Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Many top heroes are called to the police station office room to discuss the Murmuration Starling vigilantes. Shota is included, and while it’s bothersome since he’s already overworked between teaching at UA and normal patrols, he understands why. The Murmuration can no longer be ignored.

Mirko hikes one toned leg over the other. “Dang. I could be out there kickin butt, but gotta sit in a stuffy meeting to talk about things we should be out there doing and kicking the butts of? Not my style!” She rocks her big white ears forward and backward.

“Please, mind your words.” Best Jeanist tweaks his plastered hairstyle.

“I fail to understand why I am here.” Endeavor curls his lip. Best Jeanist narrows his eyes on him but doesn’t say anything.

“Come now.” Thirteen lifts her fluffy space suit gloves placatingly. “We need to discuss the Murmuration, as they’ve been on the rise, and in particular what went down with them and Ingenium.”

“That’s exactly it.” Detective Tanema slides into the room and powers on the projector screen. “Normally, I wouldn’t call everyone here, but the incidents with the Murmuration Starling organization have become too prominent to not take seriously anymore.”

“I’ve taken it seriously,” Endeavor says.

“Right.” Nemuri rests her chin on the back of her hand, her normally playful smile a vicious grin. “So serious you burnt one of their members so their skin sloughed off, I reckon all the way to their bone.” Thirteen recoils. Best Jeanist looks repulsed. Most of the other heroes look serious.

“Yo, it was way overkill,” Hizashi says, giving a double thumbs-down. “Could turned into real-kill!”

“Illogical,” Shota mumbles in agreement. Murmuration is dangerous, but not in the way that requires deadly lethal-if-necessary force.

Endeavor snarls at them all. “Villains need dealt with. Clearly even that wasn’t enough, as these lawbreaking criminals run wild even as we speak. This isn’t a game. And as such, these villains must be brought to justice with whatever means necessary.”

And then Ingenium slaps a palm on the table. His shoulders dip in a deep breath, and he lifts his head with a plastered-on smile. “I understand, they must be caught. But even so… Well, I’m in a room full of law-guys and pro heroes, and I probably shouldn’t say—”

“Then don’t say it. Your judgment is clouded because they benefited you,” Endeavor says.

“Oi.” Mirko stamps a big foot. “Let im speak his mind, flamebag.” She lifts her chin daringly when Endeavor glowers at her. At least somebody looks ready to drop-kick Endeavor and not care a bit about getting burnt.

“I’m aware how it sounds, but it isn’t only because they helped me,” Ingenium says. Help is an understatement. Ingenium was crippled by the hero killer. He barely survived, his hero career was over, and he would probably have been wheelchair bound the rest of his life. If not for the Murmuration.

“The facts are,” Ingenium continues, “The Murmuration doesn’t harm people. They’re misguided and wrong and must be stopped,” he lacks conviction in those words, he’s only saying them because he’s supposed to, “but I believe despite that they have hero—good intentions. They rescue more than they fight, never murder, and even minimize property damage. Even their Gilded Villains blog is not mindless slanderous.”

“Wait, that super-infamous hero-bashin blog’s theirs?” Mirko says. “Heh, shoulda known. That’s good and gutsy like they are.”

Endeavor side-eyes her. “It almost sounds like you’re impressed by them.”

“Dang straight I am.” Mirko smirks at the muffled inhales and wide eyes around her. “What? You all oughta know by now, I ain’t gonna pretend about myself. Life’s too short for that stupid stuff. Plus, the knight here,” she flicks an ear at Ingenium, “spoke his mind, and I’m gonna too. I like the Murmuration. Got a good moral code, don’t take crap from nobody, tough and persistent and smart.”

“That’s illogical,” Shota says. Murmuration shouldn’t be supported in their vigilantism by the heroes. Definitely not taken down with the savage force Endeavor uses though, so Shota is glad to hear that even Mirko, who sometimes brushed close with using too much violence, doesn’t have burning hatred to the Murmuration.

“Don’t get your scarf in a twist.” Mirko laughs. “I’m gonna kick their butts to kingdom come when I get a hold of em. I’m getting fired up just imaginin going toe-to-toe with them.” Her foot thumps repeatedly. “Man, it’s like one of em’s right here. My senses are blaring at me to go out and get em!” Her ears shoot straight up and her eyes pin as if she’s about to lunge out the door this second.

Tanema clears his throat firmly. They’re derailing from the main point, and they’ve got impatient and busy heroes. Though Shota won’t say he’s not enjoying the steadily rising steam on Endeavor’s face. It’s flat-out hilarious. Hizashi hums in his throat before stopping himself, and Nemuri bats her eyelashes like the cat who caught the canary.

“So, Mr. Ida,” Tanema addresses Ingenium, “three Murmuration Starlings came into your ICU room and used a quirk that healed you entirely?”

Ingenium nods. “I recognized Freefly, and from the way they entered, by simply reconstructing the walls, Kaiser was confirmed to be another. The third is unidentified.”

“Kaiser is the member confirmed with ability to heal, but from your report, you think it wasn’t him?” Tanema continues.

“It seems somewhat different than all the civilian reports of Kaiser healing them,” Ingenium says.

“Kaiser…has healed many civilians?” Thirteen asks.

“Yes,” Tanema says in a strained tone. “And almost every one of those civilians naturally view Murmuration as their goodwilled saviors.”

“So you’re saying,” Best Jeanist says, with a face that shows something clicked for him, “this problematic vigilante group is actually, perhaps, most difficult to arrest because of their extremely good track record?” Ah. That makes sense.

“Yeah.” Tanema sighs. “Sucky fact, but some civilians will outcry big time once we arrest them. That’s why we have to deal tactfully and carefully with them.” Endeavor humphs.

“How many guys have they healed?” Hizashi asks.

“That’s not really necessary to know,” Tanema says the same time Manual says, “More than two hundred.”

Nemuri holds out a hand. “And you know that because…?”

“There’s a fanpage where everybody shares about their encounters with the Murmuration.” Manual rubs his hair and grins sheepishly.

“You a fanboy of them?” Snipe says.

“No no no!” Manual waves his hands. “Don’t misunderstand, I read the page to gather information!”

“A good idea,” Best Jeanist says.

“This really is an issue,” Shota says. “They even have online supporters. Illegal quirk usage would be a simple arrest, but it seems they’ve got even more public support than I was aware of.”

Endeavor slams a fist on the table. “As I see it, this whole meeting is degenerating into justifying and supporting villainous acts. It’s unbecoming of us heroes.” Nemuri coughs on a laugh and Hizashi pulls out the corner of his mouth in disgust.

And then. “Oh yeah, unbecoming of heroes. Says the hero who beats and burns his own wife and children,” says a familiar but unusually scornful voice outside the door.

Everyone whips their heads to the door. It can’t be. They wouldn’t. The shock of who spoke temporarily distracts Shota from what he actually said.

“I freaking KNEW it!” Mirko explodes from her seat. “My instincts were tellin me they were here!”

“OH CRAP OH DUCK.” Freefly, Murmuration vigilante and one of their suspected ringleaders, yelps in alarm.

Glass shatters. The other heroes spring up, quirks flaring. Shota grasps his binding cloth, just as much for Freefly as for the fact Endeavor looks murderous. Mirko kicks down the door, because of course she does. Endeavor blasts after her. Best Jeanist slings fabric, but Endeavor gets in his way as he plows out the shattered window after Mirko.

The rest of the heroes aren’t suited for aerial combat. Snipe could shoot, but by the time he scrambles for his concealed weapon, Freefly is far away, and Endeavor’s more likely to get shot. Hizashi could scream, but he’d also hit Endeavor and the nearby buildings and probably not even clip the falcon-fast Freefly. And if Shota used Erasure, he’d probably hit Endeavor and drop him from the sky.

And, well, it’s not really good, under any circumstances whatsoever, to want a criminal to win against a hero. But Shota can’t exactly help his little bit of satisfaction as Freefly literally dances around Endeavor. Then one of the Murmuration’s misty black portals materializes, and warps Freefly away.

Best Jeanist, who had launched himself out the window with his fabric threads, hauls himself back in. “I failed. I should’ve apprehended the villain.”

“Jeans, did you see the speed on that dude? You can’t feel bad about not being faster than that.” Hizashi stares at the sky, ringed green eyes wide. “I betcha he’s way faster than Gran Torino.”

“Definitely faster than old tortoise Endeavor,” Nemuri coos, eyes squinting happily as Endeavor drops himself to the ground. If the heroes had cooperated, Shota tagging along with Mirko or Best Jeanist and Hizashi, they may have been able to catch Freefly. Though Shota can’t completely judge them for it. The only heroes he cares to work with are Hizashi, Nemuri, and Emi and Oboro.

“Unbelievable.” Tanema rubs his forehead. He looks both disturbed and amazed. “Completely, just unbelievable. A Murmuration vigilante eavesdropping on us while we were having a meeting about them.”

“That’s actually pretty eerie, yo.” Hizashi dramatically rubs his arms. “Guessing their warp guy Blipster put Freefly here, which is how he didn’t get caught while literally waltzing straight into a police station with a bunch of pro heroes here, but like, how’d they even know about the meeting? Do they have a mind-reading quirk? Or just their high-spec info-gathering quirks?”

Snipe turns to Ingenium. “Still think they’re harmless?”

“Not harmless, but I still believe they’ve got good intentions,” Ingenium says. “I really believe, if given direction, they’d make fine heroes.”

“They’re. Lawbreaking. Criminals. And they’re tryna outright tear hero society by its roots.” Snipe shakes his head.

Shota and Nemuri swap glances, and apparently they both remember Freefly’s words at the same time. “Hey,” Nemuri says. “What was that Freefly said about Endeavor beating children?”

Chapter Text

A girl with pink dreadlocks and steampunk goggles wriggles out of a pile of hoverboots and wristbraces and robots and scopes. Mei rubs a greasy arm over her sweaty forehead and smudges herself in more black-brown oil and metal stain. “Aw, look at you, beautiful baby!” She pats her newest invention, Hoverboot V.3, and coos.

Voices reach her ears. Her teacher Powerloader is talking with…hmm, which teacher is that? He’s got silver hair and two teeth poking up from his lower jaw. Ah whatever, his name doesn’t matter. All Mei wants to know is if he’s requesting a new baby for Powerloader and Mei to make. (“Don’t phrase things in such a way!!!” Mei hears Powerloader screeching in her head.)

Mei zips up to the teacher. “Hiya! What’s up? Need a baby?”

The teacher wrinkles his brow and leans away a little. Powerloader glares at her from underneath his headgear. “I told you to watch your words! Mr. Kan here,” oh so that was his name, “was giving me an update on Murmuration. Those brats are serious. Dang it. What’re they thinking?” Powerloader sounds more stressed than the last time Mei blew up the work shop, and that was bad.

“Murmuration?” Mei’s missing a few data chips to understand this. “Murmuration what?”

“You haven’t heard?” Mr. Kan’s jaw drops open.

Even Powerloader, who knows she doesn’t bother with getting informed about much outside her babies, looks at her askew. “What rock have you been under, Hatsume? It’s bombing the news. The shame of UA. Heroes are up in arms.”

“Well, what is it?” Mei asks.

“All the Class 1-A students left the school and became vigilantes,” Mr. Kan says.

Mei believes it for a moment. Then she realizes Powerloader must’ve talked Mr. Kan into proving to Mei that sleep deprivation totally messes with your cognition and mind Hatsume, now get to bed or so help me I will make you— Mei laughs. “Oh come on, Powerloader. My brain is a-okay even after four days. You can’t get me with something that crazy!” (He definitely could’ve gotten her with something less crazy, but she won’t mention that.)

Mr. Kan tilts his head in confusion. Powerloader simply grabs the tiny TV hiding under a pile of metal scraps and flicks to a news channel.

“…just this morning the Murmuration vigilantes pulled civilians from a collapsing apartment after a quirk accident, and apprehended four notorious thieves who are now arrested. Murmuration themselves, despite having been confronted by Endeavor the new number one hero, are yet to be captured! What a feat! Opinions vary on these new vigilantes, from praise for their rescues and villain captures, to condemning their abandonment of UA hero high school and their illegal quirk usage. Stay tuned for more—”

“Believe it now?” Powerloader says tiredly.

Mei’s eyes bug out. Whoa. She normally doesn’t give two blinks to the scraps the news tosses around. Her inventions are far more relevant and beautiful. But this is something else. And they were UA students? Maybe some of the kids she’s met? Midoriya and the ponytail creation girl Yaoyorozu? She liked them.

“What? Why? How? Who? When?” Mei says.

“Up and left eight days ago, leaving a note that says, ‘This is our Murmuration.’ All twenty students. Apparently, they have a beef with hero society.” Mr. Kan shakes his head, and shakes it again. “Eraser said they were getting weird these last few weeks, but who would’ve thought this?”

“They don’t know what they’re doing.” Powerloader’s voice is heavy and harsh. “Ruining their ability to be heroes and even normal civilians. They need to come to their senses. The heroes are working hard to find them and drag them back.”

Powerloader and Mr. Kan’s conversation fades to static. Mei glues her sleepy-stinging eyes on the TV. High-quality cameras film several masked people—Murmuration vigilantes—Mei’s ex-sorta-classmates—apprehend some criminals, and save people from a chain car crash. Better costume upgrades would help, Mei thinks. She could add some costume features and—

Mei quickly slaps her cheeks. Yep, okay, Mei Hatsume is officially tired. If she had a healthy amount of sleep she would not think of upgrading costumes and gadgets for vigilantes, villains by some people’s standards. Mei hauls herself off for a shower and a long sleep. Maybe Powerloader is right about sleep deprivation making one go crazy.

(Much later, she discovers it’s not the sleep deprivation. It only steered her mind to that direction quicker.)

Chapter Text

A huge man strides through an alley. He has a broad, blue-gray wolf head with black dreadlocks fanned like tentacles. His sharp yellow-and-black eyes and big ears and nose are alert to the shift of an empty beer can and rustle of tattered grass and waft of patchouli. His green snake tail swishes at his heels each stride and rolls to avoid trashcans. His yellow scaly eagle-lizard hands curl at his sides, sharp claws pointed to his leathery blue palms.

Chojuro treads over noisy pebbles and cans, but the crunching behind him is the footsteps of at least three people. He finally grunts and turns to face whatever fools have the brass to trail him. Three guys stalk into sight. They stink of cigarettes and cannabis. One has grooved arms, another has capped fingers, and the third has a scraggly beast quirk and a tattooed eye-patch. Typical trashy-thugs probably, leering like they’re some big-shots. Chojuro slackens his face into boredom so they hurry up whatever they want. He has an appointment after all.

“Hi there. You look like you’ve got some cash,” the grooved-arm guy says. Chojuro is wearing a nice tan trench coat and gray dress shirt and jeans. Better than the filthy shag-rags many wear around these parts. “Spare us some cash, wolf-man, buddy.” He speaks nicely as if he isn’t smiling like a predator. (But Chojuro is a predator—a monster—so—) Chojuro doesn’t have the slightest shiver of fear.

“I’m busy.” Chojuro carelessly swishes his snake tail and angles his head so his pointed teeth show. “Out of my way.” And he doesn’t have money with him and wouldn’t give it to dirtbag robbers anyway. (Not that Chojuro can speak, because he hasn’t always obtained money honestly—)

The grooved-arm guy shoots blades from his arms. Chojuro leaps up several yards. Two blades nick his tail and foot. Chojuro lands. A second guy fires bullets from his fingers. Roundish bullets strike Chojuro’s chest.

Chojuro lunges at the robbers. He kicks the blade-arm guy and swats the bullet-fingers one. The scraggly-beast guy jumps and sinks teeth in Chojuro’s shoulder and rakes with his hind claws. Chojuro grunts, grabs his grimy head, and yanks him off.

“You’re ugly and weak. That must suck.” Chojuro punches his stomach and drops him. The beast-guy gags and buckles. The other two are still crumpled on the ground. Chojuro huffs out a breath through his teeth. “Pah. Didn’t need my full strength, never mind full form.”

The bullet-fingers guy twitches. “Mo-Monster…”

Chojuro stomps a boot by the bullet-fingers guy’s head. His right ear pins sideways. “You know what? If I didn’t want to get blood on myself because of who I’m meeting, I’d squash your arm like the monster that I am. Cave your head in too.” He stomps the concrete again and sends cracks through it. The robber whimpers pathetically.

Chojuro brushes himself off. Dang it, the beast-guy tore holes in his trench coat. He stomps at the beast-guy’s head too and bares his teeth. Deciding he’s wasted enough time on them, he sniffs scornfully, pulls his hood over his wolf-head, and jogs out of the alley. Mutant quirks are the most recognizable quirks, and his Chimera quirk could hardly be more obvious. Crappy genes at their worst.

He crosses a street. A Jeep turns into that street and keeps driving his way. Chojuro’s not in a crosswalk, but the driver can easily stop. The Jeep skids only at the last stretch when Chojuro keeps walking. Yeah, I’m not gonna move for you, jerk. Chojuro strikes out and smacks the Jeep’s bumper with the heel of his palm, sending it spinning away. Good thing the car slowed down some or that might’ve stung a little. So many buttheads today. Did somebody decide it’s butthead-festival day? Annoyed, Chojuro bounds to the sidewalk.

He finally gets to the nature park outside the slums and sits on a bench. Abandoned pet ducks and geese that have naturalized at the park waddle around and beg for scraps or splash in the murky blue water. The water smells of fish and feathers and algae. Wild egrets preen in the trees and wade on the shores. Peaceful.

Soon there’s a familiar sandalwood scent and patter of feet that hurries over the grass. The bench rattles as Denki throws himself over the back of it, beaming and flailing for balance. “Heya! Surprise ya?”

“Psshh.” Chojuro grins. That sunny kid always cheers Chojuro up, even when the whole day sucked otherwise. “I could hear you a mile away.”

“Not four miles away? I’m getting way better, then!” Denki hops over the bench back and plops himself next to Chojuro.

“You seem extra excited for some reason. What, did you start UA hero school this week or something?” Chojuro says it carelessly, but they both know Chojuro memorized the exam day, result day, and school year start two years ago. Denki laughs.

Before he can launch into what happened, a policewoman strolls along the gravel walkway. Chojuro stiffens and tucks his nose down. Dang. This park is usually less patrolled than most. Denki, unaware or perhaps playing dumb as Chojuro has instructed, paws through his backpack for snacks. The over-sized hoodie and long overcoat do their job and the police goes past without a half-glance.

Even though Chojuro finds most hero stuff as crap, he doesn’t want to mess up Denki’s life by his monstrous presence. The kid finally got into the hero school he’s rambled about since he was eleven. Chojuro flicks an ear and scrapes his clawed thumb over his scaly hand. “You sure you should be hanging out with somebody like me? You’re a UA student now. They’d probably kick you out on your butt if they found out.”

Chojuro is a vigilante in optimism, a villain in realism. Wanted for theft and murder. He can only appeal that the people he killed were evil. (Worse than him, that’s subjective really, because who decides who’s bad enough to die and who’s just barely good enough to live?)

“Yes, I saw the police officer if that’s what you’re asking,” Denki says, not even considering getting up and leaving. He tosses a box of cheese dip and bread sticks to Chojuro. It’s one of Chojuro’s favorite snacks. Denki grabs potato chips for himself. It’s no wonder he’s twiggy-thin, because he’s always eating junk food.

“Well, that’s not what I’m asking,” Chojuro mumbles around his bread sticks.

Denki sighs, as if Chojuro’s the unreasonable one here. “If they kick me out, I’ll find another school. You’re my friend and I’m not gonna stop hanging out with you cause of what some people think.”

Stupid kid, with his casually kind words. Chojuro swats Denki’s hair and ends up patting his head. “It’s more complicated than that. You really should be careful who you’re friends with. Keep your priorities in order.” Denki just shrugs.

Chojuro curls his tail tighter and scolds himself. He’s not the kid’s mother, and he’s in no position to be a mentor. Chojuro still wants Denki to keep himself safe, because Chojuro’s seen the cruelty that crushes those who are too kind and open-hearted. The world isn’t kind enough to let everyone live untarnished (and Chojuro isn’t one of the lucky ones), but he’ll be cursed if he doesn’t fight claws and teeth to keep Denki from it.

“Pop quiz,” Chojuro says.

“Ughhhh!” Denki sprawls over dramatically. “I hate tests. You know that, Cho! And I already took the UA exam and written test, and a quirk test on the first day of school! Do you know how stressful that was?! I almost overloaded! Argh, I’m getting jittery just remembering it!”

Mostly ignoring his sad and amusing dramatics, Chojuro pats his back and continues, “Three robbers threaten you with their quirks. What do you do?”

“Drop some money, hotfoot it, and report to the heroes,” Denki says promptly.

“And if you don’t have money or enough of it for those greedy scum?” Chojuro says.

“Um, offer to charge their phones and dead batteries?” Denki says.

“Good idea, but NO.” Chojuro crinkles his packet of cheese dip. Why is the kid so dang soft-hearted? “Fight. You got a strong quirk. I taught you some hand-to-hand. So teach buttheads like that a lesson. You’re gonna get licensed to legally do that, aren’t you?”

“Okay okay, I got it.” Denki sighs. As much as he wants to be a hero, he gets uneasy to use his quirk for more than charging batteries. He’s afraid of hurting people badly.

“Quiz over. Good score, as always from a sharp tack like you,” Chojuro says. He makes sure to praise Denki’s intellect whenever he can, because the kid has dyscalculia and dyslexia and gets called stupid by his teachers and classmates. “Now tell me about this UA stuff.”

Denki perks up and chatters away. About the quirk test, how the horrible scary homeroom teacher threatened the lowest scorer would be expelled, but get this—it was actually a “logical ruse” and nobody got expelled. His new classmates, there’s a smug-looking blonde dude who’s actually kinda chill and way smart and philosophical and there’s a Christian gal who’s a little judgmental but super sweet and compassionate, and the blonde dude has a copy quirk, so totally cool, and the Christian gal has an electric-resistant hair-vine quirk, also way cool.

Chojuro smiles and swivels both ears to listen well.

Chapter Text

Geten is not about to complain about important Murmuration duties. Certainly not. He has too much honor for that. However, he does have to wonder why he’s the babysitter today. Oh, that’s not what everyone called this duty, they said it was the “oh-so-vital duty of entertaining the children like a good big brother,” but Geten knows he’s merely a babysitter.

The unicorn child Eri, as far as children go, is well-mannered and intelligent. The water child Kota is not. Geten has told the water child four times already not to run off after dogs and leaves, it’s dangerous, and the ill-tempered Kota stamped his feet and said they’re cute and interesting, and Geten is always so boring, all he does is train and fight and refuses to even read storybooks.

Geten reminds himself he is above fighting a child and that all Murmuration duties must be performed to his best. His pride as the hardest worker will not allow him to fail even if it breaks him.

Until he does fail. He looses the water child.

It’s not all Geten’s fault though! They had come across many Endeavor Agency sidekicks, and since Geten was not on active patrol because of the children, he was supposed to avoid all combat, especially with heroes. So Geten was keeping his eyes on the heroes as they passed. When he didn’t see any more heroes, he turned to the children to explain the importance of staying aware of one’s surroundings, to find only the unicorn child at his side.

Geten curses in his head and retraces his steps. He checks incessantly to ensure Eri is with him, but she doesn’t stray more than a half-foot from him. Small mercies. Geten comes back in sight of the heroes, and plans to hurry past them, knowing Kota should have enough sense to stay away from heroes at the least. Then one of the sidekicks shrieks in laughter and says, “This kid’s glaring you down, Endeavor! Whatcha want, little man?”

It surely couldn’t be. Geten cranes his neck to look though. In case the water child would somehow be that foolish as to be—

As to be planted right in front of The Flame Hero himself, tiny fists clenched and eyes scrunched in fury.

“KOTA!” Geten shrieks. He’ll berate himself later for carelessly using the water child’s real name instead of an alias. For now, he grabs Eri since he mustn’t loose her too, and rushes to drag Kota off and lecture him until the child ages enough to cease his horrific behavior or Geten dies, whichever comes first.

And then Kota raises and curls up his fist. And punches The Flame Hero in-between the legs. The Flame Hero doubles over. Kota then blasts water right on The Flame Hero’s head and screeches, “Die bad guy!”

Everyone holds absolutely still for a moment. The Flame Hero stays doubled over, hands grabbing at where he was punched. The sidekicks gape. Geten moves first, and seizes Kota’s wrist. He would personally praise Kota right here and now for his vulgar valor, but normal people aren’t okay with their siblings punching heroes between the legs. So he says, “You troublesome little brother! You may play Heroes and Villains all you wish, but do not go about carelessly punching people! It’s dangerous.”

Eri, clutching Geten’s shoulder and glaring at the slowly uncurling Flame Hero, protests, “Endeavor’s a peccant picaroon!” Intelligent child, remembering the insults Geten taught her. Alas, Geten can’t allow them to cause more trouble even though it pleases him, so he quickly pulls Kota after him and doesn’t slow down until they’re far away from the heroes.

Once Geten finally lets go, Kota crosses his arms and glares at the ground. “He’s a bad guy, he hurt Shoto. That’s why I punched him.”

“It was crude and barbaric, water child, but deserved and well-executed. You have my praises for it,” Geten says. “You as well, unicorn child.” Kota perks up and Eri giggles bashfully. “However, you must listen to me and stop running off as you please! What if you’d gotten hurt?”

“’M sorry,” Kota mumbles.

Geten hadn’t, exactly expected the stubborn Kota to give an apology. “I…suppose I accept your apology. However, you have not escaped a lecture about your behavior. I will have Bug lecture you, since you seem to listen to him sometimes.” Kota grumbles. “For now, let’s return to base.” Geten taps his earpiece and calls Blipster. Blipster opens a portal and transports them to their mini mall base in Jibetasan town.

Back at base, Haywire is proclaiming himself to have done the most gallant deed of the day. Geten smirks, for once feeling smug of something that’s not his own accomplishments. He puts his hands on Kota’s shoulders and says, “Well, if we are voting for MVPs of today, I nominate Kota Waterloo. Eri Unicorn also deserves an honorable mention.”

Nearly everyone gawks at him as if he told them he’s ditching the Murmuration Starlings to go be the HPSC’s lapdog or something.

“Who are you and what have you done to Geten Samui?” Kingcopycat says. “Himiko, what do you think this is?”

Persona dramatically clings to his arm. “Neito, this is scary! Geten only ever acknowledges himself!”

Hercules tilts her head, looking genuinely concerned. “Geten, you all right? Did something happen?”

“Maybe he hit his head,” Shadowmaster squawks.

Curse these rude punks, do they want Geten to ice them over? Whatever, his good mood won’t be spoiled by their galling dramatics, not today. “Today, Waterloo rushed The Flame Hero and punched him between the legs. Even I can acknowledge it’s commendable.”

“Yeah, I punched him—wham!—as hard as I could, right in the balls!” Kota says. A few beats of silence. Everyone gapes. Kota crosses his arms and scowls. “What? Ochako told me to do that to bad guys!”

Burn clears his throat. “You punched my father. The number one hero. In the balls. As hard as you could.”

Kota nods firmly. “Cause he’s a bad guy, Shoto.”

And Burn folds over and laughs. It’s hoarse and weird, probably because Burn has almost never even chuckled in the whole time Geten has known him, but it’s real and unsuppressed laughter.

And everyone bursts into raucous laughter. Kingcopycat and Persona smack and shake each other. Hercules slaps herself and floats to the ceiling. Shadowmaster pounds her fists and shatters a chair. Freefly’s wings rattle. Mindjack drops his head on the table and wheezes. Even the prim and proper Crafterqueen coughs repeatedly behind her hand.

“Izuku, I did good, right?” Kota darts over for approval from Bug, who’s trying not to knock all his thumb drives and sticky notes and other computer things off his big desk.

“Y-Yeah Kota,” Bug manages to say past his throat-clearing and snorting.

“Kota, this will be memorialized!” Kingcopycat says.

“Legendary!” Persona shrieks. “You’re a legendary child! Endeavor the number one hero meets his Waterloo with a six-year-old boy! BWAhahaha!”

“I raised that boy!” Hercules crows from the ceiling.

“I’m dyin! I’m dyin!” Shadowmaster pulverizes the chair remains.

“I don’t care how low of a blow it was. It’s friggin hilarious,” Mindjack says.

“Man, that’s too brutal! Even for Endeavor.” Multiman shakes his paper-bag-covered head. Then he gives a double thumbs-up. “It was perfect! Shoulda punched him twice!”

“I can do it again,” Kota promises, sending everyone into further hysterics.

When the rest of their members come back from patrols, they have a good laugh too, even the uptight Kaiser and Tendrilla and chivalrous Adamantine. And they all throw a celebratory party for the great Kota Waterloo and Eri Unicorn. Geten’s quite proud to have Kota and Eri as his siblings.