Mind Games - Chapter 50

Fuyumi crossed her arms over her chest and stared me down.

I continued working, unmoved by the disbelief in my superior's gaze.

“So...” She said leadingly, expectantly, as if she was owed some kind of explanation.

“I still think my actions regarding Intelli Tenshi and my school were above-board and will not be apologizing for them,” I replied bluntly, my fingers tapping away at the keyboard in front of me.

“That's not-!” Fuyumi began, then gave an aggravated sigh. “I was talking about your cooking video!”

I blinked, affecting a surprised and oblivious expression as I finally turned to look at her. “Oh? Sorry, I must have misunderstood.”

Fuyumi's eyelids dropped and she scowled at me. “Did Toga really get angry at you because you didn't wake her up to cook for you?”

“Yes,” I replied simply, sighing deeply. “Yes, she did.”

I'd found an alleyway without CCTV surveillance, dropped my bike off at Home, shifted back to my male body, and walked the last three blocks back to Himiko's apartment complex, stopping to pick up convenience store food on the way. Nothing I'd said on the cooking stream had been a lie, I'd just strategically omitted the vigilante shootout with a semi-eldritch monster.

Which was something else I needed to worry about.

Fuyumi stared at me for a long moment, then sighed and palmed her face. “A-are you two... fighting? Over this?”

I frowned, cocking my head slightly, then shook it. “Not in the conventional way most people would understand 'fighting' in this context, no.”

“Do I need to be concerned?” Fuyumi pressed.

I hummed, then shook my head again. “I don't think so. Himiko is irritated at me, but understands that the actions I took were out of consideration for her, not a slight against her homemaking skills.”

Fuyumi stared at me again, silent and... well, not judging, since she apparently didn't know what to make of me. “Okay... I'm here if you need me, Hitoshi, but... don't take this the wrong way? I just don't understand your relationship dynamic with Himiko, okay?”

“Points for honesty,” I replied with a sigh, giving in to the urge to stretch and pop my joints.

“How's your first week at school?” She asked, finally entering my small office space and taking one of the guest chairs. They weren't the best, taken from the surplus pile in storage, but I'd shelled out for better ones for myself and Himiko.

“Over,” I replied bluntly, then shrugged at her insistent stare. “Kind of a dumpster fire, but I didn't get burned personally, so... fine, I guess?”

“Shinso...” Fuyumi warned, intensifying her stare. “I heard about Aizawa’s trial by fire. While I don’t agree with his pedagogy, I can understand the basis for his decision-making. Even if I feel it doesn’t come from a place of logic like he says it does.”

“I’ll be sure to send him your objection,” I replied dryly.

“More importantly, I’m happy that you stood up and inspired at least a few of your classmates to follow you instead of that other student. I’m proud that you didn’t just decide to blow them off and leave them to their fate when you entirely could have,” Fuyumi explained further.  “You can be… a bit standoffish at times. So it’s encouraging to see you try to engage with people. Was everything else okay?”

For a moment, I thought about explaining the mess that had been the practical exercise, but decided against it. Fuyumi didn’t need anything else to mother hen me about.

I rolled my eyes and gave her a more expressive shrug, holding my arms out for emphasis. I wasn't even wearing my mask or mouth guard right now, so she could see the disgruntled frown on my face as well. “It's high school. What do you want me to say? I know most of the material, my classmates are... tolerably incompetent, and all of the teachers I've had know their shit, so far.”

“Putting aside the cursing and how refreshing it is to hear you sound like a normal teenager for a change,” Fuyumi began, getting an annoyed grunt from me. “Did you remember to hand in notice for your court appearances?”

“First one's this Wednesday, right?” I asked, knowing it was, but receiving a pleasant and relieved nod in confirmation. “Yeah, I sent it straight to the principal's desk, figured that was easier.”

“Good,” she nodded, still looking intently at me. “I think UA's good for you, Hitoshi. You should really try to make friends with your classmates.”

I hummed, reaching for my drink. “I'll be teaching them how to use their quirks more effectively, so we're likely to bond through that.”

Fuyumi sighed again.

She seemed to do that a lot around me.

Probably just coincidence.

“You do understand that the school is supposed to teach them how to use their quirks?” She asked rhetorically. “You said yourself that the teachers seem to understand their content specializations, you should let them do their jobs.”

I grunted, turning back to my work. “I also said that I already know most of the material. The practical exercises are valuable, but the academic content is underwhelming. If I don't find something to occupy my time, I'm going to die of boredom, Hot Ice.”

Fun Fact: River Tam's academy had her designing and implementing real, actual spaceship proposals.

The part of me that was her wanted to cry tears of frustration at being presented with calculus as supposedly-challenging subject matter.

I decided to preempt whatever Fuyumi was going to say when I saw her opening her mouth out of the corner of my eye. “It's either that or... I guess I start explaining the work I do for the Celestial Bureaucracy to my classmates.”

Fuyumi groaned while I didn't bother to hide my smirk.

“Hitoshi...” My superior coworker sighed again. “Please don't intentionally drive your classmates away with your elaborately plotted character flaw for your hero persona.”

I outright chuckled. “They're all such borderline or actual delinquents that they'd probably find the entire thing more funny than socially ostracizing.”

She pressed a pair of fingers to one of her temples and massaged it. “Okay, I know I'm going to regret asking this, but... when you say delinquents...?”

“One of them doesn't have a criminal record,” I replied casually, Fuyumi making a noise of quiet suffering and frustration. “Mainly because he's too good at hacking to get caught by school authorities, but... his file's clean, at least.”

She released another one of those noises. “Okay... stop. I don't know if I can take anymore right now. Let's talk about something else. You know Tye is coming for a visit today, right?”

“I've got it on my schedule, yep,” I nodded, humming. The insectoid heteromorph was a semi-frequent visitor at the Agency over the past few weeks, especially since I was still the primary contact for the refugee community. Honestly, I probably should make more time to interact with them, but some of them had picked up enough broken Japanese to communicate and Endeavor had hard-capped my hours.

Also, I was really, really busy.

Can't forget that.

Fuyumi would get irate if she found out I'd cut my sleep hours any further.

“Good, I wanted you to make sure he knew that he might be called to testify,” Fuyumi continued. “Since we've found a more accredited translator who can serve as a neutral party and cultural expert, your primary job will be proving your ability with their language as the initial justification for our investigation and arrests.”

I nodded, hitting a few more keys before saving my work. Himiko was due back any-

The door swung open. “Hi-hi!”

I looked up and smiled. “They finished your costume.”

Himiko grinned widely, doing a twirl as her red cape with gold-threaded trim around the edges of the garment. The hood hung against the back of her neck, the material stiffened slightly so that it wouldn't simply outline her head when it was up. Along the curl of material that swept across the front of her neck were an impressive set of sharpened teeth set into the fabric.

All of which was worn over a fairly nondescript bodysuit of lightly-reinforced black fabric.

“Everything except the helmet,” Himiko's shoulders drooped slightly. “But it still looks cute, right boyfriend?”

“You look adorable,” I confirmed with a smile, the blond girl squealing slightly and dancing around the workstation in front of me to give me a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

Fuyumi cleared her throat pointedly.

Himiko lost a bit of her giddiness and gave Fuyumi a huffy pout. “You could have given Hitoshi-kun a kiss while I was getting my costume! I wouldn't have minded!”

Fuyumi's eyes widened and she choked on air, leaning over and coughing violently at the offer.

I sighed and rolled my eyes, giving Himiko a firm pop on the rear while Fuyumi's eyes were averted. Squeaking, Himiko gave me a fond look before fetching a class of water for Fuyumi, which was one of the only perks of having an office that had been converted from a large supply closet. Thankfully, I'd gotten them to swap out the sink and managed to sneak in a water filter paid for out of my own pocket.

That and a small refrigerator made the space surprisingly homey.

But mostly I just didn't want to get into the habit of heading Home anytime I needed a drink or something. Eventually someone would remember to put surveillance cameras up in here, though I wasn't actively pursuing that.

Then my phone went off, and I sighed as I reached for the device, my shoulders already dipping as I considered who wanted more of my time. Coming up with a blank, I raised an eyebrow at the notification. “Huh. Your dad wants to talk to me. And Himiko, if she's available.”

Fuyumi had straightened up, blinking in mild surprise. “Hmm... I didn't think he'd need you for anything today. Well, I guess we should go ahead and see what he wants. He gets grumpy if you make him wait too long.”

I snorted and Himiko giggled as we all made our short preparations to go. For me, it was as simple as putting my fabric mask and mouth-guard on, snapping the collapsed helmet on my belt and slipping my bow and quiver onto my back.

“You do know you're unlikely to get a field deployment anytime soon, right?” Fuyumi asked, amused as my quick gear-up.

“Just creating good habits,” I replied with a short shrug. “Rather have and not need, than need and not have... that kind of thing.”

Hot Ice rolled her eyes and held up her hand with splayed fingers, visually giving up ownership of the situation. As we all walked out the door, Himiko falling into lock-step behind me as she believed she should, Fuyumi gave me a curious look. “What were you working on, anyway? You usually finish everything before noon.”

“Cold case stuff,” I replied, then shrugged at her lingering look of closer interest. “I've been using my credentials to pull up a lot of cold cases from the past few decades and looking them over. It's within my purview, fills my hours, and you aren't going to get any sudden calls about me needing you to watch a live stream of my reveal of a teenage prostitution ring. Promise.”

Another sigh, complete with face palm. “I swear to the gods, Shinso... I will make you work entirely through paper hard copy files if you cause another incident like that.”

“Not planning on it,” I replied, though... in my opinion, not planning those situations made them all the more dangerous. If you planned them, you could handle them more effectively. “Besides, since I'm not required to hand in physical copies of any cases I file to both you and Endeavor – along with verbal notification – you should see them coming a mile away if I do.”

“Good,” Fuyumi muttered, the noise an irritated grunt as we closed in on the door, which she grabbed and-

My eyebrows shot high.

“-so I'm going to be running Class 1-B through the same exercise next week and was wondering if you had any pointe-ah, looks like they're here,” All Might stopped mid-sentence as he turned.

“I have a few thoughts on the matter, but we can discuss it later,” Endeavor stated, sitting up a bit straighter in his chair as he sighted us.

“Mr. Bootstrap,” Eri called, waving – then blushing as she noticed both Himiko and Fuyumi turn to her.

“Oooooh! She's cute! Super-mega-ultra cutie!” Himiko squealed, clasping her hands together and bouncing in place, making the small child duck her head a bit further into All Might's arm.

“Da-ah, Endeavor?” Fuyumi stumbled verbally, clearing her throat. “I was with Shinso when you called, so I thought I'd come along. Make sure he didn't find himself in any trouble in the thirty meters it took to get to your office.”

I didn't react to the judging look the members of the Todoroki family sent me.

“I'd object, but I feel like I probably deserve that level of suspicion,” I stated, nodding.

“You do,” Enji stated unilaterally, his eyes narrowed at me as his beard flared. “But, given you are now fully enrolled in UA and have cleared your first week of school with... minimal issues that can be laid at your feet-”

All Might winced and looked away at the mild rebuke.

“-All Might has presented me with a unique and interesting option for a proper punishment detail,” Endeavor stated.

I flicked a look to the shy little girl and nodded. “Ah.”

“Y-yes, well... I didn't mean it as such,” All Might stated, clearing his throat awkwardly. “I hope you don't mind, young Shinso, but I contacted Endeavor in the hopes that he might free up a few hours of your schedule. You see, Eri really is quite taken with you and none of the sitters I've interviewed have the... er, talent to deal with her special needs.”

Translator's Note: They can't turn her quirk off.

Quirks like that were rare, after all, and their users almost always had better options than playing nanny to the children of heroes, no matter how important. All Might could probably use his rep to pull a black ops agent off duty to babysit in a pinch, but... in addition to the fact that you seldom wanted an assassin taking care of your child, he also wasn't the type to pull rank outside of a life or death crisis.

I imagine he could probably source some kind of emotional manipulator that could force Eri into a state of calm or perhaps an area of effect quirk that could put her to sleep without physical contact, although the matter of personal connection with the traumatized girl was still important.

“And Eraserhead is only willing to offer so much help,” Toshinori continued, fidgeting a bit. “It really would help me out a great deal if you could keep an eye on m-my daughter for a few hours every now and then.”

“Which made me consider the requests that I've been getting for more visits with the young refugee child, Tye,” Endeavor stated, casually removing a bottle of water from behind his desk and uncapping it to take a large pull. “I'm not blind to the fact that any traditional punishment I could dish out to you, Shinso, would simply be taken in stride, finished faster than I could have expected, and no doubt allowed you to leverage your position to interfere in something you shouldn't be messing about with.”

“I mean... that's kind of what I'd been counting on as far as whatever punishment you came up with,” I stated with a sigh, reaching up and scratching at the back of my head.

No lie, I'd been hoping that I would be too hard to really punish that Endeavor would have just settled for collating files he'd inherited from a defunct hero agency or something. That would have been a great research opportunity most people would have whined about being forced to deal with.

“I'd intuited that, yes,” Enji stated, a small smirk playing on his lips.

“I feel the need to point out that assigning someone to take care of small children as a punishment might send the wrong signals and behaviorally warp them regarding the prospect of having children of their own,” I told my direct superior.

Endeavor leaned forward, his elbows on his desk as he stared me down. “You're an intelligent young man, Bootstrap. I trust you to be able to overcome such a minor adversity in the life of a hero.”

“Awesome, thanks Boss.” I sighed and walked over to All Might, kneeling so that I was on Eri's level as I loosened my face mask and pulled down the cloth underneath it. “Hey Eri, looks like you're going to be spending time with me, okay? Maybe I can even introduce you to my girlfriend over there, okay?”

Red eyes blinked at me, shifting to look at the still-bouncing Himiko. “Girlfriend?”

I nodded. “Her name is Toga Himiko, she's training to be a hero just like me. Her hero name is Carmilla and she's super nice. You might remember her from the songs I sang? We called her 'Blondie,' right?”

Eri's eyes sparkled and widened. “Ms. Blondie! She sang so nice!”

“Well, how about we hang out with her and I can get you some paper and crayons to draw with, okay?” I asked, holding out my hands.

The unicorn's eyes tracked to Toshinori, who gave a relieved nod as Eri climbed out of his lap and into my arms. I gave a little 'oof,' of performative effort as I held her up. “Okay... I'm on the clock until five today, then I've got to head home to eat with my father. All Might, I trust you'll pick her up then?”

The smiling blond superhero grinned widely. “Of course! And I'll be in contact with Endeavor about your schedule. I understand you've got a court appearance this coming week. Those are never particularly enjoyable, you have my sympathies.”

“Thanks, I'll be accompanying Hot Ice, so at least I'll have someone to check me on etiquette,” I replied with a nod, then paused. “Endeavor mentioned him, but I assume you have no problem with Eri sharing a space with Tye?”

All Might shook his head, waving me off. “No, no... it'll be good for her. She... needs to meet other kids. Even if he doesn't speak the language very well yet, some socialization for my little girl will be good.”

I nodded, having suspected something along those lines.

“Oh, before I forget!” All Might snapped his fingers and reached around to the other side of his chair, bringing up a large canvas bag with a unicorn on it. “Here are all of Eri's things, I've included some emergency contacts – though you're better off coming to Todoroki here in the event of a real crisis – and an assortment of things for her to watch and play with. No need to find any crayons, for instance, I've got that covered. Paper, too!”

I wonder if I look in his back pocket if I'll find a book on 'Parenting for Dummies' stashed there?

“I can help Shinso if he has any questions,” Hot Ice stepped forward with her offer. “I've got plenty of experience looking after younger siblings.”

“I'll help, too! She's so adorable!” Himiko squeaked, finally coming over to greet her. “Hi! You said you liked my singing, didn't you cutie?”

I sighed as the girls fawned over Eri, who seemed torn between trepidation and happiness, and gave my flame-bearded boss a look. He had, indeed, found a way to actually punish me and make the message stick.

He was forcing me to be unproductive with my time.

He might be the Flame Hero, but Todoroki Enji was truly a cold-hearted bastard.

“Excellent! Now perhaps young Toga’s practical exercise won’t level the entire training ground like your class did, young Shinso!” All Might chuckled.

“What, what happened?!” Endeavor asked, looking between the country’s greatest hero and myself.

Then, shamelessly, I seized on my new adorable excuse. “How about we go get you settled Eri?  I think I can find a lap desk you can use until we find something better?”

“Ooo! I know where it is, I’ll go pull it out!” Himiko chirped happily.

Behind me, I left All Might to get grilled by Endeavor in my place, utterly unapologetic about doing so. Interestingly, Fuyumi seemed to already know about what had happened. I wondered about the story behind that.

~~~

Woo! The Big 5-0! Fifty full chapters of Mind Games and still going strong.

Okay, this chapter officially ends the 'Initial UA Arc' for those keeping track of such things. Next chapter of Mind Games will feature a more even mix of Hitoshi going to school and doing some official heroics stuff on the legal side of things, such as the impending court case involving the quirk traffickers.

On the school side of things, expect Hitoshi to begin some quirk tutoring with his classmates, so we'll have a few more action scenes there, too.

And, in between all of that, Perspicacious Mauve Avenger is plotting her next vigilante strike. Which will have a lot of build up this coming arc, but I don't think we'll quite get to the reveal. There will be some important hints here and there, groundwork being laid, and a few conversations with everyone's favorite rodent of indiscriminate species. Which I'm sure will be fun.

As far as the next update goes, though... either Butler Boy or The Hand We're Dealt!

Thanks again for all your support!