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There it was, again. That feeling, the kind you get when you know you’ve forgotten something as soon as you walk out the door. Something about this mission had been nagging at Tamaki, and the all too familiar surge of anxiety was gnawing at his insides.
Rumors had been circulating that a group of criminals with incredible quirks were organizing in the local area. A series of jewelry stores had been systematically robbed by the same four individuals. The surveillance footage of the robberies would become corrupted within moments of them stepping onto the premises. It likely had to do with one of the thieves' quirks but there was too little intelligence to know for sure.
Amajiki Tamaki, Suneater, was just starting his work study at Fatgum’s pro-hero agency. The request for assistance from the Nighteye agency had come as a surprise, asking for Suneater to join their investigation into the jewelry heists. Tamaki wasn’t sure what he could possibly have to offer given Nighteye’s robust pro-hero team in addition to his UA classmate and best friend, Togata Mirio.
Mirio, aka LeMillion, had an incredible quirk: permeation. Though this unique mutation was not easy to control. Mirio’s dad had even questioned his son’s ambition to become a hero, recounting how he had given up on the dream because of his challenging quirk. Nevertheless, ‘quit’ was not a word in Mirio’s vocabulary. No matter how many times he got stuck halfway through a wall or got his hands trapped in his desk, Mirio was determined to master his quirk and worked diligently at it every day.
His childhood friend motivated Tamaki to continue developing his own quirk, manifest. Mirio had helped him come up with his hero name, Suneater. Mirio poked fun at Tamaki for calling him the sun, saying he undervalued himself. If Mirio was the sun, then Tamaki was greater than him. In reality, they mutually inspired each other to be better.
There was another ongoing investigation that required Sir Nighteye’s attention, so the robberies were left to his sidekick Bubble Girl and Lemillion. Recently the trail had gone cold and Bubble Girl was open to suggestions. Lemillion proposed asking for Suneater’s help. Though Tamaki had his own work study position, Mirio knew Suneater’s unique quirk could come in handy tracking the elusive thieves. Even Fatgum thought the invitation was an excellent idea, a way to gain more experience with another agency. Tamaki got a stomach ache.
An anonymous tip came in yesterday that the group of jewelry thieves were hiding out in an old industrial warehouse. The hero trio had been searching the large abandoned building for over an hour now. It was starting to look like a false alarm, unless one of their quirks allowed them to turn into rats that is. Every so often Tamaki caught a glance of the small creatures scurrying further into the dark. He wanted to run too, but in the opposite direction.
Trailing behind Lemillion, something gave Suneater pause, stopping him in his tracks. A shiver ran down his spine. What was it though? A sound? Something he saw? No. Could the rats from before be what he had heard or, more accurately, felt? He wasn’t so sure.
“Suneater?” Mirio pulled his attention back to the present.
“Huh…”
“You good?”
Tamaki nodded his head, “Uh, yeah. I just thought I… never mind.”
Mirio’s brows came together, puzzled. “You sure? If you see something, speak up. We are all here to work as a team, right?”
“Right,” Suneater nodded his hooded head again. That was true, but the last thing Tamaki wanted to do was A: draw unnecessary attention to himself, and B: derail the investigation by leading them on a wild goose chase. And after what? A feeling?
“Alright, one more floor to go!” Lemillion punctuated the statement with the pump of his fist as he began to climb the rusted staircase.
“Careful,” Bubble Girl cautioned from behind them. “Just because we haven’t found anything yet doesn’t mean we should drop our guard. Haste is waste, just like Sir says.” She was referring to her pro-hero boss, Sir Nighteye. He was known for his fastidiousness.
“Sorry,” Lemillion apologized in a muted tone, as quietly as he could talk anyway.
Tamaki followed his classmate up the steps that creaked at a concerning frequency as they climbed. Suneater pulled down the hood of his hero costume to increase his peripheral vision. Though there are animals better at seeing in the dark, there were only a few of the edible variety. Through research and field experience, Suneater found that octopuses have excellent vision. Octopus eyes are large, can work independently of one another and their pupils can dilate or shrink in less than a second to adapt to different light conditions. Manifesting them made Tamaki look incredibly strange, sporting large glassy eyes with angled slits for pupils. Though it was an advantage in situations such as these. He just had to avoid looking directly into the beams of the others’ flashlights.
The level above looked much like the one below: dark, dank and vacant. The only movement his borrowed eyes detected were small rodents running for cover down the dark hallways. The narrow passageways branched out from either side of the stairwell. Even with his enhanced vision it was difficult to see more than two meters down in either direction. Tamaki shivered again.
“You two head off to the right and I’ll take the rooms to the left,” Bubble Girl ordered. “Meet up back here when you’re done and if you do find anything, well you know what to do. Remember your training, only engage if absolutely necessary.”
Bubble Girl had prepared a detailed mission briefing that morning. Their main objective here was reconnaissance. They were supposed to investigate the tip’s validity and report back to the office before forming a potential strategy to arrest these criminals. Nighteye’s agency valued information and his sidekicks were trained to prioritize thoroughness over speed in their cases. There were too many unknowns about the robber gang, and Bubble Girl wasn’t going to unnecessarily risk two high school students regardless of how capable they were.
“Roger that,” Lemillion responded with a thumbs up. Suneater simply tilted his head in acknowledgement.
Even though Suneater had greater vision in the dark, Lemillion led the way down the cramped corridor with his flashlight. The smell was terrible, musty. Tamaki could only imagine the black mold growing in the corners. His stomach rolled, the nausea returning from when they first stepped into this horrible place. The narrow passage seemed to shrink with every step, the darkness closed in. His breath quickened. Tamaki’s hand instinctively reached for Mirio’s arm, fingers grasping the elbow of his costume.
“I know it's pretty spooky in here,” Mirio stated, his voice even and familiar. The sound alone made Tamaki’s breathing start to slow, his nerves to settle. Suneater realized it was probably unprofessional of him to grab his fellow hero, so he reluctantly let his hand drop. He was grateful Lemillion couldn’t see his cheeks flush in the low light.
“It looks like there are more rooms up here, like offices,” Lemillion continued unphased. “If you’re up for it, I think we should split up to search them. It’ll be quicker that way.”
“If… if you think so,” Suneater managed. That was a terrible, horrible idea. They were technically licensed heroes, even if only provisionally. As Suneater, he knew they were trained for this very task. As Tamaki, he was terrified. What if there really were more than rats in here? What if that strange feeling he had before was more than just his usual jitters?
“Alrighty,” Lemillion turned towards him, facing his light down to preserve Suneater’s sensitive vision. “I’ll take a look in this one, and you in the next. Holler if you find somethin’.”
“R… right.”
“Okie dokie see you in a sec!” Lemillion exclaimed before he dove into the room, phasing through the closed door. As always Tamaki envied his friend’s courage to rush into the unknown.
A few reluctant steps forward and Suneater was in front of the neighboring office. He swung the ajar door open to peer inside. At least he thought it had been an office at one time. There was a table in the back corner and rusted-out filing cabinets lined the walls. At first the only danger in the room seemed to be a tetanus infection. As he cautiously circumnavigated the space however, that familiar, unsettling feeling returned. The hair on the back of his neck raised, the malaise spreading across his entire body. It was a distinct feeling from his usual anxiety that sat in his chest.
Trying to be helpful, Mirio said he’d read somewhere that if that ‘off feeling’ was in your chest, that was just your anxious mind trying to trick you. But if it was coming from your gut, then you should pay attention to it. It didn’t usually help calm his mind, but Tamaki thought of that advice now. He took a deep breath, attempting to understand what his body was trying to tell him. The tension wasn’t sitting in his stomach but all his other instincts were screaming at him. His mind was racing. Something was definitely not as it should be.
Suddenly there was a shift. Like a rapid change in air pressure, to his right. He wasn’t sure how but he knew he wasn’t alone. Suneater whipped around to face back towards the door but couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary.
BAM!
A loud crash from behind. Tamaki yelped and sprung forward out of the room.
“Tamaki!” It was Mirio. He’d exited the adjacent room almost as rapidly as Suneater had his, leaping through the door. “Suneater, are you okay?”
Suneater went to open his mouth to respond then noticed his companion was not looking in his direction at all, in fact he dashed into the room Tamaki had just vacated. He reached out to try and stop him only to find his hand wasn’t there. Panic began to swell in his chest.
“Suneater? Tamaki!” Lemillion’s light was frantically flashing around the corners of the room.
Tamaki held both his hands to his face, flexing his fingers. At first in the darkness they seemed invisible, but they were in fact discolored. Upon closer inspection his skin pigmentation had changed to a dark gray color, similar to that of the surrounding walls he’d been staring at all afternoon. It was as if he dipped them into a bucket of grainy paint. But they were there.
“Lemillion!” Suneater called out, walking towards his partner.
Mirio jerked around to face him, worry plain on his face. Tamaki felt bad now.
“It’s okay… I think,” Tamaki tried to explain.
Mirio shined his flashlight on his friend, forgetting the light sensitivity in his hurry.
“Ow.”
“What? What happened to your face?”
“What?” Suneater instinctively reached up to touch his face under his visor, everything seemed present. When he dropped them back down he noticed his skin had turned back to its usual shade.
“Woah!” Mirio exclaimed, moving in for a better look. “What was that? That was crazy!”
“I… I think I camouflaged myself, somehow?”
“Camouflage?”
“I mean, I couldn’t see my face but my hands changed color when I got scared. Kind of like the color of this hallway in the dark.”
“Well that's a nifty trick,” Mirio chuckled, his voice full of relief. “Your face looked terrifying, man! With your big ol’ fish eyes and gray skin.”
“S… sorry. Maybe it was something I ate?”
“You think?”
They couldn’t help laughing off the tension.
The sound of rapid steps approaching them interrupted their moment of levity.
“What in the name of All Might was that?!” Bubble Girl demanded, shining her flashlight at them.
“Ow.”
“Bubble Girl,” Lemillion stepped in. “We didn't mean to raise the alarm. We just discovered a weird new aspect of Suneater’s quirk. It’s funny actually, Sir will love it. His skin changed color when-” Lemillion interrupted himself. “Wait, what did make that sound?”
“What sound? What is going on?” Bubble Girl was getting impatient.
Anxiety began to constrict Suneater’s chest again. “I… I don’t know exactly.”
“What sound?!” She repeated.
“I heard a loud crash, like something fell,” Lemillion offered. “That’s when I went to find Tam- Suneater.”
“You weren’t together?”
“I just figured if we searched the rooms separately it would go faster.”
“What are we always telling you?” Bubble Girl rubbed her face with her hand. That was probably a bad idea given how dirty it was in here.
“Haste is waste.” Mirio and Bubble Girl recited together.
“Exactly. So what did you hear, Suneater? What’s your version of events? Quickly now.” She turned to face him.
“Well…” Tamaki gulped. How was he supposed to explain what he had felt? Should he even bring it up? Better stick to facts.”I heard the same thing, a crash of sorts. So I ran out to see what it was.” That was mostly the truth.
“Do either of you know where it came from?”
Both boys shook their heads. Suneater had a guess but that would mean explaining how he came to know what he thought he knew. Maybe it had just been in his head after all. He knew all too well how the mind could play tricks on you in the dark.
“This old building is falling apart. It was probably just the dust settling from us roaming around.” Bubble Girl logically concluded. “We are sticking together from now on though, just to be safe.”
“Roger that,” Lemillion nodded, glancing over at Suneater. Tamaki met his gaze. Miro could always see through him as easily, or perhaps more easily than he could pass through walls. He knew something was off now too.
Bubble Girl led the way down the remainder of the hallway, quickly ducking into the cramped office spaces to confirm what she already suspected. That there was nothing there.
A few paces behind the pro-hero sidekick, Mirio leaned over and whispered into Tamaki’s ear. “What did you really see?”
“What?” Tamaki breathed back.
“Back there, what did you see?”
“I didn’t see anything,” Tamaki replied truthfully.
Mirio’s brows knit together. He was unconvinced. “Something startled you so bad it made you change color dude, what was it?”
“I… I don’t know.” He was getting embarrassed now by his unprofessionalism. Mirio had covered for him, but he had in fact panicked and turned the same shade as that of a moldy wall. “I just heard what you did.”
Lemillion stopped, grasping Suneater’s arm so he came to a halt beside him.
“I know you,” Mirio spoke evenly. “You’re smart and reliable, Tamaki. That is why I asked Sir to let you join our team. We all trust in what you can do, in what only Suneater can do. Please tell me what made you react like that?”
Tamaki’s gaze dropped to the dirty floor. His face flushed again but this time for another reason, shame. Mirio, Lemillion, was right. He was a hero with a unique quirk, that is why he was here in the first place.
“I… I did see… or rather, I felt something,” Suneater replied finally, lifting his gaze to meet Lemillion’s. “Back in that room. I don’t know what it was, exactly. That’s the truth. But it seemed like… like there was someone else there.”
“What was this feeling like?”
“I don’t know if I can describe it, exactly. Kind of like when you rub a balloon and you can feel the static electricity pushing back right before it zaps you.”
“Interesting,” Lemillion mused, letting go of his arm. “But it was definitely in that room?”
“You… believe me?” Tamaki searched his friends' eyes in low light, they were as warm and steady as always.
“Of course, silly,” Lemillion chuckled softly. “That’s why you’re here. Up until a few minutes ago we didn’t know you could camouflage yourself. Why is it so unbelievable that you can sense things we can't?”
Mirio made an excellent point. Suneater was still learning about his quirk, manifest. Fatgum had already told him it had a lot of potential, but that was something Tamaki assumed he said to all new recruits. Now that he stopped to think about it, Mirio had been saying the exact same thing since they were kids. His best friend had never lost faith in Tamaki or his abilities.
Suneater clenched his hands into fists. He owed it to Mirio and everyone else who had put their faith in him to believe more in himself. Suneater was the only one who had noticed something strange. It wasn’t just the rats, the mold or the dark that had set off his internal alarms. It was challenging to differentiate between his racing thoughts and reality, but he had to try to trust in his instincts.
“Are you two coming?” Bubble Girl’s voice interrupted Tamaki’s thoughts.
“I think- I need to tell you something, Bubble Girl.” Suneater called back.
Once they caught up to her, Suneater explained the sensation he felt further back down the corridor just before the loud crash. She listened thoughtfully, only interjecting for further clarification.
“So you do think someone is here then?” Bubble Girl surmised.
“Yes,” Suneater glanced briefly at Lemillion then focused back on the pro-hero. “I do.”
“Alright then,” Bubble Girl nodded. “Let’s backtrack, carefully. Pay attention to everything and let us know if you get another one of those strange feelings, Suneater.”
“Understood,” Suneater replied with greater confidence than he felt. He didn’t suddenly feel invincible, but he had to at least act more like a hero. Like the hero others knew he could be.
“Allons-y,” Lemillion smiled at him. Tamaki’s heart fluttered. He wasn’t sure how many more involuntary bodily sensations he could take in one afternoon.
The trio made their way down the hallway without incident. It wasn’t until they were in front of that awful room again that that peculiar feeling returned. Like TV static had physically manifested on his skin. Suneater raised a hand silently to his comrades to get their attention. He stepped into the office first, cautiously scanning the walls though he knew he wouldn’t see anything per se. Though he did notice that the table in the back was now on its side. Great. The other two followed silently.
Suneater breathed deeply, taking his time to suss out the cause of this sensory nightmare playing across his skin. He held out a hand, trying to feel any changes in pressure in different parts of the room. The other two stayed close behind him, watching his back. The intensity of the prickling current got noticeably worse in the right corner. The same one as before. He jerked his hand back involuntarily.
“What is it?” Suneater heard Lemillion whisper from behind.
“I… think,” he paused. “No, I know there’s something there. In that corner beside the filing cabinets.”
Suneater took a step toward said corner. Every fiber of his being was screaming at him now. It was as if he could hear the crackle of energy against his skin. Suddenly a fist launched out of the darkness. Tentacles burst from his hand to block the attack. It had happened so quickly even his new eyes couldn’t track where the assailant had come from. For that very reason the second blow hit its mark. Suneater felt a sharp pain spreading across the side of his head. Before he knew what had happened, his face was rushing down to meet the floor. He thought he heard Mirio say something. He tried to warn him, but before he could the darkness was obscuring his vision. Then nothing.
Sitting in his hospital bed later that evening, Tamaki was thinking about how amazing Lemillion was. Ever since they were kids, he had always been impressed by the blonde’s warmth and charisma. Sometimes it was hard to even look at him, like staring at the sun. But he couldn’t help it.
Mirio was perched on the end of Tamaki’s bed cutting bunny ears from apple slices while recounting what had happened after Suneater blacked out. Memories of the last few hours were fuzzy, and Tamaki certainly didn’t mind Mirio’s attempts to fill in the gaps. Even if the explanations were a little long-winded and punctuated by loud sound effects like, “BOOM,” “WHAM” and “POW!”
It turned out the tip was legit. The robbers had been storing the stolen jewels in that condemned building away from prying eyes. After Suneater had exposed their hiding place, the thief guarding the stash jumped them. His quirk allowed him to change his skin pigmentation to match his surroundings, much like Suneater had inadvertently done before, but more skillfully. In the low lighting, it was nearly impossible to see him while he was standing still. Tamaki had no time to react as a fist struck hard against his temple. The last thing he remembered was hitting the ground and lamenting at how grimey it must be.
Bubble Girl and Lemillion took care of the rest. She popped soap bubbles in his face, burning his eyes, while Lemillion tackled him. Backup arrived soon after: the criminal was taken to the local police station and Suneater to the hospital. Thankfully, he only seemed to have a minor concussion but the doctors wanted to observe him a while longer. Tamaki was in no position to argue.
“So anyways,” Mirio brought him back to the present. “I looked it up online and it seems octopuses- Wait, octopi? Anyway, those and squids have crazy complex nervous systems.” Mirio was talking so quickly, it took extra concentration to process it all. He got like that when he was excited. “I didn’t understand it all, if I’m being honest, but the article said something about how they have extra sensors in their tentacles that help them move around on the ocean floor and find prey. Even scientists don't know exactly what they’re capable of. Isn’t that awesome?!”
“Uh… yeah,” Tamaki agreed, taking an apple slice from Mirio’s outstretched hand. “They are pretty cool. I almost feel bad for eating so many of them.”
“That’s what I’m saying,” Mirio waved both hands for emphasis.Tamaki thought he should put the knife down now. “Maybe that was that strange feeling you couldn’t identify. Maybe it was some extra super sense octopuses have that you could use with your quirk.”
“I guess it’s possible. I also blended into the walls, so there are things even I don’t know yet about my quirk.” He nibbled on his slice, apples always tasted better when Mirio cut them.
“That’s what makes you so amazing, Tamaki!”
He felt his face burn bright red.
“I wish I could do that! Though, I could do without the weird fish eyes.” Mirio chuckled, setting the knife and apple plate down on the bed stand.
Tamaki laughed with him, bringing a hand up to cover his mouth. It was hard not to, plus he hoped it distracted from his cheeks.
“Thank you, Mirio,” Tamaki said finally.
“Whatever for?”
“For believing… me.”
“Always.”
That familiar feeling of warmth and peace whenever Mirio was around washed over Tamaki. Like curling up to nap in a sunspot. Suneater had a long road ahead of him to become the professional hero he wanted to be, that Lemillion knew he could be. Nevertheless, Tamaki already had everything he needed to get there right here in this room.
Mirio reached over to grasp the other boy’s hand. Tamaki froze, but didn’t move from the tender touch. The blonde leaned in closer and carefully placed a kiss on Tamaki’s cheek, right above the corner of his mouth. The latter gasped involuntarily, elated but also startled by the display, which in turn caused Mirio to lose control. His hand phased through Tamaki’s and passed into the mattress where it became stuck.
“Oopsie daisy!” Mirio chuckled awkwardly. His face now pressed up against Tamaki’s chest.
Tamaki couldn’t remember the last time he had laughed so hard he cried.