Lightning Serenade

Chapter 102: Conspiracy

"The biggest criminal bust of the year is making waves as heroes, police, and villains—yes, you heard me correctly—villains work together to bring down the Omoto crime family. You can see the footage behind me, clearly depicting number nine Pro Hero Ground Zero not merely tolerating but working together with known members of the League of Villains, Dabi, Twice, and Spinner to round up known affiliates of the Omoto organization. The police took the criminals into custody and ignored the infamous villains completely. What does this mean for the future of Japan? Stay tuned—"

The screen changed to the start screen for a racing game—a crowd favorite in the base with so many extra bodies roaming around. Not everyone had the same sharp-shooter and hand-eye coordination skillset that Dabi, Shigaraki, and Denki had, of course, so switching off and cheering for whoever was bringing up the rear in the easiest racing game would have to suffice.

Adding Uretori's quirk to the mix always made things more interesting.

"Easy level or hard level?" she asked from the doorway, propping the gas mask on her hip while the group debated.

She would only use it if they chose the hard level. She still struggled with seeing everyone's hallucinations during bad trips. Besides, she would need to act as the sitter in that case, anyway.

That night when she had inadvertently gassed up the entire League had done wonders for understanding her own quirk better. She thought that she couldn't control whether someone had a good trip or a bad trip, but then Midoriya pointed out how unlikely it was that everyone would end up having a bad trip if it wasn't something that was tied to her quirk, especially when Isozan noted that good trips were more statistically likely than bad trips were.

It took some trial and error, and Uretori was sure that her willing participants would eventually give up before they finally figured it out, but they didn't.

"I know what you're thinking," Hitoshi had told her early on in the process. "And I don't need Isozan's quirk to know what's running through your mind right now," he added with a hint of humor that had her walls tumbling enough to hear him out at the very least instead of keeping her defenses up. If he could joke around about a quirk that had almost killed his soulmate—that had been set upon his soulmate with the intent to kill him—then she could listen to what he had to say.

"Am I that obvious?" she asked. "Or maybe just that ordinary that anyone in my position would feel the same."

"I think that's more empathetic than ordinary," Hitoshi commented. "But no. I know because I've been in your place. What?" he said with a sly smile when she looked him up and down, trying to determine his sincerity with what he was telling her. "You think I had participants lining up for me to practice my quirk on them? Not a chance! Denki, Neito, and Dabi never hesitated or wavered, though, even when everyone else wouldn't even look at me in fear of me trying to start a conversation with them."

She looked across the room at the three Hitoshi mentioned. They were in the middle of playing a card game with Hawks, Shigaraki, Twice, Toga, Spinner, and Isozan. Spinner stood up suddenly and whirled to face Denki, yelling out oddly specific threats.

"If you wanted to win so bad, you should have invited Kobaru and bribed her to help you cheat," Denki retorted to his threats, seemingly completely unphased. "I warned you before we started playing that I already used up all my bad luck and I literally can't lose. I don't know what to tell you, man!"

"The rest of them, too," Hitoshi said. "They're all in this for the long haul. Not even because it's the right thing to do. Not because you're their friend, though I'm sure that would help if it came down to it. Not because they're sure you have it in you. Not because they're sure it'll be worth it in the end. Not because you'll feel like you owe them one after you're finally successful. Even if all of that is true, it doesn't even cross their minds when they're making the decision to help. It's because, to them, to us, it's a fun adventure. It's not a tedious task, no matter what you think it must feel like to us. It's also because they want to help, and just because they damn well want to, and they always do what they want."