Mind Games - Chapter 6

“And we're runnin'-runnin' and runnin'-runnin-” I chanted under my breath, an errant thought putting my chanting to the beat of a two-century-old song by a specific vegetable-named group of musical artists. “In this context, there's no disrespect, so when I bust my rhymes-”

“What song are – haugh – you singing?” Himiko asked, gasping as she tried to keep pace with the quick pace I was setting.

“Let's Get It Started, by the Black Eyed Peas. An American band from about two hundred years ago,” I replied, looking back to the already-flagging pink-furred girl with the long neck as she struggled to keep up with us. “I have weird tastes in music. Really retro. Hey, uh... you okay, there?”

“I-I'll be fine,” the girl replied, bending over and gasping as she supported herself with her hands on her knees.

“You'd be better off standing up,” I told her, using the momentary stop to look back at where the facility was still in visual range. During our little escape, the entire place had lit up like the Fourth of July, various mooks running around the property with guns held high. We were, thankfully, beyond the woodline by that point and in a very different direction than the trail of destruction that a giant purple gorilla had left in his wake.

“Huh?” The girl asked, Toga cocking her head at me oddly.

I motioned to myself and took a deep breath, emphasizing the inflation of my lower lungs and intentionally flexing my gut. “If you're bent over like that your lungs can't inflate fully and your windpipe is compressed as well. You'll get your breath back quicker if you stand up, even if it kind of sucks.”

“Huh, neat!” Himiko chirped with a grin-

-that quickly and reflexively shuttered itself into a more demure smile the moment a fang caught a stray beam of moonlight.

I grimaced, my new skills telling me what that meant beyond a shadow of a doubt. The subtle wince, the barely-visible microexpression, and the way her eyes flicked towards the ground... all of it spoke to me at length and depth that would be hard to challenge were I to be her most trusted priest and she at confession.

This would be so much easier if she was just evil...

“You said the heroes were coming?” The heteromorph asked, her panting significantly reduced as she leaned against a tree in the darkened forest. “How do you know?”

“Good question.” My answer came in tandem with my phone as I pulled it free from my pocket. “To answer that, I direct your attention to my ongoing stream. Speaking of... Hey there Demons, it's me, ya boi.”

I tapped the phone a few times and held it up as I turned around. “Now, I know it's a little rude to introduce new co-stars mid-stream like this, but needs must when the devil drives. So, excuse the technical difficulties we've been experiencing recently and, in compensation, I've got two pretty ladies to join me. Ladies, if you could introduce yourself?”

“Ah! Toga Himiko-desu! Pleased to meet all of Shinso-kun's fans!” The bubbly blonde replied happily, waving about behind me. “And this is my friend!”

With one expertly-placed grab, the pink llama-girl was standing behind me on the other side, wide-eyed. “Ah? Um... Hello! I'm Hitsujikai Arupaka? It's nice to meet you?”

She broke eye-contact with the camera and turned to me. “Are we really streaming right now? And what about the heroes?”

“We're really streaming, yeah. Everyone watching the stream is affiliated with a dozen different hero offices I pinged when I woke up and realized the kidnappers didn't take my phone,” I replied.

“Why not just call them?” Himiko asked, leaning back into the screen and looking at the whole thing oddly.

“Because I'm a very strange person and this is my stress response to a very dangerous situation,” I replied candidly, my voice and expression utterly deadpan. “Now, let's take a few questions...”

I tapped out of full-screen mode and scrolled through. “Ah, okay... <Hot Ice> with the Endeavor Agency – don't worry, I won't hold that against you – wants to know what the hell happened back with the guy who was going to beat me half to death-”

Both girls behind me gasped.

“Long story short? I kicked him in the throat, kicked him in the balls, then poked him in the eyes and dodged really good when he went crazy on the wall behind me. Which gave me a way out that didn't involve needing to run through a dozen monitored and guarded corridors.” I explained with a shrug, keeping one eye glancing over my right shoulder towards the compound.

“Oooh, Oooh! Let me do the next one!” Himiko bounced behind me, looking over my shoulder. “They're asking about us! Uhh... <The_Real_Fried_Chicken>. Is that a hero? It sounds fake.”

My lips twitched as Aurpaka drew an affronted gasp. “That's Hawks, Himiko! He's this dreamy new hero who's only a few years older than us and he's climbing the charts really quickly!”

Himiko blinked her golden eyes and shrugged. “Umm... okay? Fried Chicken-san, Aru-chan and I were in the cell next to Shinso's. When the wall collapsed, it was enough for us to escape too. Were they really going to hurt you like that, Shinso-kun?”

“Thankfully, the full audio transcript is being stored on both my phone and my streaming site,” I responded. “Which will serve as evidence that I did not engage in unlawful quirk use and acted in self-defense only when pushed to the absolute brink and should, hopefully, be absolved of potential legal or criminal penalty.”

“Wait! I thought I knew your voice! That's Bootstrap's symbol!” Arupaka stated, pointing a finger at me.

“Eh? Bootstrap?” Himiko asked, and I felt myself wince at the sudden empathy I regarded Hawks with now. “Who's that?”

“Feel your pain, Hawks. Feel your pain.” I sighed deeply as Arupaka dragged her friend off to explain things. “Anyway, next question! <Denim@Overlord> 'Are you safe and where are you?' We're about five hundred meters from the facility, well beyond the woodline of the local forest, and we're going to go deeper in just a minute. We don't want to get too far in, though, as it would be very easy to get lost.”

I paused for effect. “Which would both suck and be deeply ironic, to get lost after escaping from human trafficking villains.”

A chorus of 'yes it would,' 'be careful,' and 'is this kid serious?' chimed out through the various people watching the stream.

“Ask them how long until they show up!” Arupaka pressed, looking to have wrapped up her conversation with Himiko.

“Chat says... ten minutes. Huh, impressive. You guys really got a move on,” I muttered, impressed. “That's-”

My phone rang and I paused, staring at it for a long moment.

“Uh-oh shit,” I sighed, minimizing the window and flipping up the actual phone app within the smart-device. “Hey Dad! What's up?”

'Hitoshi? Son, where are you? I just got done with my coding submission and saw your shoes weren't in the mudroom,' my father stated upon my answering the phone.

“Dad, you know midnight convenience store food isn't good for you,” I sighed, swiping a hand through over my face and through my hair. That was the only reason he would have happened to look at the shoe rack this late at night. “What happened to the yakisoba I left in the fridge?”

'Oh, uh... it was really good? I actually ate a double-helping for lunch,' the older man answered sheepishly. 'Listen, could you – wait, no. Where are you? I just checked your room, Hitoshi, so I know you're not there. Are you in trouble, son? Do I need to come get you?'

My mouth worked for a moment, my eyes flicking around me for inspiration, and-

Pea... Tear... Griffin!

-alighted on Himiko and Arupaka, who were staring at me blankly. I grinned widely. “Actually, I met a pair of nice girls, Dad! Very cute, we got to talking and just absolutely lost track of time.”

There was silence on the line, as if Shinso Niko was debating on whether or not to call my bluff. 'Hitoshi, are you-'

Himiko, grinning a cheshire-wide grin, bounced towards me with far more energy than any person should mere hours into their own kidnapping episode. Giggling, she pulled my phone from my grasp. Deciding it was better than the alternative, I let it happen.

“Moshi-moshi!” Himiko chirped. “Gomen-gomen! My friend and I kinna' kidnapped your son! We were just having such a fun time! 'Toshi-kun's an amazing singer, didja' know? An he was nice nough to carry our things while we were shopping, even! He's a true gentleman!”

A pause, Himiko jerkily nodding her head as I absently noted the absence of the trademark messy buns on either side of her head. “Toga Himiko. Yep.” Another pause. “Uh-huh. Nope. Hmm... an hour or so, I guess?”

One final lengthy pause as Himiko constantly swayed back and forth, a bastion of boundless energy. Simply watching her made the quiet, lazy, introvert inside of me want to curl up and die. “Uhh, alright! Here he is!”

I accepted the phone back with good grace and a silent dry look that only sent her bouncing off back to her friend and giggling. “Sup?”

'Ahh... your friend is... nice? I think. Umm... get home soon, son. It's still a school night and, even when you're being careful, things can still happen.'

We traded a few more pleasantries before he finally hung up and I heaved an exhausted sigh. Tiredly, I flipped the stream back into full-screen and glared at the camera. “If one of you is legally obligated to go inform my dad of this mess, please be careful. Read his quirk registry. I mean really read it before you go knocking on his door..”

There was another series of questions and answers traded back and forth between myself and the various heroes that had tuned in to get ready for the strike. Unfortunately, it looked like they wanted all of the manpower available for the main assault, especially since the other victims were still being held and we were ostensibly safe. Which meant we needed to hunker down and sit tight.

I sighed, feeling... not tired precisely, but definitely wrung out by the whole experience, leaning against a tree and slowly sliding down its rough surface until I was sitting in a crouch, heaving a bone-weary sigh as I did so.

“Your dad sounded nice,” Himiko offered hesitantly. “Also, like... thanks for saving us and junk?”

 “Ah, yes! Thank you!” Hitsujikai added belatedly, bowing her head too deeply.

I chuckled and grinned. “Even if it wasn't entirely intentional, you're welcome.” I groaned and let my head fall back against the tree. “God, I've got school in... eight hours, don't I? I hope I get time to take a shower, at least.”

“...I think we'll probably need to stay and talk to the police?” The llama-girl stated tentatively.

“I've pulled all-nighters before and I don't want to have to deal with my math teacher. He's a real hardass and we have a test... yeah, still tomorrow,” I muttered in reply, staring at the few stars peeking through the forest canopy.

They seemed wrong to eyes that were born, raised, and elevated beyond the mortal coil in Creation. Instead of living beacons of essence, these were just dead balls of gas and fire with no living divinity residing behind them. Worse...

I swallowed and looked away from what was between them, my eyes tracing down to the blonde who'd just finished speaking. “Sorry, I spaced out for a moment. What'd you ask?”

Himiko flashed me a pout. “I asked if you being okay with going to school tomorrow was part of your whole 'hero-training' thing?”

I hummed. “That's part of it, I guess? But it's more like...”

It's more like I'm worried that, if I find a reason to skip a day, I just won't go back. And that would screw things up.

“...I've already gone to school exhausted so many times, what's one more? Habit, maybe?” I asked rhetorically, shrugging.

“Wow, that's depressing,” Himiko replied bluntly, her pout vanishing and her face going blank momentarily. The first honest expression I'd seen from her, ironically enough, shown in a moment where she'd forgotten or didn't know the appropriate face to put on.

“Yep,” I snorted, agreeing with her for entirely different reasons than-

Her eyes sharpened, flashing in the dark like a knife.

Or maybe she understood the reason I agreed with her?

It was a gut feeling, but even without months on the run, living by her own cunning, bloodlust, and quirk... a purely civilian Toga Himiko was still deceptively sharp.

“If insomnia was an Olympic sport, I'd take gold,” I smirked, letting the flicker of connection between us pass unremarked. “Or I'd be left holding the bags, at least.”

I smirked, tapping the discolored skin under my eyes.

“You know, his are as bad as yours are, Himiko!” Arupaka giggled, then turned to me. “You wouldn't know it, but she uses makeup.”

The blonde shot her friend a betrayed look that was, at best, only half-real before her eyes cut back to me and her expression flickered again, going vacant for a moment too long.

I flicked an eyebrow up, my own expression bland to the point of disinterest.

Himiko blinked, tilted her head and flashed me a smile that stopped just short of her canines before the shock and betrayal washed back over her face like a rising tide. “Aru-chan! You bitch! Don't tell him that!”

 “Oh, c'mon Himi-chan! He looks like he gets it! And he just saved us! If I didn't have a boyfriend, I'd be all over that!” The pink girl squealed, stepping behind Himiko and pushing her forward.

The mask slipped again as Himiko looked back at me, and I saw the trap.

No means no, but so does yes. A refusal doesn't have any subtext attached to it and her body language is all wrong for someone evaluating a potential significant other. But a positive response indicates interest in something she's not interested in.

Because someone who got close to her would see behind the mask.

That was the song and dance we were doing. It was, in its own fucked up way, the method Himiko was using to feel me out as a... not a dating prospect, but... someone to let inside. Just a bit. To show enough to scare them off. When her face blanked before, a normal person would have reacted with confusion or by becoming unsettled emotionally. 'Normal' people weren't supposed to just... go blank and start watching you in the same way an animal does its prey.

Instead, I'd reacted... blandly. Unimpressed, almost disinterested.

With a huff of amusement, I realized this was as close to 'Pretending to Civilian Toga' probably got to flirting. She wasn't to the point where she was willing to pull out a knife or stab someone with a straw. She hadn't reached that stage yet.

Which puzzled me, honestly. Toga Himiko was supposed to be a year older than most of Class 1-A. Yet I recognized the unifrom she was wearing from tracking down Kirishima. They didn't go to the same school or anything, but I'd had to scroll through dozens of different schools to find the one Ashido and Kirishima went to. That uniform was definitely a middle school one.

Note to self: Do inventory of popular heroes and infamous villains. I never thought it was important to see if we were in 'canon' or not. God, I hope AFO or Bad Touch aren't women or something weird like that.

I needed to go check on that stupid beach, too. Izuku should have started cleaning it by now.

The fleeting thought passed, and I watched a gleam of interest flicker in Himiko's eyes as I shrugged with the slightest of smiles on my face. It was the only 'correct' answer. At least, if you wanted a potential serial killer romantically interested in you. Which... before tonight? Not kosher, at all.

Now? It might just be (read: probably was) the quixotic nihilism resulting from learning that the world was a much more dangerous place than you'd thought on multiple levels, but...

Yeah, sure. Hitoshi/Himiko slash fic go!

Or, at least, I'd rebalance her emotionally and give her a healthier mindset than the one that led her to become a villain. Maybe even give her a push towards heroism? But to do that, I needed both her interest in me as a person so that she would be willing to listen to my advice, and the levers to give her emotional imputs that weren't tied to a psycho-sexual obsession with bloodletting.

So, no. Romance wasn't in the cards, but saving Himiko from a very likely Bad End was, even if I had to manipulate her to do so. Plus, Himiko would keep me on my toes. She was sharp, and would be a good testbed for interacting with people more perceptive than your average teenager.

“Hmm... I guess we wouldn't have lied to your dad if you carried all our stuff while we went shopping...” Himiko allowed, her blank face at odds with the happy chirp of a tone her voice chimed in.

Another attempt to unsettle me, prove I wasn't worth letting in or getting close to.

“Eeeee!” Arupaka cried, jumping up and down and clapping her hands. “You finally said yes! For real, you've never let me hook you up!”

The long-necked girl turned to me, putting her hands on her hips and staring me down. “You better show Himi-chan a good time or I'll-”

Then, his approach drowned out by her loud tone, the Grape Gorilla slapped a trio of trees away before stomping into the small clearing we'd hidden ourselves within. My pulse quickened, then slowed as I looked over the rictus of rage covering his face, one eye a bloody mess and the other barely-functional. Himiko instantly took two steps between her friend and the newly-arrived adversary.

“You piece of shit, I'm gonna'-” He began, stepping forward and gritting his teeth in absolute fury as his fists shook the earth when he walked forward on a leaning-crouch.

“Knock-Knock.” I replied, my face as deadpan as my voice was dry.

“Huh, wha-” He began, then froze.

“Lay down gently and go to sleep,” I ordered, not even getting up from my seat next to the tree I was leaning against.

Himiko and Arupaka stared at the transformed villain did exactly that, while I pulled my phone out. When they slowly looked over towards me, I shrugged as I kept tapping away at my smart-device. “Dumbass forgot earphones don't change size when you do. They must have fallen out when he was running around the forest looking for me.”

That was when the explosions started in the distance, of course.

Standing, I sighed as I popped the joints of my spine and neck.

The cavalry had arrived.

About goddamn time.

I did not manage to make my math class, though.

~~~

No self control. I blame the people who encouraged me.

Now... The New Ron over the weekend.

That said, I hope everyone enjoys this chapter. In an effort to build up a buffer and more chapters for Patreon, this one won't trigger a roll-over. So, enjoy having private access to it for longer, woo!

Thanks for all your support again, and I'll be back with another offering soon.