Shenanigans In 1-B: Episode 44: Everyone Has A Sword

Now on Wattpad. Literally the whole story so far is up there, I just got out of habit of ing here.

TW: Mild bad language, violence, dismemberment

Word Count: 6100 (excluding Author’ Note ect.)

Time taken: 7 days

Summary: The middle of the second Work Studies Arc

Author’s Note:

Before things start... I am an omnipotent body that can change the flow of the story if you so much as Go-Gos in my direction, so keep that to yourself. The original characters and base story beats were made by Horikoshi, I’m just relaying things in 1-B and making some changes to spruce things up.

Any correlation between the OCs and something else is a coincidence.

Hopefully you understand this before I piss you off in any way. Let me repeat that. This is my story; I am bored so I wanted to make something for fun, so fuck off if you get annoyed at me because I miss-measured the size of Dabi’s fleshy burns.

And before I forget, I’m writing this for my friends first so expect a few inside jokes that you won’t get.

So without further ado... I present the forty-fourth episode of Shenanigans In 1-B! WOO!

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A bit of extra little info:

Words within ** is a note made by the individual recounting this story. It’s a fourth wall break.

Words in ^^ are thoughts.

Words in “^^” are in a different language, and so far, it has only been English. They’re in Japan, so they speak Japanese.

A /-/ represents a scene change. The scenes can have a range of lengths.

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A wiki page will be made for most OCs, some are one time or just irrelevant and therefore will not get one.

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"I can't believe you just attacked Kinzoku-kun out if nowhere." Setsuna pouted, folding her arms. Kakumeiso was being wrung out by her girlfriend for her actions.

"I got a bit too into things." She chuckled, scratching the back of her head.

"Mhm." Setsuna wasn't convinced, and poked Mei in the hip; there was a convulsive reaction from the girl.

"Ackh! Lizzy!"

"Don't 'Lizzy' me. You were bad, and you need to be punished."

"Ooo~ I'm interested~" Atsuki and Pony were watching from beside them, they were meant to be having a fun couple's night, just watching a scary movie together.

"Would you punish me?" Pony asked sweetly, looking up at him with a cute smile, a devious smirk was returned.

"Depends on what you did." She made a noise as Atsuki hoisted her onto his lap and wrapped his arms around her waist, placing his head on her shoulder and continued to watch the film.

"I might mess with your food." She leaned into him.

"Then you won't be regrowing your horns anymore." He whispered into the back of her neck, trying to sound menacing.

"You wouldn't hurt me." She said teasingly.

"Oh yeah? Did it hurt when I tore your hymen-"

"Shut up!" Togaru hissed, trying to enjoy the film. Reiko had managed to convince him to them, knowing that he would want to latch to her as he usually did when they watched scary things together. Purely for mockery since they were with others.

"The film is boring." Reiko wrapped her arms around her legs as she watched, being completely unfazed by the events on screen. Only she and Togaru were watching it, the other four were wrapped up in their couple-y situations.

"The moment they start swapping spit I'm leaving." He scowled.

"What if we do it?" They locked sideways glances.

"Still going."

"Shush, you two, we need to watch the film." Setsuna bopped them on the tops of their heads.

^But you're the ones threatening to torture each other.^ Togaru scowled to himself, letting Reiko inch next to him on the floor. Sure, they'd been getting closer over the past few months, but he doubted it was really anything special. Horror flix were just fun to watch. It wrapped up with an unsatisfactory conclusion, something that had been plaguing the films the two of them had been watching together recently.

/-/

Atsuki was curled up on Pony's bed that night, letting her play with his hair as he read his family's Hero Legacy book. He was not so discreetly using her chest as a cushion. Pony was humming something to herself as they relaxed, before he felt a sneeze coming on. Quickly getting up and almost head butting her in the process, he got to the other side of the room as fast as he could, loosing the sneeze and a cannon-like boom came from him. Her hairs stood on end as she looked to him in surprise.

"Ow." He wiped his nose with a handkerchief. "That was a big one."

"Was that a sneeze!?" Pony asked wide-eyed.

"Yup. Turns out, the culmination from what I've learnt makes me quite a bit stronger." He got back over to her and wrapped his arms around her again, picking up the book while doing so.

"You never seem to put it down these days. You almost never have time to snuggle." She pouted, pinching his cheeks.

"You're overselling it." He laughed. "We get to spend our days together, you know, with Monoma-kun and Denki."

"I know, just teasing. Tell me about what's in the book." Pony shuffled down and rested against him.

"Well..." opening the book, he flicked through it. It was thick, easily holding over three hundred pages. He flicked to a page with a picture of a woman with brown hair and hard eyes. "This, is my mother. You've met her a couple of times. I inherited the Kouhei name from her, and her from her father. There's this unspoken rule that the possessor of the book must on the last name, and it's a given that they record themselves in here if they become a Hero. And since there are a lot of pages, there have been quite a few Heroes."

"There's a lot to go into it then; but the eldest doesn't get it, do they?"

"No, it is gifted from one to another. So I got it because apparently, being beaten to a pulp by Kaikiban turned my life around. But hang on-" he flicked backwards a small bit. "Here's someone with a Gigantification type Quirk." It was another woman, she held a resemblance to his mother. "This is my grandmother, who possessed the ability to turn into a giant snake. She's the reason I can do this with my jaw." He demonstrated his unhinging jaw to her, getting an almost disgusted reaction from his girlfriend, who quickly turned away at seeing his bottom jaw open way too widely.

"Atsuki stop!" She laughed somewhat at it, hearing a squelching noise as he did so.

"Maybe, one day, one of our children could inherit that Quirk, instead of either of ours." He put the book down and kissed the back of her head.

"Maybe." Pony wanted to see more of the book and picked it up herself. "How about him?" She had flicked back forwards, showing a man with brown hair, a flashy smile and teal eyes.

"Kohitsu Kouhei, or 'Polaris'. My mother's older brother, he was best friends with Dad and they went to a Hero School together in Australia. Mad lad apparently reached the Number Five Hero whilst the old man got Number Four. He died though, eleven years ago. His entry's seem to be seen as heretical though, my folks seem uncomfortable with using what I learnt from him in here; but his findings about how to condense things has really paid off."

"He looks like a younger Corvus, you know, the League member?" Atsuki covered one half of his face and scrunched his eyebrows.

"He kind of does. Just with brown hair, no beard and an urn." He not so discreetly retold her that his uncle was dead.

"How did he die?"

"A mission apparently, he had a wife and daughter, but I don't either."

"Do you know what we're doing tomorrow with Nimbus?"

"Not a clue. Probably just... helping another cat out of a tree in the suburbs." Atsuki let her go and shuffled beside her. "It's late and surprisingly, I want to sleep. Let's just get some sleep before Nimbus tells us to go to bed on duty."

"^Duh.^ Don't want that to happen. Kaminari-chan and Monoma-chan are pesky." Pony lay next to him, she moved some of his curly locks out of his face.

"Way too pesky."

"Do you think we'll encounter that 'Villain News' thing going on?"

"Hopefully not. That's for The Lurkers to deal with. Not Nimbus and his merry band of lightning s."

"Give me a stun baton and I can in." She giggled.

"Why? You're already shockingly beautiful." He received a groan at his bad pun and a pillow was put between them. "Did you not like it?"

"Eh. You've said it before."

"Still applies, Pony, still applies."

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"All right. So, what do you mean there was a string of shop robberies on the same street at the same time?" Mt. Lady asked seriously. "Was it coordinated? And what is up with those pictures? Everything is wonky." The three of the Lurkers were having a meeting with one of the other Musutafu Top Ranking Heroes.

"Nothing's wrong with the pictures." Nimbus responded, putting a finger onto one of the photos. "There's no security feed at all for these. Almost as if the entire power grid went out at the precise moment they attacked. But there wasn't a power outage."

"So one minute, the street's normal, the next, it's gone to Wonderland?" Kamui Woods asked suspiciously.

"Pretty much. The only place that I've seen weird stuff like this was when I watched the video of Crust fighting that Villain in Tokyo."

"And we've got confirmation that..." Edgeshot trailed off in a thoughtful pose.

"I brought it to you because apparently you're looking into these things at the moment. Just thought it could help out." Papa Kouhei stood up and held his hand out to shake.

"It has. It's given us some possible leads." Edgeshot stood up and shook the hand, standing at Nimbus' chin.

/-/

*The next day...*

The Lurkers and their gaggle of interns arrived at the scene. It looked like the entire street had almost folded in on itself. The shops looked as if they had had their windows smashed, but it turned out that the shards were all connected by small fibres of glass. The floor had enveloped things on the floor and there was no-one around.

"What happened here?" Sero asked nervously, Edgeshot looked into one of the shops.

"Lady Ghoul is our likely suspect."

"It looks like reality has been given the middle finger, it would make sense." Mineta nodded, getting helped into one of the buildings by Kakumeiso.

"Things have gone topsy turvy in here too. It's like a wave just washed in and mushed everything up. And there are no people either, no traces of anyone who would come here to work." She looked back at them.

"Then should we look for clues?" Kinzoku suggested, already setting off.

"From a sociopathic games master to a robber? Sounds like she's just checking boxes. Put murderer on there as well. She might be going for a completionist run on Villainy." Mineta joked, looking into a drawer for anything, Mei laughed.

"I wonder what the one-hundred percent speedrun is?"

"What would that include? Assault, murder, theft, tax evasion, tax fraud, tax mimicry, I think that's a thing."

"Get off the topic of taxes and Villains." Jade scolded them from across the street.

"I think I got something!" Ibara called out to them, getting them to gather around a message gashed into the wall of a shop. "The House of Suits invites you all to play a fun game! Yakuza have been popping up across the city. Capture them all, and your prize will be known. Don't keep us waiting, Burusu Kinzoku." They looked to the boy in question.

"Well, that spells it loud and clear. It's you they're interested in." Kakumeiso poked him, his shoulders slumped.

"I already guessed that, with that tape and all. Across the district though? Just in this general area then?"

"I'll begin some reconnaissance, Proteus, get onto the lookout." Edgeshot began to dish out instructions.

"Yes, boss!" Steam emerged and the vertical red eye emerged on her forehead to look for infrared radiation.

"Illusioneer, get into a crowd and listen out for anything suspicious, relay down the communications."

"Got it."

"The rest of you non-sensory types, spread out and ask about. That'll draw some attention, the comms are open to you as well if you find anything, if you get into trouble just say and we'll be on our way." The chorus of a demonic game series's song about 'ripping and tearing' played and Ibara took out her phone.

^Why is that her ring tone?^ Sero thought, knowing the game series.

"It's the group chat." She informed them, picking up the call. "Hello?"

"Shiozaki-chan!? Great, hey!" Tsuburaba's voice came from the other end, another person picked up.

"Yellow?" Fukidashi asked.

"Yeah hi, uh, we're being attacked by an unknown Villain! Our Hero is occupied with some apparent Yakuza and we're hoping for backup!" He called to them.

"Where are you?" Edgeshot asked concerned, Ibara had put it on speaker.

"Downtown Musutafu, things got real wild, real quick!" There was a yell in the background.

"That's... that-a-way." Kakumeiso pointed in the direction, wings already sprouting from her back.

"Wait up!" Kinzoku used the metal in his costume to hover.

"We'll check this out!" She called back to them.

"Be careful!" Edgeshot told them. "I will be behind you momentarily!" The two nodded before flying off.

"Why is Doom your ringtone?" Jade asked Ibara curiously.

"It resonates with me. You slay those that have sinned without mercy." She responded.

"That's very fair."

/-/

Togaru flipped backwards and dragged his blades across the ground as he was knocked backwards. Their opponent stood off against them down the street, dressed in a sort of futuristic mechanical suit.

"This isn't looking too good." Kaibara grunted, his forearms spinning at high speeds. Neither side had landed a hit yet, despite what the ravaged street would suggest. Tsuburaba came out from his hiding spot.

"I called for backup with any of our class, Genyu-chan and Kinzoku-kun are on their way, as is Edgeshot." He informed them, steeling his breathing to use his Quirk.

"Are you done fraternising?" The Villain asked, taunting them with an inquisitive pose. The sword in his hand gleamed.

"We were just talking about the weather, actually. It's cloudy with a chance of justice." Togaru smirked, trying to provoke his opponent for an outplay, blades revealing themselves out of his forearms quickly.

"I can't see any justice. Just clouds." The enemy played along.

"Wrong forecast." Tsuburaba ed in, breathing out deeply. A large circular disc was quickly sent the 'mechanical' man's way. Togaru and Kaibara followed with speed and Jack Mantis went high while Spiral went low. The Villain dodged around the disc and swiped his sword vertically, the blade being deflected by Togaru as he went over him. Kaibara spun his whole body immediately after, deflecting something they'd began to grow accustomed to in the fight.

Every attack made by the enemy had the initial swing with the sword, but a second attack came from within a certain radius of him; mirroring the type of attack used. It made close combat difficult. Kaibara used his full body rotation to land a solid hit in against the man's side, immediately followed up by rapid punches and another kick. A lateral slice sent out a second attack his way, creating a gap between Kaibara and the Villain; Togaru, creating a blade out of his foot, launched him upwards spinning forwards.

"Slashing Rollout!" He announced, growing blades down his back to make the front-flipping deadly. Mech man blocked the overhead axe kick, their blades colliding. A set of smaller discs came in to help from Tsuburaba, allowing for Togaru to bounce away on them. Kaibara followed up by grabbing a manhole cover and spinning at high speeds, launching it like a dangerous frisbee. It was dodged and a vertical slash followed, catching Togaru off guard as it managed to cut the hem of his cloak; signalling that he was in range.

"Time to take off the training wheels, boys." Came the announcement, the man drew his second sword and dragged the blades along each other, causing a grating noise to greet their ears.

"Shit, we're getting nowhere." Tsubaraba hissed under his breath. "Backup can't arrive sooner."

"We just have to match his speed, and sur our limits." Togaru focused himself, replaying the information that the longer his blade takes to form, the stronger it was and began focusing onto his right forearm. "I've got an idea, but it'll take coordination."

"Well, let's get away slightly then." Kaibara was already backing away, tossing a nearby bin the enemy's way. The contents blocked his view allowing them to turn the street corner unseen.

"Alright here's the plan." He quickly conveyed it to them. Tsuburaba blew out a disc of flexible solid air across the crosswalk and Kaibara gripped a hold onto Togaru's left arm. Taking the weight with both hands, he began to spin his entire torso and lifted him off the floor. Getting out of the cover, he threw him with full force through the flexible barrier; which encased all but his right forearm like planned.

Flying towards the Villain, a blade grew out from his exposed forearm and he cut it across, using the given speed to his advantage. The target moved to block with both swords, but the force was too great and Togaru cleaved the blades and left a gash across his opponent's front. Rolling to a halt, he looked back. Villain man had a hand to his chest, wires sparking out of both arms. A gash had also been put into the floor behind him somehow. A screeching from above alerted them and Genyu came crashing into the ground, sticking the landing. A warhammer formed in her hands.

"Hola." She grinned, the head of the hammer ignited into green flames. "Have you just gotten started? You've only gotten scratches."

^She's more dangerous than these three. I should better retreat after an injury like this. If the Yakuza played their part, the next step should happen anyway.^ Dropping the hilts, the Villain quickly reached into his pocket, pressed a button in there and took out a smoke bomb. Throwing it onto the floor, a hole opened below him and swallowed him while the smoke blocked their view.

"He got away." Togaru sighed as Genyu and Kaibara cleared the smoke.

"What happened to your blade?" She asked curiously, the flames on her hammer died out and she approached. Togaru looked to his forearm blade, seeing that it was a shade of light blue.

"No clue. But it cut through other blades like silk. It's stronger, that's for sure." He retracted it.

"I'll have to see that some time. Anyway, you seem to have made him retreat without any help, congratulations." She gave a thumbs up. "Now I need to take a statement about what they looked like as Yakuza and a Villain have cropped up for The Lurkers."

"Sure. But I thought Kinzoku-kun was coming." Kaibara realised, "that's what Kosei said anyway."

"I think he was following, we were near downtown so I flew. He should arrive about... now." Genyu jabbed a thumb upwards, just as Kinzoku floated down quickly. "Looks like we were too slow."

"Dammit. Even after I was called out." The American sneered.

"Well, if you want a description, the three of us can give you one. And our mentor can give a rundown of the Yakuza." Tsuburaba informed the pair of them.

"We'll wait until Edgeshot gets here, he's good at interrogations." Kinzoku stretched, a crack was made.

"Don't phrase it like that." Kaibara deadpanned.

And so the three boys gave their statements to Edgeshot, describing their encounter with the Villain with the best of their abilities. What he looked like, how he fought, what his Quirk was and so on. One aspect of it caught Kinzoku's attention.

"He could send another attack out when attacking?" He asked.

"Yeah. It didn't have to be directly off it either. It just appeared randomly as a sort of wind that we had to react to." Togaru nodded. "It was a real pain, the fucker slashed my cloak." He showed them the uneven material.

"My brother had a similar Quirk. Though he didn't speak arrogantly nor did he taunt." He rubbed his chin.

"Whatever the case. This has to have been linked to what we found right?" Genyu asked her allies, getting nods.

"And all the Yakuza have been caught, so we're told." Edgeshot continued the line of thinking. "So whatever gift is meant to be given, it should come soon."

"Just be on guard, in case a sociopathic game show host appears out of nowhere." She allowed herself a humoured smile at that.

"I snapped his blades," Togaru showed them the two top halves of the swords. "Maybe these could help?"

"They have writing on them." Edgeshot looked closely. "It's English." He gave them to Kinzoku.

"They seem to be the same message in two halves. 'Good job on the captures' and 'The four of us will make you wait'." He relayed the message.

"Four?" Edgeshot thought aloud. "So the most recent Villain is in kahoots with Jester, Lady Ghoul and the unknown third. Which also links the Yakuza to this House of Suits." The Hero made another thoughtful noise. "The name actually rings a bell. I believe All Might fought someone from this group several years ago. Can you ask him about it?"

"Sure thing, if he isn't too busy buttering up with Midoriya-san." Genyu nodded.

"Alright, now to question the Yakuza."

/-/

Lady Ghoul was spinning in a chair, visibly bored. Jester was still working on his little game, shut away in his 'Red Room'. Gates was overlooking their newest member's injury.

"^Be more careful in the future. I don't have the know-how to fix every problem with this suit of yours.^" He scolded, welding shut the split metal fibres, the owner still in it.

"^Even though you put me in it?^"

"^I didn't make it. Our leader did. I just know the basics on it. The life- system seems to be in good shape, the arms can be rewired and that gash has just been fixed. You said a kid did this to you?^" Gates said in almost disbelief, but he'd seen enough weird stuff to believe it.

"^Some mantis-looking boy that could grow blades out of himself.^" The man allowed his arm to be stretched out.

"^So he's like Jester then? Hidden blades?^" Ghoul looked over the back of the chair at them.

"^No. These seemed to grow out of him, and could shrink back in.^"

"^Well, Mr 'I lost to a group of children' stay on guard and don't get cocky.^" She taunted him.

"^I'll look into him. And the rest of these children, see what I can find. You said they called for Burusu Kinzoku as backup?^"

"^Yes. But he didn't arrive before I retreated. This busty girl did instead. Purple eyes, black and white hair.^"

"^Then they're from U.A.. That makes looking into them a bit more tricky, skirting around the security checks and all that. But I'll get information on them.^" Gates informed them both. "^And with the two of you's obsession over this kid, he better be worth more than a single damn.^"

"^He is.^"

"^I'll believe it when I see it.^"

"^So what next, for our 'plan'? We led what remains of the Yakuza into what was essentially a trap, just so Clots here gets to fight children.^" Ghoul got up and stretched while taunting him.

"^It's Bloodstain.^"

"^Ooo, fucking cringe bro. It's not synonymous with you at all. I'm Lady Ghoul because I'm a monster. He's Gates because he is our way into places and Jester's Jester because he's a maniac. So Clots or Corpse works for you!^" She explained with a tormenting smile. "^Bloodstain's just a child wanting to sound cool.^"

"^I'll kill you.^" 'Bloodstain' threatened.

"^You have me quivering in fear. And from what I've thought about, ridding the rest of the Yakuza is doing people a favour. Gates, open a path to them.^"

"^No. Their enterprise fell the moment Kai Chisaki was captured. If you want to start your own group of thugs, be my guest.^" He said coldly, not one to take orders he didn't agree with.

"^Fine! Maybe I will. I'll find all of the underworld overlords and make them kneel.^" She rolled her head. "^Might as well take Corpse with me. You have any leads, Gates?^"

"^There has been a substantial increase of movement within Deika City, with links back to the Liberation Army. Look into that if you want, I don't care.^"

"^Sounds boring. You go, She-Devil.^" Stain Two-Point-Oh told her.

"^Sure sure.^"

/-/

It was the evening at U.A. and Kakumeiso and Mineta were sat at a table, dressed in matching black suits with sunglasses on. They'd hijacked a spare dorm room for their questions for All Might. There was not much information that the captured Yakuza could provide, just confirming things that they had figured out. A guy called Bloodstain, one of the most childish xbox gamertag sounding names she'd heard, had recruited them at swordpoint; even though he had guns. So that was three of the four they knew about. The door opened and Kinzoku, also dressed in their attire allowed All Might in.

"Hello, Mr Might. We'd like to ask a few questions." Mineta began, "take a seat." The former Hero looked very confused.

"Okay...?" He sat down. "Mineta-kun, Genyu-chan, what are you doing?" Kakumeiso had an audio recorder out and turned it on.

"It is the tenth of January, at nineteen hundred. The investigation between The Lurkers and The House of Suits has led us to All Might." She spoke into it. "Now, we are going to show you some images and you tell us what you know."

^This is giving me Hollywood vibes.^ All Might thought, before tucking his seat in to play along. "Very well." Mineta slid a folder of pictures to him.

"These have been gathered over the past few days to aid in our investigation. We initially wanted to find Jester, an apparent serial killer from America that recently arrived in Japan. But that led us down a rabbit hole." The pictures were observed. All Might pointed to the symbol that the group used.

"You said this was the House of Suits, right?"

"Yes." Mei confirmed.

"I had a run-in with the leader of it... five years ago I believe. He called himself 'Mido', a mad scientist from Russia. His Quirk creates weapons from his body, but they cancelled out the effects of other Quirks primarily. We fought and I won. Is there anything else that you need to know?" The two students imitating government agents looked between themselves.

"What else do you know about the group?" Mineta asked.

"Well... it's international, I have seen the news recently and the games being played with civilian lives is deplorable. I do believe that there were three others with him when I arrived, though they escaped through a circular hole in space while Mido used himself as a distraction."

"Does this 'Mido' have a real name?"

"I learnt it after the fight, it was Juzo Roux." He noted the nervous glance between them, before he caught on. "Are we thinking the same thing?"

"We must pay a visit to the Teachers Dormitory." Kakumeiso nodded. "Thank you for your time, Mr Might. We will be in touch."

Kakumeiso and Mineta arrived at the Teachers Dormitory and knocked loudly. Cementoss answered.

"Oh, hello you two." He smiled in greeting.

"Hello, Mr Toss. We have business with Miss Roux. May we come in?" She asked seriously.

"I don't really get it, but who am I to stop you." The teacher let them in. Roux was happily chatting with Nico and Present Mic. "Nia, you've got visitors." She looked their way and gave a confused smile in greeting.

"Hey, Genyu-chan, Mineta-kun. What's with the suits?"

"We're acting, so play along!" Mei looked over her sunglasses and winked. "We're looking into some stuff for The Lurkers, and you might have some information we need. Shall we take a seat?"

"Sure! I'll help any way I can!" Roux nodded quickly, used to the interviews from government officials by that point.

"Can I help, Nia?" Nico looked to her.

"Why don't you go and play with Aizawa-san and Eri?" She asked sweetly, directing his eyes to the teacher and a child with pale blue hair and a singular horn.

"Okay!" He beamed, happily setting off to see them.

"Do you need me here?" Present Mic asked.

"No." Mineta stated bluntly.

"Ouch. I'll go make you all some coffee." He gave them finger guns before going to the kitchen area, striking up a conversation with Midnight.

"What is this about?" Roux asked curiously. "If it's gotten you two acting like this."

"We'll get straight to the point." Mineta began as Kakumeiso spoke into the voice recorder. "Is your grandpa called Juzo Roux, or 'Mido' as an alias." She became instantly and visibly uncomfortable.

"Did you say 'Mido' then yes." Roux nodded. "What is this really about?"

"It's about... actually, what is this about?" Mineta looked up to Mei, who shrugged.

"I lost the plot somewhere along the line. These are blocking my view." She took off the sunglasses and turned off the recorder. "We're just doing an 'investigation'. But we lost the point of it. Yada yada something about wanting some information on the notorious Villain Mido."

"My grandfather then. Okay. I don't know much but his capture lead to the events of bringing me here. Um... I'm sorry I don't know much else." Was the given apology from Roux.

"That's fine." Mei sat next to her and patted her shoulder. "What was he like?"

"Crazy, I think everyone has a crazy grandfather, right?"

"Probably."

"We thought he was senile, to be honest. Going on about 'the future of HUMAN EVOLUTION!'"

"So he is a nutter." Mineta shrugged.

"From what I ." Her phone buzzed.

"I don't know how much we can tell you, but did he ever seem off?"

"Aside from being crazy? Not really. Just a 'progressive' grandfather." Her phone went off again.

"Someone wants your attention." Kakumeiso noted.

"That's probably just Sen, we've got a thing going on tomorrow." She waved off the concern with a smile, shocking the pair of them.

"You're dating Kaibara-kun?!"

"Shush! Not so loud please! But yes, we got together in December."

"Well, uh, congratulations."

"Thanks."

"This was interesting." Mineta got up. "Thank you for your time." The pair of them left. "That was a surprise."

"I can torment Kaibara-kun now if I want. But that aside, nothing on the Mido front. I guess it doesn't really matter all that much, the way I see it. He's already in Tartarus so he won't be doing much of anything. It just makes me wonder what comes next in this situation." Proteus took off her sunglasses again and the suit covering her went up in steam as it changed back to some of her own self-made clothing.

"Can I keep the suit?" Mineta asked.

"Sure, tear it and I'll make another. Just don't do anything too creepy with it." She responded, bringing her hands to her hair and undid her ponytail.

"We should break the news to the others then." The short guy stated blandly.

"That they have connections to a mad scientist and he has a connection to Roux-chan? Sure, I guess. Doesn't help much at the moment though." They reentered the 1-B dormitory. Kinzoku was sat in the centre area with Ibara and Sero, seemingly deep in conversation. Opening the door to them, the outside air hit them again. "Heya."

"Yo, did you get anything good?" Sero asked.

"Eh...? Maybe." Kakumeiso shrugged, sitting down and resting her hands behind her. Mineta sat beside her.

"Apparently this 'House of Suits' has connections to a previous Villain called 'Mido'. So we followed a clue, came up empty handed and now we're here. And nothing to show for it except the knowledge that Kaibara-kun is dating Roux-chan." Mineta gave them the rundown.

"Well... that's unexpected." Kinzoku said slowly. "But nothing else that's useful?"

"Mido's in Tartarus, so no luck there. And apparently the House of Suits is international." Mei continued on for them.

"But they're just doing stuff in Japan for the moment, it seems." Ibara muttered. "We must convey this to The Lurkers tomorrow, as well as theorising what our Villains are plotting next."

"Go ahead, but this has been enough information hunting for today, I want a nice soak. You're free to me, Ibara." She winked to her friend as she got up, getting a head-shake.

"I believe the bathtubs can only hold one person comfortably.

"Your loss, see you tomorrow then, crew." With a wave over her shoulder, Kakumeiso went back inside. Setsuna was sat at the Common Area and Mei wrapped her arms around her neck from behind. "Heeey! You doing alright?"

"I'm completely fine!" She turned with a smile.

"You did lose people in the line of duty a few days ago. You sure?"

"Oh that. Yeah, I am fine. I hadn't even realised that'd happened until after we'd left, so I couldn't do much to save them." Setsuna reasoned. "But it is a bummer."

"Want to bathe?"

"Not now, Mei. It's too early to do it."

"Okay, cool." Kakumeiso headed off. But not for a bath. Finding a dorm room, she banged on the door with a smirk. Togaru opened it up and they locked eyes. "Hey, Togaru-chan~"

"Genyu. What do I owe the pleasure." She had taken Kaikiban's place as Togaru's rival, after her alter ego showed no interest in it.

"I wanna see that new blade of yours in action. It's stronger, right?"

^Mei, I don't think we should fight him right now. Let's go have that bath.^ Kaikiban instructed.

^So you can look at my body, pervert?^ She mentally retorted.

^I'll drop your clothes in front of Kamakiri-kun.^ He threatened.

^Shush, he's speaking.^

"-I think it is, but I don't know enough to hedge an entire fight with you on it. I'm not stupid." Jack Mantis reasoned.

"Don't care. You, me, Gym Gamma ten minutes." She turned to go.

"I guess that's fair. I did ambush you that one time and ripped your shirt."

"I'm getting you back for that here and now."

/-/

"The rules are simple. First to conceit loses. Or if a big enough hit is dealt." Kakumeiso informed. The two of them were stood opposing each other, just in their casual clothing.

"Sure." Togaru nodded, already focusing his Quirk into his right arm again. ^Find the perfect opportunity.^

"Ready? Let's do this!" She grew out another warhammer and before doing anything, was enveloped in steam. Kaikiban took her place and dismissed the hammer.

"This is a retaliation for the ambush you did on me. Come." Forming his longsword in his hand, Kaikiban took a stance. He then attacked quickly, getting deflected and blocked the retaliated shoulder-bash; Togaru backed off slightly and brought his right hand to past the left side of his waist. Following up the block, Kaikiban swung his fist out, getting that dodged and followed up with a barrage of bone tendrils. His opponent dodged again and he went for a downwards slash with both hands to catch the now stationary Togaru.

"Iai Slash: Sakura." Togaru stated, speeding past him; his light blue blade already out from his right hand; drawn from his left side. Pain lanced across Kaikiban's front and his hands fell at the wrists. A gash opened across his chest and Kaikiban staggered backwards. "And I have won." His blade retracted back into his arm.

"Incredible. You put me to shame in one attack. Had this been a real fight, I would have died." Kai noted his wounds, steam already rising off them. "It seems I still need to get stronger, to sur your new blade. It cut through even the skin tone-matching shell I put on for protection like paper. Thank you, Kamakiri-kun." He began to evaporate the mess that had been made.

"Shut up." Togaru turned and slammed a hand onto his shoulder. "You're plenty strong already, and I had to match that. Stop being so humble and recognise how strong you are." Going to leave, Jack Mantis looked over his shoulder. "Also, eat shit. First time you've lost in a proper one-on-one!" He laughed as he walked away.

^That's true. Thank you, Kamakiri-kun.^ Kaikiban thanked him again mentally, looking to where a small cut had been put into the wall from the first and final attack from his opponent, five meters away.

/-/

The next day rolled around and The Lurkers were still on their mission, Godzillo had been nice enough to them; like usual, progress was expected to be slow, except something happened that sped it up exponentially. The nearby screens went out before the notorious 'Villain News' turned on. But instead of Lady Ghoul sitting at the camera, it was Jester.

"Hello there, Lurkers and friends. I'm sure I don't need any introduction. And I will skip any little banter. I have planted four bombs all around the area of Musutafu you're in. And it's your job to find them! You have thirty minutes to find them! The clock's ticking!" They were immediately sent into action, splitting into four teams, and they were off.