Chapter Text
Big Booty Bitches.
Perfection.
The variety of poses, outfits (or lack thereof), lighting, and models utilized in that magazine were absolutely immaculate.
A 10/10 if Mineta says so himself.
Actually said purple headed boy was currently descending down the elevator to retrieve that very porno. Two weeks ago he had so graciously lent it to Kaminari and the blonde has yet to return it.
So this man, err- teen, err- boy was on a mission: to get back that magazine.
He wasn’t mad per se, he understood the power and appeal that said porno encompassed. But right now he was itching for the sweet sweet release that could only be acquired by flipping through the beautiful pages of Big Booty Bitches . And technically it was rightfully his, so he saw no problem in taking it back. As the elevator door opened and was accompanied by a light ding , Mineta scurried towards Kaminari’s door and knocked.
He waited for a few seconds and… nothing.
The purple boy was only met with silence. Mineta tried again, hoping for any kind of response, but soon realized that Kaminari just wasn’t in his dorm.
The boy rolled his eyes, “Ugh, how annoying.”
The blonde was probably working out with Bakugou, Kirishima, Sero, and the body goddess Ashido. Mineta reached up to twist the doorknob but it only jiggled in place.
Damn, the door was locked too.
Now Mineta may have been troubled that only a door blocked him from reuniting with his beloved. He could’ve ran off and cried in some girl’s boobs but he was stronger than that, he was better than that (kind of). This boy had already prepared for this unlucky turn of events and reached into his pocket to whip out his spare key to Kaminari’s bedroom.
Now as to why Mineta had a spare key, well the purple balled boy didn’t really know why himself. Weirdly, when the class first moved into the dorms Kaminari had given him, and some other choice classmates, a spare key to his room and specified that it was only to be used for emergencies. So far nobody ever had to use the spares and the blonde never specified what specifically constituted an emergency, but regardless Mineta figured his dire situation was eligible.
Truth be told, Mineta himself had an open-door policy for all guys, gals, or nonbinary pals, though oddly none of the females ever showed up, who wanted to borrow his pornos. He even went as far as to give out his free porno expertise.
In the end though, just a few classmates took him up on the offer and Kaminari was his only returning customer. The blonde even went so far as to welcome himself into Mineta’s room to pick up a magazine or two when the latter was out. Thus this teen felt he was granted the same courtesy.
So the purple headed boy used his handy dandy key to unlock the door. He flicked on the lights and silently tip-toed inside trying not to disturb the “organized” mess that was Kaminari’s room. How the blonde functioned in such a disorderly atmosphere was beyond Mineta, he himself had all his pornos alphabetically organized and in pristine condition. Cause damn, it was getting harder and harder to get physical magazines in this growing digital age.
Kaminari’s room was littered with clothes, books, games, tissues ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°), and junk food. For lack of better words the room was repulsing. Looking at the chaos in front of him Mineta was disgusted by the disrespect Kaminari was giving his belongings. He was further terrified at the idea that his Big Booty Bitches magazine could be stained, crinkled, or god forbid, torn . This porno was only ever released to the dedicated patrons of Br ass ers Co., which Mineta obviously was, and was thus extremely hard to come by.
Mineta hastily began his search, partly motivated by the fear of losing his golden magazine and partly because he was horny. First, he checked all the pornos that were currently strewn across the floor. There were some efforts on Kaminari’s end to conceal them but honestly they weren’t that well hidden. When the purple headed boy couldn’t find his beloved porno he moved on to the desk drawers, doing a quick flip through all the paperwork crammed into them. Then he combed through the clothing drawers, checking in between all the pieces of jeans, hoodies, and shirts thrice just to be sure.
Despite the rampant search, Mineta made sure to put Kaminari’s stuff back where they belonged, or… roughly close enough. The blonde’s room was a mess anyways, so hopefully he wouldn’t notice.
But he was getting nowhere! Mineta knew the mind of a teenage boy like the back of his hand because god dammit he was one! And he was well aware of all the sneaky little tricks they did to hide their porn or other such paraphernalia. Yet after searching for what seemed to be hours in vain, though in reality it was a good twenty minutes, Mineta was ready to accept defeat.
“Where is it?!” The boy said in an exasperated whisper.
A single tear was ready to fall down his face as he plopped onto the bed. But before Mineta had to quell his would-be boner, he had an epiphany!
The bed! An imaginary light bulb lit up above his head like a Sims Plumbomb.
Oh, he was a fool!
He should’ve checked the mattress first, it’s literally one of the most obvious places for a teenager to hide something! Reinvigorated with investigative spirit, Mineta quickly searched underneath the mattress. He couldn’t lift it that high so he just stuck his right hand under and hoped for the best.
The teen steeled his nerves against the risks of terrible papercuts as his hand grazed some loose pieces of paper. But he soon realized his stubby arms were too short to reach under the mattress entirely. Desperate, the purple balled boy sucked in a large gulp of air and dove under head first leaving only his feet dangling outside of the bed.
(If he was a little more sane and a little more horny than he already was he would’ve realized he was definitely in a “Help me, Stepbro!” position.)
Fortunately for him he was too determined for such a heinous thought to cross his mind and continued to rummage under the bed for another minute. But as time went on he slowly lost hope… and oxygen.
Blind and bitter Mineta gradually lost his newfound momentum. Was this it? Was there really no finding his beautiful Big Booty Bitches?! All he gained under the mattress were papercuts and broken dreams. But just before he was about to call it quits his hand brushed against a familiar sturdy and laminated cover of a magazine.
Perhaps… could this be Big Booty Bitches?!
Mineta firmly gripped around the binding and wedged his way out from underneath the bed, taking in a huge gasp of air when finally freed from the weight of the mattress. But it didn’t matter that he almost suffocated because there in his hands was his beloved Big Booty Bitches .
The teen hugged the magazine to his chest and examined the state of its condition, quite relieved to see that for the most part it was in tip top shape. It still showed signs of wear and tear but at least it was intact. Only when he was reunited with his one true love, did the purple boy finally notice the mess of papers he made as he pried himself from the confines of the mattress.
He set his magazine down on Kaminari’s bed and picked up those stray pieces of paper and returned them to their rightful place… by quickly shoving them under the mattress. For the most part the papers looked like they were worksheets from class, loose leaf papers, or singular pieces of porno.
And after a minute or so of “successfully” cramming the papers under the bed Mineta patted himself on the back for a cover up well done. He was almost ready to leave when he spotted one last piece of paper poking out from underneath the mattress and he, being the nice guy that he is, decided to go back and fully bury it under the bed.
The final piece of paper, he noticed, was a little different from the others he encountered. On further inspection it looked like a folded up piece of newspaper, the only thing visible being a blank crossword puzzle.
Ooo, was there a hottie in the newspaper? Mineta plucked the paper back from under the bed to satiate his own curiosity. He set his magazine on the mattress, unfolded the newspaper, and flipped it around only to find a headline that stated “Couple Found Mutilated in Apartment, Murderer Still on the Loose”.
Mineta blinked. He flipped the paper back around.
The teen squinted his eyes in suspicion. Hmm, weird… there was no babe in sight.
The purple boy furrowed his brow and examined the ominous headline on the other side once more. Mineta huffed, why the hell did Kaminari even have this newspaper if there was no hot chick to ogle? It was disturbing to say the least and was definitely souring his mood. Blood and gore wasn’t really something that helped his hard on if he was being honest. Though he wouldn’t judge if it helped someone else’s, if you know what he means… wink, wink. Haha…
Okay, back to the newspaper in hand the only visual provided was truly a let down. It was just a blurred out image of the couple referred to in the headline. And even though the faces were censored the disturbing carnage was still evident. There were no names provided, probably to respect the victims’ privacy, but what caught Mineta’s attention was their hair.
One had dark black hair, cool cool cool.
The other had a head of vibrant yellow, the vibrancy kind of reminded him of Kaminari’s blonde locks.
Oh, and the one with yellow hair even had a black streak going down their head, somewhat resembling Kaminari’s hair once again.
“What a funny coincidence.” Mineta blinked.
“Whatever.” The teen shrugged, he didn’t really know why Kaminari even had this newspaper in the first place and frankly he didn’t care . It was his friend’s business not his and he was starting to feel a bit of guilt in his stomach for finding this article. To be honest, the purple headed boy just wanted to go back to his room and get bus ayy with Big Booty Bitches . And he was about to shove, or rather gently place, the article under the bed when he paused.
Something about this newspaper caught his attention for a reason. Mineta shrugged, it couldn’t hurt to just skim the article, right?
After half a second of thoughtful deliberation Mineta figured it would probably be fine since Kaminari wouldn’t be back for a while anyways. Mineta laid on Kaminari’s bed, the head of the bed on his right and Big Booty Bitches on his left and he began to read.
And he read the paper not once, not twice, but thrice. The only emotion that he felt afterwards was confusion and a growing sense of dread. “Why does Kaminari even have this?” Mineta plopped his back on Kaminari’s mattress and pondered. “This is weird and kinda creepy to be honest…”
Cause who the fuck keeps a newspaper article about some dead couple from over a decade ago? The boy gathered that maybe his blonde buddy had some hyper specific kink. Though using a real magazine about a dead couple was a little extreme (and high key immoral) even for Mineta’s standards. Or maybe Kaminari was just into murder and crime with no kinky shit included. Well they are training to be a hero he mused.
“Does he like trying to solve old cases?” Mineta did a quick scan of the room for anything indicating an interest in criminology but saw nothing. “Or maybe not…? I mean he’s not the brightest person I’ve ever met.”
Looking back at the newspaper Mineta picked out some keywords that called out to him such as, “Dead couple.” or “Kidnapped baby.” and even a “Missing Persons Report.” The teen turned to his left side and continued to stare at the newspaper in front of him. Deep in his gut he felt like this article was significant somehow but he just couldn’t connect the dots, like it was on the tip of his tongue. He stuck his arms straight out, rotated the newspaper 45° to the right, tilted it back just a bit, then squinted his eyes, hoping that looking at the article from a literal new perspective would unlock its deep dark mysteries.
“Argh.” Mineta huffed and turned on his back, he didn’t really care about whatever this, he shook the newspaper in hand, was. The teen then side eyed his Big Booty Bitches magazine, he already had plans for today anyways.
The purple headed boy rolled, literally rolled, out of Kaminari’s bed and was about to put the newspaper back under the mattress when he picked out one final keyword, “Electric quirk users.”
“Ha, like Kaminari?” Mineta blurted out his speculation before properly thinking. “Electric quirk users…?”
Kaminari…?
Mineta’s head started to throb in frustration. Why would- if this even had something to do with Kaminari then that would just open up a whole new, weird and confusing he might add, can of worms. Yet something in the back of his mind made him think twice, made him question his friend…
“Hahaha!” The purple boy laughed, abruptly cutting off his thoughts. “Now that would be actually crazy. There’s just no way.”
This was probably just some big joke or a random newspaper article that Kaminari just so happened to store right underneath his bed… As Mineta laughed the teen felt his sense of dread grow in his stomach again and as he was getting ready to leave he paused.
“Lemme just…” The purple boy took out his phone from his back pocket and snapped a couple pictures of the article… just in case. Just in case for what? He wasn’t so sure.
But simply the idea of this article actually having any sort of connection to Kaminari was comical. There was no way. It almost made Mineta burst out laughing again thinking about it. And after another minute of just staring at the newspaper article, when he finally somewhat satiated his curiosity, the purple headed teen softly re-folded and placed the paper back underneath the mattress.
Mineta picked up and stared at his porno, he was happy to be reunited but he just felt… odd right now, not as horny too which was even weirder. The teen sighed as he began to quietly shuffle out of the blonde’s room and locked the door with a soft click behind him. Even with Big Booty Bitches in hand he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.
As he made it down the hallway a question lingered in his head: Did Kaminari know those people in the article?
Mineta shook his head, trying to stop questioning his friend. The blonde would have told him if something was up, right? Or maybe he told someone else already and is worrying for nothing. Worrying for what? He wasn’t quite sure. He took one last glance at Kaminari’s door before stepping into the elevator. He hugged his beloved porno to help quell the uneasiness in his stomach but it was to no avail. In the back of his mind, Mineta was sure he discovered something he shouldn’t have, he just couldn’t admit it to himself yet.
The teen clicked the 2nd floor button and watched the elevator door close with a ding . For now he decided to save this information for later. Whenever that would be.
…
Worked out? Check.
Worked out again? Check.
Ate at least three meals? Check.
Finished homework and studied? Check.
Dusted and polished every single All Might figurine displayed in his dorm? Check.
Splendid!
Midoriya nodded through his mental to-do list, his chin resting in the crook between his thumb and pointer finger as his hand made a finger gun pose. This was a productive Saturday if he said so himself. As he sat down at his desk he checked the time on his phone and saw that it was around 9pm, meaning that it was finally time to spend the night in his favorite way:
By adding to his hero research journals!
This was his time to binge newspaper articles, watch Youtube videos, stalk Instagram or Twitter accounts, and so much more! Midoriya cracked his knuckles and stretched out his hands toward the ceiling. He turned on his laptop, cracked open a can of Red Bull, laid out all his stationary, and flipped his blue Kokuyo Campus notebook to a fresh page. It was time to commence his tried and true Six Step Saturday Night Bonanza!
Step one was, of course, to scour every single newspaper site for all the new articles posted or the ones he had missed or accidentally overlooked. He would gain insight on up and coming sidekicks, heroes, agencies, and villains. And he could fill in any new information regarding heroes already included in his research journals.
Step two shifted his focus from reading to watching as he caught up on all the new YouTube videos covering current events, heroes, villains, etc. It also provided him with a visual of new hero moves and tactics that he would happily illustrate in his notebook alongside the new information he’d gotten from step one.
Step three was… to repeat steps one and two to his heart's content. This could range from thirty minutes to a couple hours. Tonight he planned for it to last a couple hours.
Step four was to truly study the new notes he took. He analyzed the new heroes and hero moves that recently debuted. He took into account how their quirks helped them form new tactics and then hypothesized how he could incorporate that information into his own strategies while sometimes getting up every now and then to mimic those moves. Despite only having his quirk for just a small amount of time it made Midoriya feel like a kid when he realized he too, was on his way to be a hero. He became giddy at the fact that could finally apply these tactics he’s been dreaming of to himself.
Step five was probably one of his favorites. Probably- oh but then again finding out new information during steps one and two was always exciting. And it was always fun to get up and shadow different hero moves in step four. Oh and back to step one– Midoriya cut himself off. He needed to stay focused because this next step required his undivided attention. Step five, also one of the most important steps Midoriya might add, was to fanboy. Plain and simple. Fanboy over what? Well fanboy over hero pictures, hero videos, and even… hero fan art. This is not to say Midoriya wasn't a fanboy in all the other steps but this, this was the dedicated time he put aside to properly fanboy, okay? Let a boy live! This was his scheduled time block to freak out over costume modifications, legendary team ups, insane ultimate moves, and more! In public he contained himself, kind of, but when he was in the privacy of his own room he let himself be free of judgmental glances, snide remarks, or his friends’ very concerned expressions. And after an hour or so of Red Bull energized happiness Midoriya would finally somehow calm down and move onto…
Step six. Now this step was only for very late nights filled with much delirium. Midoriya stretched back in his chair and checked the clock for the first time since he embarked on his Six Step Bonanza. It was 2:38 am. Perfect , he was sufficiently sleep deprived and high on life (and Red Bull) to continue on. To be honest this was rare, Midoriya didn’t really get to step six all the time, often passing out from exhaustion at his desk. The teen turned in his chair to crack his back, rolled his neck a couple times, blinked at his dry eyes shut, and breathed in deeply, mentally preparing for what’s to come. Midoriya slowly opened his eyes, took a good ol’ swig of Red Bull, and popped in some eye drops for good measure. It was time to deep dive into Reddit.
Now Reddit was amazing, it provided so many *ahem* opinions. The amount of information and personal anecdotes posted on the website were insane. It was a treasure trove of knowledge for hero fanatics like him. Now Midoriya didn’t go on here all that much because he would often acquire enough new knowledge regarding current events from steps one and two. But he couldn’t deny the fact that he loved the sense of community some of these subreddits had. It was so nice to fanboy over heroes and have someone match his energy. It was also one of the only sources where he could read the perspectives of victims who were saved, or not, by heroes and learn their side of the story. And he also got his hands on a lot of international news from Redditors who took it upon themselves to translate and summarize their country’s current events into the Japanese language, among many others. Of course he’d take everything with a grain of salt, it was Reddit anyhow, but it was nice to have an international community like that. Sure he could go to Twitter, but he preferred to keep unsavory tweets to a minimum when he wanted vanilla fun. Not to say that Reddit was perfect, but it was better for his needs and had moderators present.
Of course, Midoriya started by checking all the new posts on r/AllMight. He then popped onto other subreddits of Pro heroes and countries but eventually decided to see what was happening on r/conspiracytheories. There was no real reason why he chose to hit up this particular subreddit but it was nearing 3:30am and his third, or was it fourth, Red Bull so he figured, why not?
Midoriya scrolled past the top upvoted posts, he’s already read them obviously, and scrolled down to find anything new and juicy. For a while it was nothing but fake posts with clickbait titles, hoaxes he’d already read about, an occasional racist meme, and nsfw gifs. But after a while the teen stumbled upon a new post that he hadn’t seen before, and he’s seen a lot. He was definitely suspicious since it had recently been uploaded and had no upvotes. And from the looks of it the post seemed wildly unrealistic, but this was r/conspiracytheories so Midoriya figured the post was relatively normal in context of the subreddit.
The title was simple: “Project Beta.” He read a bit of the description he could see and basically the post went on to say “Project Beta is a secret organization from Japan that abducts, brainwashes, and controls children to do their bidding” and blah blah. Midoriya furrowed his brows, he was a little intrigued by the premise of the post but he was definitely a little skeptical. Just for the hell of it he clicked on the article and when it finally loaded he was bombarded with a word wall. It was a huge paragraph of information that was so lengthy it took him ten seconds to scroll to the bottom of the page.
As he skimmed the first couple sentences of the Reddit post he frowned because the post was essentially claiming that there was this organization, apparently called “Project Beta” training literal children to be what? Assassins? Midoriya scoffed, the prospect of such an organization was preposterous and wholly unfeasible. This was probably just a prank post.
“There’s no way such a thing exists.” He muttered to himself. The post even claimed that this organization lasted for decades. “The government or even the hero commission would have terminated that out by now. No way…”
Yet despite his doubts, Midoriya picked up a pen and turned to a new page in his notebook letting his curiosity get the better of him. He felt like he should be taking notes on this because either the OP had a wild imagination and insane storytelling abilities, like many on this subreddit do, or this post had some truth to it. Midoriya hoped it was the former.
He scrolled down the page and was reminded of how long this post really was. After skimming for a couple seconds something caught his eye. Some speculations regarding an elite assassin among the organization, someone called “Static.”
“Static, like electricity?” Midoriya read the next couple sentences and found himself in awe of whoever this “Static” person was. The OP had to be exaggerating, there was no way a supposed teen could have such a high kill count. Midoriya has never even heard of him before, and he knows everyone, or tries to at least. How could this world renowned assassin fly under the radar for so long? Maybe that’s why he’s supposedly so great, he mused.
And were some of his theorized tactics even possible, like electric echolocation. What even is that? The only person he knows who also has electricity powers is Kaminari, maybe he should ask him if these moves were even feasible one day.
As Midoriya continued to skim parts of the post he felt an overlying sense of doom close in on him. These details were oddly… specific. It tied major assassinations with this Project Beta and gave evidence, though circumstantial, to back its claims.
Circling back to the fact that children were literally being abducted and brainwashed, Midoriya began to mutter. “Where are these kids even coming from? How were they chosen? Were they kidnapped? What happens if they don’t obey? Do they… die?”
He shifted uncomfortably in his seat and assumed his thinking position where his chin rested in the groove of his closed right fist as his left hand supported the other’s elbow. “This has to be a hoax… but if it isn’t… no it’s just not possible. Nobody could be this, this evil.”
Yet he saved Eri from monsters of men before. The Shie Hassaikai kept a little girl trapped for their own gain, who says a well organized institution was simply a figment of imagination. Midoriya knew what humans were capable of, but deep down a part of him just didn’t want to bear witness to another instance of suffering. But to be a hero, to save, is to acknowledge the victims and the sheer volume of vice that plague the world and despite it, triumph.
Midoriya's gut wrenched as felt himself begin to spiral and murmur to himself. “I would have known about this. The heroes would have to have known about this. If and only if this organization is real, how has it lasted this long?” The teen’s ears started to ring as he delved deeper into thought. “And why is it being posted on Reddit? Maybe it’s fake and I don’t have anything to worry about. Or maybe it’s real. But this is Reddit though so maybe it’s all a hoax for someone else’s agenda or twisted enjoyment. Who is even posting this? And who is this Static person and how—”
Midoriya’s head throbbed as he kept thinking and he would’ve gone on like this for another hour if not for his stomach which let out a disturbing growl that snapped him out of his stupor. Physically shaken by his stomach’s groan he glanced at the clock and realized it was already 3:44 am. From his headache to his stomach’s weird monster noises the teen realized he hadn’t consumed anything besides RedBull since dinner.
Midoriya figured it was finally time that he took a break and rolled his chair away from the desk. He slowly stood up, taking in a deep breath and leaned backwards to stretch his back, then forwards to touch his toes, and ended with a quad stretch. He’d been in the seated position for much too long and when his stomach growled again Midoriya believed that snacks were calling his name.
Besides, he needed time away from his computer because he had a growing headache. This post gave him a lot of new, albeit theoretical, information to take in. The green haired teen softly padded towards the door, slipped on his slippers, and slowly crept out of his dorm room. He shot one last look at the Reddit post that illuminated his laptop screen before he closed the door behind him.
Midoriya quickly and quietly headed down the staircase, forgoing the elevator so he wouldn’t make any excess noises. And anyways it was all hypothetical, Midoriya assured himself, this organization probably wasn’t even real, probably. Okay, yes this was supposed to be a break but he couldn’t stop thinking about that Reddit post.
The teen headed over to the kitchen and opened the fridge. If this Project Beta organization was real then this Static person was more likely than not real too. Or maybe Static was this imaginary character created to fuel fear so people would buy into this hoax. He spotted some mochi and was about to grab some until he realized that Uraraka was saving those delicious ice cream bits for their after training snack next week. He closed the fridge after he snatched an apple juice box instead, he’s had too much RedBull for today.
But hypothetically, if Static was a real person Midoriya wondered what he would be like. According to the post, Static would be around his age maybe, but Midoriya guessed that he was probably older because it seemed implausible for an elite assassin to be so young. He moved towards the pantry to raid the class’s communal snacks and after much deliberation Midoriya picked out a selection of shrimp chips, pretzels, and some sour gummies. Midoriya pulled out a cup of ramen and poured some water in an electric kettle and tried his best to remain quiet to prevent waking Aizawa-sensei up. Once the kettle was done boiling he poured the hot water into the ramen and grabbed a pair of disposable chopsticks.
And would Static really be this cold hearted assassin the post makes him out to be? Because it just seems so sad that this hypothetical assassin who apparently never had a proper childhood, would never have had any fun. In the corner of his eye Midoriya spotted a yellow water gun lying on one of the dining room tables. Weird.
Brushing that off the green haired teen grabbed everything in his arms and proceeded to quietly return to his room. His trip downstairs cleared his mind, kind of not really, but with snacks and ramen he was ready to continue reading. When Midoriya returned to his dorm he realized that his laptop fell asleep because the only source of light in his dorm was the moon shining through the balcony doors. The teen set down his ramen, plopped his snacks onto the desk, and sat down while puncturing a straw into his apple juice box.
Midoriya settled into his chair while clicking around on his trackpad to turn the computer back on. But in his fatigued state when the computer lit up again, he accidentally clicked the refresh button. And when Reddit reloaded an error message popped up claiming that the post no longer existed. The teen was so surprised he squeezed a bit of apple juice onto himself.
“Where did it go?!” Midoriya sat up straight in his seat and tried reloading the page again to no avail. He felt his heart rate go up as he searched the recently uploaded section of the subreddit that came up with nothing. The post was gone. It vanished.
Midoriya hastily opened the shrimp chip bag then proceeded to grab a handful and stuff them into his mouth. He glanced at his journal, grateful that he at least took some notes. But why did the post get deleted in the first place? That was oddly suspicious. And while Midoriya hated losing information he especially couldn’t shake the feeling that something was up.
But maybe the OP was actually lying and took down the post in the end due to a guilty conscience? Ha, that was a funny joke. It definitely could be a possibility, but Midoriya thought that felt off. In his gut he knew there had to be a different reason than a person feeling guilty about posting false information on Reddit. That was probably even more unbelievable than the original post itself.
Or maybe… something worse happened. Someone, or something , was deleting information to cover up their tracks. Midoriya turned towards his notebook and pulled out a red sticky note to flag the page. The teen began to eat his cup ramen as he flipped through his notes. He couldn’t stand the idea of innocent children being abused, manipulated, and brainwashed to do other people’s bidding. The thought disgusted him, and if he even came across more people like that, he felt anger and sadness brew within him, he wouldn’t hold back until justice was served.
And Static. Well he seemed like an interesting character. Damn, Midoriya wished he’d read more information on him before he left to get snacks. The teen didn’t know how to feel about an assassin, especially one said to be his age. He didn’t feel angry, no he felt pitiful really.
But Midoriya was definitely getting ahead of himself. This was all just a conspiracy theory which could just turn out to be a hoax. It was still interesting to think about though but deep down Midoriya felt like this information might be important. Though as sleep started to overtake him, it was nearing 4am, the teen finished up his ramen and took some final bites of his snacks. He closed his laptop but refreshed the subreddit one last time in case the post popped up again. When it didn't, he finally turned off his computer and closed his notebook.
He took one last look at the red sticky note that marked a page in his notebook that he didn’t realize would be so special.
As a drowsy Midoriya migrated to his bed he murmured to himself. “Project Beta, huh?” He tucked himself under his sheets. “I’ll keep my eye on you…”
…
“Thank you for helping me…” Hagakure seemed to emote in a way that Jirou could only assume was abashed, but with the lack of a fully visible body it made things a little difficult. “I literally don’t know where my phone went! I just had it on me like… an hour ago..”
“It’s fine. This is exactly why I’m at hero school. To use my quirk to find your phone.” Jirou deadpanned but when she saw her friend’s body sag she quickly added. “Wait, I'm just kidding! I really don’t mind.”
“Haha, okay~” Hagakure knelt near her bed and started rummaging under her mattress. “But could you call it again, I think it probably stopped ringing.”
“Is there a specific ringtone you set your calls to? It’ll help me search.” Jirou called her friend’s phone for the fourth time while plugging in her jacks in the floor next to the pink rug, where a pink table laid on top of it, which was next to a pink bed, near the window that was also pink— Wow, Jirou looked around the room and blinked a couple times, still not used to her classmates taste in decor.
“Oh yeah- ow!” Jirou turned to look back at the bed and saw Hagakure rubbing her head, supposedly after she hit it on her bed frame. Or maybe she was fixing her hair? Sometimes it was hard to tell with her. “The ringer might be off but do you know the chorus of Oops!...I did it again by Britney Spears?”
“Pfft! Obviously!” The purple haired teen could not help but laugh. Britney Spears was all the rage a some hundred years ago and while she may not be super popular now, Jirou knew her vintage musicians well. “But let’s just make this quick, you know I don’t like using my quirk in the dorms.”
Jirou already had good hearing as a default but with her earphone jacks she didn’t want to eavesdrop more than she could prevent. From picking up tid bits of private conversations to unfortunately overhearing a certain purple balled boy tending to himself in his room... Let’s just say she and Shouji bore witness to too many accidental TMIs.
“Yeah sorry again, I know.” Hagakure scratched the back of her head in frustration. “I don’t think it’s in my room though, let’s go out to the hallway maybe.”
“Yeah yeah.” Jirou nodded as she followed her floormate outside where just minutes prior Hagakure came knocking on her door asking for assistance.
“I promise it won’t take long.” The invisible teen assured. “Oh! Maybe it’ll be faster if we get some help? We could call Shouji—”
“Hello.” As if on cue the tall teen walked out of the elevator nonchalantly.
“Oh wow, freaky timing.. anyways! Hi Shouji, I may have misplaced my phone…” Hagakure explained and Jirou could imagine her lips pouting to the side in shame. “Jirou is helping me find it but if you’re free could you help me too? Pretty please?”
“Yes, yes Jirou texted me for backup.” Shouji lifted his phone with his top right hand.
“Really?!” Hagakure jumped for joy. “Thank you so much! I set my ringer to-”
“Ms. Spears.” Shouji nodded and turned his phone-holding hand around to show an added ear. “I heard you on the way down.”
See this is what Jirou meant, she and Shouji both understood the blessing and curse their enhanced sense provided. Nevertheless both students continued the search for their fellow friend’s phone, heading to the common room in an attempt to retrace her steps.
When they descended into the shared lounge and kitchen Jirou spotted Ashido, Sero, and Kirishima being tutored by Bakugou on the couches. Despite his prickly exterior Jirou had a feeling that deep down Lord Explosion Murder whatever was a bit of a softie. The fact that her fellow classmates seemed to laugh while Bakugou maintained a scowl only added to that belief.
“I don’t think the ringer is on, I would’ve pinpointed your phone by now if it was so I’ll try to hone in on the buzzing.” The purple haired teen noted to her classmates and Shouji gave her a look of understanding, forgoing the use of words.
“Okay, I’ll check near the couches, I think I might have left it there after class.” Hagakure nodded, Jirou assumed, and walked off towards the living area as Shouji followed behind.
Jirou pulled out her phone to call Hagakure for the upteenth time and plugged her earphone jacks into the wall as she leaned, arms crossed, next to the elevator. She listened to the different hums that came from the building: the electricity being used for their everyday appliances, water splashing in one of the shower rooms upstairs, Koda’s bunny Yuwai scurrying across his dorm. If she listened hard enough she could swear she heard someone murmuring incessantly upstairs. Midoriya, she presumed. Beneath the various sounds of life she could faintly hear a buzzing that resembled what a ringing phone would sound like. It was very quiet but she could tell it was somewhere on the ground floor.
Taking a deep breath in and closing her eyes, Jirou tried to wash away the other noises around her and focus on where Hagakure’s phone would be. But while she tried to stop listening to the voices of those around her she couldn’t help but accidentally pick up on some hushed whispers.
“Fortunately, with the fall of the Hassaikai, one of the three child trafficking organizations that they use crumbled while the remaining two merged together. This means you will only have to attend one child auction to cut off Proj- their supplies.” An unfamiliar voice whispered.
Jirou snapped open her eyes and scanned the room as discreetly as she could. Who was that? The voice sounded older than any of her classmates and he spoke with a hint of urgency. Confusion clouded her mind when she realized the person she overheard was the reporter dude who had come earlier this morning to write an article on the new UA dorms. She had seen him stalking around taking pictures of everyone but had been too busy with her own school work to pay much attention to the man.
What was even weirder was the fact that he was talking to Kaminari. She now noticed his absence in her friends’ study group from before. Usually he would be laughing alongside them as he trudged through his own homework but now he seemed a little jumpy as he conversed with the reporter in front of him. She noted the small piece of paper the older man passed to her blonde friend.
“What the…?” She muttered under her breath and apparently she wasn’t the only one who noticed the oddity because she locked eyes with Shouji’s similarly perplexed expression from across the room. Fortunately, Kaminari and the reporter seemed too focused on the conversation at hand to notice the pair eyeing them.
Kaminari opened the paper note in front of him and read it with what Jirou could only guess was a sense of solemn duty. Weird, so weird.
Despite herself, Jirou focused her gaze to the floor and continued her eavesdropping, picking up on her friend’s words, “...helping me?”
Helping him with what? She furrowed her brows while she felt a sinking feeling pool in her stomach. She knew should not be listening in on Kaminari’s conversation but curiosity and the growing concern for the safety of her friend was getting the better of her.
“Because through this conversation I realized our goals are aligned and that we both could use an ally in this fight. More you than me though.” The reporter alluded to a fight that Jirou could make no connection to. Was this about the League of Villains? What was this talk about allies?
And goals? What goals could he be referring to? Jirou's mind raced, she needed to hear more and waited for Kaminari’s hushed response. “Why—”
“Oops, I did it again~” The teen winced in pain as the sounds of Britney Spears filled her ears. Jirou snapped her head up towards the living room area and spotted a floating phone, with a now turned on ringer, being waved in the air near the television and the invisible body and visible clothes attached to it.
“I found it!” She winced in pain at Hagakure’s words as she finally removed her jacks from the wall. The con of using her enhanced hearing was her painful sensitivity to loud, but for this circumstance regular, noises.
Jirou quickly walked past the kitchen and dining area, taking half a second to glance at Kaminari and the reporter and the other half to send a look to Shouji. The masked teen dipped his head ever so slightly to acknowledge what she alluded to. They would talk later.
“Where was it?” Shouji inquired as he too moved towards the invisible girl. The three made a small circle which left Jirou and Shouji with their backs towards the dining area. Away from Kaminari’s conversation.
“It was stuck between some couch cushions.” Hagakure motioned with her phone. “I must have forgotten it when I left to do my homework earlier. Can’t believe I found it before you guys though, haha. You’re the ones with the hearing quirks!”
Jirou let out a small huff of a laugh. Yet despite Hagakure's lighthearted demeanor she couldn't stop thinking about what she just heard. Kaminari was always either in one of three modes: joking, nervous, or fried out of his mind. She'd never seen him so secretive.
“Yeah, yeah. Next time you lose your phone you can find it yourself.” Jirou rolled her eyes with a smile but while she joked she desperately wanted to look back towards the suspicious reporter. “Do you need anything else?”
“No, I think I’m good.” Hagakure said in an upbeat mood and started towards the elevator with Jirou and Shouji both in tow. “I’m probably gonna head back to my room now, thank you guys for helping! Are you heading up?”
The elevator door dinged open and Jirou watched as floating clothes entered. “No, I might stay here for a bit so you can go on ahead.” As much as she trusted Hagakure she needed to talk about this with Shouji in private. There was no need to bring extra ears into this conversation.
Jirou waved her friend off and saw the close door button light up. She smiled but as soon as the elevator doors shut she turned right, towards her taller counterpart, and whispered, “Am I going crazy or did you hear something weird too?”
Shouji turned towards the common area and Jirou looked where Kaminari and the reporter sat. She was tempted to plug her jacks in again but saw that Bakugou had interrupted the pair. She frowned, the conversation was over.
“Indeed.” Shouji eyed Jirou with worry. “But I fear we may have overstepped some boundaries.”
Jirou nodded and turned to click the up elevator button. “Not on purpose though, but yeah I know. It's just, how do I say this, that reporter guy was definitely suspicious but wasn’t Kaminari acting kinda weird too? Like I guess he seemed... serious for once?”
The elevator returned to the ground floor and the pair walked inside, clicked their respective floor numbers, and waited for the doors to close before resuming their conversation. Kaminari was powerful but sometimes got nervous on the field. Funny in class but slightly academically challenged. He was a flirt but genuine deep down. He wore his heart on his sleeve so seeing him act cryptic was off putting to say the least. She disliked the uneasy feeling that it gave her.
“Perhaps.” Shouji nodded. “Do you want to ask him about it?”
Jirou paused for a bit and she felt the guilt set in over the fact that she really did just eavesdrop on his private conversation. She deemed Kaminari one of her closest friends here at UA and she felt bad that she might have learned one of his secrets without him telling her intentionally. But she also felt like she just came across some seemingly important information.
“I’m not sure.” She played nervously with her earphone jacks while staring at the elevator floor. “But you heard the reporter too right? He said something about the underground, about the Hissaikai. Those are the guys our classmates defeated, what does Kaminari have to do with all of that? Shouldn’t we talk to him about it, what if he tries to do something stupid?”
“I suppose.” The taller teen responded. “But this might something he wants to deal with by himself or isn't ready to talk about, everyone has their own demons.”
The purple headed teen opened her mouth to speak but had the mind to realize that Shouji was alluding to something in his own life. She shut her mouth. And the last thing she wanted to do was break Kaminari’s trust by admitting that she spied on him.
What would she say anyways? Sorry I totally eavesdropped on your conversation with that sketchy reporter but what the fuck were you guys talking about? Oh yeah that would totally win him over!
As a friend though, wasn't it her duty to look out for him?
“If it seems like Kaminari is doing something reckless then let’s bring it up. He does have a tendency to push himself to incapacitation.” Shouji seemed to read her mind. “Not all acts of saving need to be proactive though. If he wants our help, let him come on his own accord. Otherwise, let's provide support from the sidelines.”
Jirou stared at Shouji and let a few beats of silence pass. The taller teen glanced down to his right, acknowledging her gaze with a raised brow.
“You are surprisingly astute.” The smaller teen finally responded with a huff and noted a small smile under the other’s mask.
Jirou found herself agreeing with Shouji’s opinion though. No matter how much that conversation worried her this was ultimately not her business. Kaminari was, despite his usual goofy self, capable and she didn’t want to hurt him further by providing unsolicited help. Yet, in the back of her mind, she feared she was making the wrong decision. What if he really did need someone to talk to? Someone who would reach out?
“Okay, then.” Jirou shook her doubts away and watched the elevator doors open onto the 3rd floor. After getting to know Kaminari she realized he really depended on and cared for his friends. So if he needed help she believed he would ask. Hopefully. Jirou stepped out and turned towards her classmate. “Let’s just keep an eye on him for now, but we keep this to ourselves, yeah?”
Shouji dipped his head as the elevator doors came to a close, “Of course.”
Jirou watched as the elevator floor indicator changed from 3 to 4 and turned towards her bedroom. But the things that the reporter said, it lingered and left her questioning how well she truly knew the blonde herself. Underground organizations? Child trafficking? Why the hell was Kaminari poking his nose in that kind of business? Or was this an elaborate prank Kaminari was planning? Did he notice her listening in and made up something crazy to throw her off? But he looked so serious and almost... scared? And it's not like he knew the reporter before today, to her knowledge. She rubbed her temples as she felt a small headache forming from processing all this new information.
Despite only meeting this school year Jirou felt a sense of closeness with her classmates. They’ve experienced multiple near death experiences together so this newfound knowledge reminded her of the fact that she still didn’t know much about her classmates’ personal lives. She wondered what Kaminari deemed too private to share with them, or more specifically, with her?
Jirou entered her room and closed the door softly, leaning on it while letting out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding in. If Kaminari wasn’t ready to talk about his past now, she’d keep a special eye on him just in case. Waiting for the moment where he might need her help.
Until then, she’d keep this information to herself. She still didn’t like the reporter dude but she’d cross that bridge if she ever came across it. For now though, she’d just hope and pray Kaminari didn’t do anything dumb.