795I only own this fan fiction. May contain Out of Character moments.
Fenghaung, Minoru, and Izuku stayed in Fukuoka for the rest of the day making the most of their trip there. Hawks showed them around town, handling all nearby crime all the while and proving his title as the fastest Hero around. But Izuku and Minoru could see why Tokoyami, despite what occurred the other day, still considered Hawks's teachings very carefully. The winged man knew how to be a Hero.
Still, all things cannot last.
Fenghuang, Izuku, and Minoru returned to Inuito the next morning. Hawks went back to whatever he was doing before Crimson showed up in his hometown. And Tokoyami went back to learning from Hawks's various sidekicks. For the week that followed, they all did their duties and training, slowly becoming stronger and stronger. Izuku was slowly figuring out how to work the extra Quirks of One for All into his current fighting style.
Which is why, on that day, Izuku was fighting O'Sullivan.
"Get back down here Bean Sprout! You can't beat me just by staying up there!" She shouted as Izuku floated well above her reach.
"Master Kamishiro said all's fair in a real fight!" Izuku argued.
"Then you won't mind if I do this, right?" O'Sullivan shouted, snapping her fingers. Just then, a whip wrapped around his leg and forced him to the ground. Looking at who was on the other end, he found Kokyu giving Izuku a sly wink. Before the green haired boy could get the length of leather untangled, O'Sullivan jumped on him and immediately forced him into ground fighting. Minoru would be burying his hands into his face, upset that his partner forgot the masters will use all their tricks today…
If he wasn't being pressed on both sides by Soren and Vengador.
"Come now Grape Shot! We've left an opening for you! Find it and counterattack!" Vengador shouted, the streaks of his rapier flashing at near blinding speed. It was taking the shorter boy all he had to block or dodge the attacks. And everytime he would try to escape or get an attack in, Soren would cut him off with his shield and war axe. Was there really an opening? Probably. But Minoru was too boxed in to figure it out.
"Okay, let's stop right there and take a break." Fenghaung said, tapping her staff against the floor. Minoru let out a sigh of relief as he fell to the floor as O'Sullivan got off of Izuku. The two boys could only lay there, taking deep breaths to get their body back into working order. But the intensity of that spar left them too exhausted to even do that correctly, leaving them gasping for air until their breathing returned to their natural rhythm.
"Note to self… Practice more… Before throwing ourselves… At more than one master…" Izuku commented with a gasp.
"Yeah… No kidding…" Minoru replied, eventually finding the strength to sit up. That was when Eclipse appeared, out of thin air as usual, and handed Fenghuang another dossier. And based on the grimer-than-usual aura around him, the shorter boy knew what news he had to deliver.
"Another Crimson incident, this time at a trucking company. Ryukyu Agency is requesting our presence. Will you be taking Grape Shot and Deku and going personally like last week?" Eclipse asked. Fenghuang simply hummed to that suggestion, looking at the two boys all while. There seemed to be this twinkle of mercy in her eye as she watched them slowly get up from the floor.
"Considering how hard they've been working these past few days… I think they could use the change in pace and scenery. Tell them we'll be on a train as soon as we can."
Eclipse gave a silent nod before disappearing from sight once more. Izuku and Minoru looked at one another and could feel their energy returning to them at a faster rate. They'll be meeting with friends again and catching up on what they've been working on. And the shorter boy knows his partner is the happier of the two, considering he'll be seeing his girlfriend in person after weeks of long-distance calls and texts. So, with only a single gesture from Fenghuang, the pair raced to get their belongings.
It's time for another trip through Japan.
…
…
…
The train ride to Ryukyu's city of operations wasn't too bad. Like with Hawks, Ryukyu had paid for seats in a 1st class car to make their ride as comfortable as possible. And while Fenghuang spent the ride in meditative silence, reviewing the facts about Crimson in her head… Izuku and Minoru took this time to do some school work that UA had sent them.
Before Crimson, UA wanted to have interning students return two days a week for a status update. They had also planned for them all to return to UA at the start of February for regular instruction again. But after Crimson, Principal Nedzu and the rest of the teachers agreed that it's best if the students got as much field experience as possible. Thus leading to everyone getting their standard coursework online to be completed within a given time frame.
And honestly? Minoru was thankful, since that meant they could focus more on other, more important lessons.
As well as moments like this…
"Uraraka-san!" Izuku shouted happily the moment he spotted the gravity-defying girl.
"Deku-kun! You're actually here!" She responded, equally as excited as she ran to the green haired boy. Izuku and Uraraka then started going for a hug. But only midway through, they remembered their relationship was supposed to be a 'secret'. So instead, they've gone for the most awkward handshake Minoru has ever seen. It didn't help that Uraraka triggered her quirk on the green haired boy, causing him to float away from the ground.
Minoru, and Tsuyu, had to stifle their laughter as Uraraka quickly grabbed Izuku and plonked him back onto solid ground.
"Welcome Fenghuang, I hope your trip here was pleasant." Ryukyu greeted with a bow, one that Fenghuang returned.
"There had been a slight delay at the second to last station, a passenger had a medical emergency... But other than that, the trip was as pleasant as you imagined it. How's the scar?"
"Fully healed, though it's still visible. I won't be wearing bikinis for a long time." Ryukyu replied with a chuckle, patting her abdomen.
"Very good. Now, shall we get right to it? I'm eager to know what our friends at Crimson have done this time." Fenghuang said with a nod, gesturing to the large monitor mounted to the wall. The interior of Ryukyu's agency has the same Chinese aesthetic as the depths of the Heaven and Earth Temple. But unlike the Temple, that was quite clear the moment you entered the building. It was also more open than other agencies they've been to, lacking the interior walls that would separate the space into rooms. Instead, Ryukyu used shelves to tactically divide the space into designated areas.
With the area they were in being the meeting room.
Once all parties had taken their seats, Ryukyu herself began presenting the evidence collected. Unlike a week ago, 3 members of Crimson snuck into a trucking company, Stain, Abyss, and Ulysses. They first examined and sabotaged the cargo in the trucks and in the warehouse. Then they started killing a handful of drivers and a few managers. Finally, they covertly left before police and Heroes arrived. Again, the response team arrived late to the incident, with Ryukyu and her agency coming onto the scene moments later. Apparently, they weren't notified about the attack until it was far too late.
There's a lot of criticism towards Heroes and emergency services for the late response, especially Ryukyu and her heroes. But internal investigations revealed that no one even received word of the incident until it was too late, leaving the public both confused and afraid. Then there was the cargo, specifically the ones whose content differs from what was mentioned on manifests… Those contained more unregistered support items, with a majority of them being destroyed beyond recognition. The remaining items were only slightly damaged, with the Heroes and police securing them for examination.
Ryukyu was one of those Heroes. And her forensics team found out that these items had a self-destruct feature built into it. This meant that Crimson's sabotage prevented these items from being destroyed, leaving evidence of the unregistered items' designers and producers. So Crimson knew of this and led the law to these individuals who would've gotten away with it otherwise… Did that mean Crimson were the good guys?
"No, definitely not. Just because they 'helped', that doesn't mean they're good." Minoru thought, pushing that stray idea away.
"And that concludes our findings. We still do not know how it was that Crimson came and went to the crime scene. But we're currently reviewing security footage from the area, hopefully that avenue will turn up something more concrete." Ryukyu said solemnly, the presentation coming to a close.
"We've spent all morning staring at a screen for signs of them… I feel like I need one of Iida-kun's glasses now…" Uraraka commented, rubbing her eyes clear now that the 2 hour conference has ended.
"I called Tokoyami-chan before you arrived and asked him if combing through hours of footage for a single clue was this draining… He said it'll either lead to a breakthrough or breakdown…" Tsuyu added, tiredly nodding her head to her friend's comment. The Hawks Agency, three days after the initial meeting with the Temple, had called and said they had no luck with the surrounding area's security footage. So any chance they'll show up here would be equally as impossible.
"Do they have a pro hacker who's messing with the cameras or something?" Minoru asked with a groan.
"That's most definitely the case. I've been having Young Aiba comb through the areas Crimson had appeared thus far for any suspicious digital footprints. And, to no one's surprise, there were signs of tampering on all the security cameras. But she's unable to trace the culprit since too much time has passed since the crime happened. If Young Aiba's going to trace them, she needs to know EXACTLY where Crimson will hit next." Fenghaung explained as she took a sip of her tea.
"But that's like finding a needle in a haystack. Unless we get a big break of some kind, we'll always be a step behind them." Izuku replied, clenching his fists. Uraraka laid a hand on his and gave it a careful squeeze, slowly easing the green haired boy out of his frustrated state. But before any other comment could be made on the matter, Nejire came rushing in while holding a black box the size of a small book.
"Big news, big news Ryukyu! We've got a hit!"
"Nejire-chan, is that a VHS tape?" Ryukyu asked, staring at the black box in the girl's hands. Nejire nodded happily and gently placed it down on the table. But to the other students of UA, they had no idea what they were looking at. It looked similar to those cassette tapes Jirou would listen to sometimes. She said cassettes were used in the past to store and playback recorded audio.
So does 'VHS' do the same but for video?
"I'm surprised there are still people who use such an outdated system for security. Back in Fukuoka, and pretty much everywhere else in Japan, every building has a digital system installed. That's why I never considered the possibility of one building using an analog system instead." Fenghuang said, curiously but carefully examining the VHS tape.
"Wait… If it's analog… It can't be tampered with unless you have the tape itself! Nejire-senpai, you saved us!" Minoru shouted excitedly, turning to his senior Hero-in-Training.
"Hooray!" She replied, throwing her hands into the air.
"Let's review the footage first before we celebrate. I just hope the spare VHS player works… We'd have to relocate this meeting to the video room otherwise…" Ryukyu said as she walked away for a moment. Somewhere in the corner, Minoru could see the Dragoon Hero shift around some boxes in search of something. She then took out a large console-like device from a box before carrying it back to the meeting table.
"That is a very… Hefty looking…" Tsuyu commented as her mentor put the device down with a slight thud.
"Older technologies often took up quite a bit of space. Innovation would eventually replace these bulkier forms with sleeker ones, full of fancy new functions. Boats and ships are a great example of this." Fenghuang explained as Ryukyu began hooking up the cables.
"Can we please not talk about boats? I've learned more than I needed to know from Master Soren…" Minoru replied with a shudder.
"We've also had a pretty intense experience on a cruise ship for our end-of-term exam…" Izuku added, shivering as well.
"It was so fun… Until it wasn't…" Uraraka murmured, head hanging low.
"I wonder how Captain Selkie would've reacted to our performance? I forgot to tell him about it during our team-up mission with him." Tsuyu commented. The small chatter ended when Ryukyu turned on the monitor and they all saw a low quality video playing of a near empty street. It's one of those side streets that hide either a really niche shop or some delinquents loitering around.
"Nejire-chan, time?" Ryukyu asked, keeping a finger on the fast-forward button.
"7:27, 25 minutes after they left the crime scene."
The Dragoon Hero pressed the button and the scene began flashing forward, time advancing quickly as people came and went from the scene. But when they arrived at the given time, a standard white van pulled up to a nearby alley. 3 plain-clothes individuals with duffle bags came out and quickly boarded it. Due to the quality of the recording, they couldn't tell the facial features of those individuals despite how relatively close they were to the camera.
And just like that, the van left.
"Ordinary… Yet suspicious. Did we get a make, model, and license plate from that?" Fenghuang asked.
"The others are cleaning up the footage right now, so we'll know in a few more minutes." Nejire replied, jabbing her thumb to an area in the back.
"Excellent. You've trained some fine Heroes, Ryukyu. It's little wonder that you're a member of the Top 10 and not me." Fenghuang said, turning to the Dragon Hero.
"You do me too much honor. There's still so much I have to learn, considering I fell a rank and allowed Crimson to make a mess of my city. I'm currently playing catch-up to the standards my younger self set. Though, it's strange… I don't think I've done anything differently... So why does it feel so much more strenuous than before?" Ryukyu replied with a contemplative sigh.
"Our skills, character, and ideals are being tested now more than ever. The League of Villains, All Might's retirement, a more critical populace, and the appearance of Crimson… The world as we know it is completely unstable right now. And if we can't change it for the better, it will inevitably change us for the worse." Fenghuang answered before drinking from her tea.
"Woah… That's deep… Do you guys get lessons like that all the time from her?" Uraraka asked quietly as she leaned over to Izuku and Minoru.
"Honestly? It can be a bit exhausting. Don't get me wrong, I always appreciate the life lessons… But, sometimes, I just want to be a dumb teenager and do dumb teenager things…" The shorter boy replied.
"This is the life we chose, Mineta-chan. So no rest for the wicked." Tsuyu said bluntly. Minoru always knew their amphibious classmate was honest to a fault… But man did the truth really sting at that moment. Fenghuang let out a cough, drawing the students' attention to her and Ryukyu.
"If you'd like, you may all have the rest of the evening to yourselves. We'll just be combing through more security footage for our van. Nothing too exciting or insightful will be happening, just plain old grunt work." Fenghuang said with a small smile.
"Will you really let us go Ryukyu?" Tsuyu asked, turning to her and Uraraka's mentor.
"Yes, Fenghuang made a compelling argument for why we should. Besides, you and Uravity had already put your hours into reviewing security footage. So I think it'll do your eyes some good if you both stepped away from the monitors for a bit." The Dragoon Hero answered, smiling as well.
"What about me?" Nejire asked, raising her hand.
"You'll get time off too Nejire-chan, but once you put in an extra hour or two."
"Okay… I'll get started right away…" The blue-haired girl muttered with a pout on her face before shuffling off.
"We could spare an hour or two too. It's not like we could relax knowing you'll be working on something so long and tedious." Izuku offered.
"It's fine, Young Midoriya. Go and experience life, before you become unable to do so." Fenghuang said with a smile full of wisdom and energy. Minoru knew there was another meaning to this suggestion given to them. Between the intense work and training placed on them and the wider consequences of the events around them… It's easy for Heroes to forget what it means to live. And forgetting to live means forgetting what you fight for.
"Alright Shifu, we'll get out of your hair. But if there's trouble out in the streets, we'll be taking care of it." Minoru said as he left his seat.
"Then we leave the public in your capable hands. Just make sure you all have your provisional licenses on you when you leave the building."
"I remember an old classmate of mine forgetting his constantly. He'd get into so much trouble with the police and teachers, he eventually became an inside joke. Froppy, Uravity, if you find something that's a bit too much to handle, don't hesitate to call." Ryukyu said with a chuckle, eyes reflecting what was no doubt a very memorable school life. Uraraka and Tsuyu nodded and stood up for their seats as well. With the numbers against him, Izuku eventually relented and stood up with his friends from 1A. And with that, the 4 of them bowed to their Hero mentors and began walking off.
But not without hearing one last thing from them.
"Fine Heroes indeed."
"And they'll only shine brighter."
And that has been chapter 137!
Sorry for not posting in a while, things got busy.
But with this chapter, I'm very excited for the next update as it will be a fun one.
So stayed tune and I'll see you next time.
Until Next Time. T1.