Little Miss Aizawa | Dadzawa [BOOK 2]

Chapter 12 - Chlorine and Copper

The singed remains of machinery and the stench of burned copper clung to the air. The was hardly anything left of the building by the time Hanta, Neito, and Midoriya arrived at the site, decked out in full vigilante gear, courtesy of Hanta. The emergency services still surrounded the building, both putting out the flames and doing their best to hold off the news reporters battling to get as close as possible. 

"Maybe we should have brought Hitoshi." Neito muttered into the mic, voicing his concerns to the others.

"In his state?" Hanta scoffed. "I don't think Pa will let him past the front door."

"Still, it would be helpful to know what we're looking at." Midoriya added, siding with Neito on this one. The structure was entirely foreign to them, the walls and exposed corridors just as unfamiliar as the land surrounding. "I had no idea this was even here." 

"They did a good job of keeping it off the radar." Neito edged closer to the border of the forest. Hitoshi had mentioned the woodland behind the facility. It had provided him and Eri cover when they made their great escape, and now his brothers were using it as a cover for their way in.

Funny how the tables can turn.

Midoriya turned his eyes back to the crowds out front. "Should we wait for them to leave?"

"And take all the evidence with them?" Neito snapped, lowering his body, as if preparing to bolt down the path.

"Isn't it illegal to withhold evidence from a police investigation." Midoriya cocked his head towards Neito, the mask doing nothing to hide the judgey tone in his voice. 

"What we're doing now is bordering on illegal. Do you know how much shit I had to steal from U.A. to make this?" Hanta gestured to their suits. Midoriya's jaw dropped.

"You stole from U.A.?"

"What? It's not like they missed it."

"Oh, my All-Might." Midoriya held his head in his hands. "We're criminals."

"Midoriya, my boy," Neito slung his arm around the greenet's shoulders, "A time must come in everyone's life when they realise: the line between good and evil is far more blurred than the Heroes say it is." 

"What do you mean?" Midoriya lifted his head, his eyes wide behind the green rings.

"Moral ambiguity is a messy subject, but nonetheless real." Neito clarified with a stern nod.

"He means," Hanta smacked Neito upside the head, "what we're doing is, technically, illegal, but we're doing it for the right reasons."

Midoriya stared down at his hands in his lap. He lifted his gaze to the scorched facility. Blue Crossed was a Villain. He was certain of that. But... what about the people working for them? He had automatically assumed that anyone associated or partnered with a Villain put them on the wrong side of the law, too. But there had been Kaminari, thrown into this mess against his will, and that didn't make him a Villain. And then there was Bakugo, who chose that path. That made him a Villain. But then what about the people doing bad things, thinking it's for a good reason. Does that automatically make them a Villain, too? 

Midoriya's head was spinning. He couldn't believe he hadn't thought of this before. Had he really been so fixated on the Heroes and Villains, that he forgot about those in-between? Had he really been that blind? 

"Oh, my God, I think we broke him." Neito gasped, knocking on the side of Midoriya's mask. "'Zuku? You in there?" 

"Y- Yeah?"

"How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Wha-"

"Guys."