Pantomath

Chapter 24:

  
     "This can't be- I just-" he turned to Katsuo accusingly, "You weren't kidding."

    "You thought I was kidding?"

    "Well, no- yes. Maybe. But that code word's actual meaning was mostly a joke, I thought you just meant it was a major problem, not an actual code 'bloody' problem." Deku paced a bit running his hands through his hair, "Someone tried to eat Jin, someone actually, like literally, tried to eat Jin. Jin. Oh my gosh, I need a moment."

   "Well to be fair, it was a quirk thing and they didn't try to eat eat him."

   "Right, right, they just tried to consume his blood. Of course, that's totally not eating him in any form. What are we supposed to do with a dying vigilante? What do you even do with a living one?" Izuku gestured vaguely at where Stain lay on a bed; paralyzed from the poison that now courses through his system and tried not to think of the actual problem that had unbalanced him. He could focus on accidentally kidnapping a wanted vigilante, he could not focus on the possibility of...

    It was mostly bad luck that of all the beings who could have been passing by that Stain ran across it was Tanaka Jin. Jin, who's quirk seemed like a natural counter towards the vigilante's- poisonous blood, well not just his blood, but that was the part of his quirk that mattered at the moment(and the only part that was registered with the government if they were being honest). The problem was that Stain's quirk also took effect and now both Jin and Stain we're out for the count. Stain suffering from the poison in Jin's blood, Jin inexplicably still paralyzed by Stain's quirk. But they weren't talking about that.

    Katsuo's eyes slid towards the  spot next to Izuku that was empty, "You know, I'd have thought you'd be more worried about how we kidnapped a hero agency. A whole hero agency.  Not just the hero or their sidekick, all five of the on duty members."

    "Well, yeah, of course that's not a bad situation, we saw Stain about to maim one of them and we distracted long enough to get them to safety, but no one was at their hero agency, so we took them here to rest- who sends out the whole agency anyway? An open and shut explanation. Anyway, it's a better situation then just taking part of the agency since it kinda buys us more time."

    "Time for what?!?"

    "Planning our course of action out of course, now, I'm calm, I have a plan, I just need a few final pieces..." he paused, "You can call them in you know." He kept pretending everything was going to be fine just like he was pretending to be calm. Like pretending Jin was just busy. He had to manage the bar himself after all.

    "I'm not calm yet!"

    "You know what neither am I, but there's not exactly anything we can do- we need to act immediately- and a bit of panic can make it work even better."

    "Got it, you really think you have a plan?"

    Deku found himself forced to answer honestly as he was still under the effects from the previous question, "Not a good or a whole one."

   Katsuo let out a disparaging half scream through sealed lips at his answer as he pushed himself up and went to open up the door to call the others in from whatever tasks Deku had set for them to work on in the meantime.

   It wasn't all that long, despite how busy he was being kept, before Deku found himself once more in the out of the way room where Stain lay still unable to move. Quite a few years ago with some experimentation they had some found something to help negate the effects of Jin's blood, but it still took time and their were sometimes unpredictable side effects that needed to be worked out so it could hardly be called a cure. All the same it was the best option and so now Stain was stuck suffering through the 'detox' program. It didn't matter he was a vigilante turned murderer, in this, Deku almost pitied him.  He always did sympathize with others too easily.