It wouldn’t be strange if that was an actual lightning bolt, but Chuuya clearly saw it fired up from the ground, not the sky. In fact, the lightning seemed to come from a street a few blocks away. Before they could make sense of it, everything turned dark.
“What? Who turned off the light?” A bystander said.
“Is this a part of the show?”
“A blackout? In this day and age?”
“Uh- T-this looks bad. May-maybe you should stay here until the Heroes solve it.” The green-haired boy suggested it with his eyes closed. He thought that if he didn’t see who he was talking to, it would be easier. It worked, but when he opened his eyes, the ginger was gone.
Chuuya had left during the boy’s yapping and hopped on the top of a food station. They gazed over the staff area of the event and saw the employees walking around aimlessly as if they also didn’t know what was going on.
<Everyone, please stay calm and stay where you are. The event organizers are in the process of figuring out what’s going on.> The mechanical voice of the speaker spread through the crowd of confused audience.
It was unlikely that the show would continue in this condition. Chuuya should go back to the performers’ room and meet up with others for a solution, but…
They jumped off the rooftop and landed on the pavement as softly as a cat. With incredible speed, they headed toward the ruckus.
“I said that I’d come. No need to call me every hour, it’s a waste of time.” The man said as he adjusted his signature yellow goggles. “Sure, sure. I’m finishing my last round of patrol and will be on my way.”
Aizawa hung up the call and continued his uneventful patrol. Personally, the underground Hero found this event to be a drag. Even if it was for the local people’s sake to de-stress after many Instant Villains’ attacks, it wasn’t a necessary thing for someone like Eraserhead to show up.
“God, I hate these public events. I have promised Hizashi, but if a Villain shows up right now, I can have the perfect excuse to ditch this event.” He said hopefully.
“AHHHHH! MONSTER!”
The Hero snapped his head toward the shout and bowled straight to it. Aizawa held back a creepy grin.
“Right on cue. Let’s hope that they put on a good fight.” He said to himself.
“WAH!” The civilians screamed as they ran away from a giant Villain. This Villain seemed to have a Mutant Quirk. He had a strange type of body that was a mix between an eel and a frog, a long, slimy head of an eel fish, and a body of a frog on steroids. He marched over the street with his clumsy, big body and didn’t even realize the chaos that he was causing.
“P-POP!” The Villain said with his mouth open and tongue hanging out. Drool dropping from his almost black tongue.
“Another Instant Villain, huh?” Eraserhead observed while running after the Mutant. He threw his scarf to save a civilian who was almost being crushed. The Villain kept walking toward a specific direction, and he was clearly struggling to move his body as if…
“He isn’t used to his current size because he wasn’t born like this. This guy doesn’t have a Mutant but a transformation Quirk.” Aizawa concluded after dropping the civilian and caught up with the Villain.
He threw a loop over the Villain to tie him up, while activating his Erasure Quirk.
“Pardon me. You’re gonna stay tied up until the police arrive. If you’re under the influence of drugs and feel any type of pain, please inform me now so that I can call an ambulance.” Aizawa recited the standard arresting speech. The Instant Villain didn't struggle much and didn’t seem to understand his current situation.
Eraserhead kept his eyes on him, but something didn't feel right. His Erasure Quirk didn’t work on him; had he mistaken the Quirk type?
“P-Pop, wanna shake hands?” The Instant Villain said suddenly. He then slipped off Aizawa’s scarf using the slime on his body and continued his march.
The Erasure Hero tried to attack him, but the thick and slimy skin made all the kicks and punches useless. The only option was to try to secure the Villain up again. This time, Aizawa used the length of his scarf to tangle and trip the Villain.
As he was thinking that this would finally stop the Instant Villain. A spark of electricity came off the eel man.
“Shit!” That was Aizawa’s only word when he felt a shock rushing through the air, through his scarf, and into his body.
The electric attack coming from the Villain managed to damage a nearby electrical system and shut down the power of an entire street immediately. Aizawa collapsed on his feet and was paralyzed temporarily. He could feel nothing besides pain in his arms and legs at the moment, so it didn’t seem that he could get up in time to stop the Villain.
“P-Pop Step!” The Villain whined. That was when the Hero realized where he was heading. The Naruhata festival.
“Come on, wake up already! Damnit,” He cursed his body and tried to stand up, but only his fingers were moveable.
The Hero watched the Instant Villain go and was feeling defeated. At least, there were more Heroes at the event, so they could stop this guy later.
However, as he was about to give up and leave the job for others, something small shot straight at the Villain and kicked him back a great distance.
“Uh huhh!” The eel man whined but kept pushing forward. “I have to see Pop Step.”
“Pop? You are a fan, eh? Too bad she doesn’t have a fan meeting today, so how about you come back another time?”
“POPPPP!”
“Suit yourself.” The small figure dashed to the Instant Villain and landed another kick, but this time the eel man had expected it and produced a thick layer of slime to slip away. The attacker missed and landed near the paralyzed Hero.
Aizawa glanced at them and realized this figure was none other than that ginger kid who was involved with the Vigilante group. “Kid! Get out of here and leave it to the Pros.”
Chuuya rolled their eyes, “Like you? Excuse me, but you aren't very helpful right now.”
“The Instant Villain can create high voltage electrical attacks, and only God knows if he has more hidden abilities. An untrained Vigilante can’t fight such a highly dangerous enemy.”
“And who will stop me? You can’t even walk right now.” The redhead teen smirked, and Eraserhead once again reminded him of why he hated kids.
Ignoring the Hero, Chuuya turned to focus on the Instant Villain. Something about this eel guy seemed familiar. Had they met him before? Chuuya stared at the long, slimy trail that the eel man left behind.
“I wanna shake hands with Pop!!!” From the crowd, a long eel-like creature jumped up to where Pop Step was standing. On its way, climbing through the crowd to Pop, the creature released a slimy liquid on everything and everyone.
“Ah,” this was the same crazy fan from months ago.
“I know this guy,” Chuuya told the Hero. “He attacked Pop Step before and was arrested due to public disruption and harassment. I remember his Quirk is to be able to transform into an eel-like creature. Can you turn off his Quirk? It would make things easier for both of us.”
Aizawa gritted his teeth, “It didn’t work. Even if you’re correct about his Quirk, whatever drug he’s taking must have stopped me from erasing it.”
Chuuya frowned. That could cause a few problems since the thick slime on the eel man’s body would prevent them from making contact with actual skin to activate their Quirk. Not to mention, electricity was one of the few elements that could bypass their defensive gravity barrier.
There was also no time to get flour like last time; Chuuya needed to come up with a plan that didn’t involve skin contact before the Instant Villain reached the festival.
Looking around, there wasn’t anything useful except…
“Oi! Mister. Eye bags, lend me your scarf.” Chuuya asked the Hero.
Aizawa narrowed his eyes, “What are you planning?- Hey!” The redhead didn’t bother to wait for his agreement and pulled the long scarf away from the man.
Jumping on the side of the buildings, Chuuya quickly tied the scarf into different knots while running toward the Villain. Fortunately, the eel man was big yet slow, so they caught up in seconds.
“If I can’t use my Quirk on you, then how about this?” The redhead grinned before throwing the scarf that had been tied into a messy net. The light fabric of the scarf flew over the top of the Villain and then immediately lit up in red.
The net dropped straight on the eel man as if it weighed in tons. Trapping the Villain under it. Some spark of electricity came out from the eel but it was useless since Chuuya was keeping distance from him.
On a nearby wall, through the eyes of an insect, someone was observing the situation.
*Buzz*
“A lightning ability? That is a surprising development; this’ll make for some good data.” Hachisuka said as she sat on a building close to the festival. “I can also use the blackout to release the Trigger Bees on the confused civilians… but another thing does look more interesting.”
A red-haired figure who could control some type of crimson energy. A crimson light aura similar to the day on that shopping street.
“I wonder… could this be-”
<Hachisuka, I said before, didn't I?> A voice coming from her earpiece, <This sort of action doesn’t square with our costs, and we can’t have them taking away a valuable subject. Depending on how things go from now on, we might have to cease the experiment in Naruhata and transfer you.>
“How annoying! I was just having a little fun. You said I can do anything that I please with it.”
<With the condition of not exposing the operation- *Click*>
Hachisuka hung up angrily and complained out loud, “Stop lecturing me, Ugh! You’re just like-”
“Don’t like being lectured, huh?” A deep voice cut her off. “No one likes it, especially young ladies.” The heavy footsteps made the Bee User turn around to face the newcomer.
“Your teenagers are at that difficult age where talking wouldn’t work. I understand it better than anyone, so let’s keep this conversation short.” Knuckle Duster showed a huge grin full of teeth as he approached the girl.
“Where does this old fart come from?” Hachisuka mumbled.
Knuckle Duster raised his fists. On his right hand, instead of the usual metal knuckle, he was holding a U-shaped piece of equipment.
He pressed something, and an electrical spark came out from the pointed heads of the device. The Vigilante posed an attack form.
“You’re coming home, Tamao. Mom’s waiting.”