Assassins Can Be Heroes Too || Todoroki Shoto

|36| The Incident at I-Island

A black dress trailed behind Rie as she whined, glaring at her personal servant who was wearing a tuxedo suit, a sly smirk on his face. Her purple hair was let out, barely passing her shoulders as she descended the stairs, the children following behind them, Killua begrudgingly glaring and Alluka chirping away happily.

"Rie!" squealed Uraraka, waving her over. She smiled softly at the girl who sported a light pink dress who grinned happily. "You four look amazing!"

"Right back at you," she grinned, referring to Jiro - who wore blue and pink - and YaoMomo - who donned a green evening gown. She motioned to Karma who was lazily leaning against the wall, chatting to a slightly uncomfortable and awkward Midoriya, who started muttering, much to the servant's amusement. "I... am starting to regret bringing Karma..."

"Is he usually like that?" Jiro asked curiously.

"He... he enjoys blackmail and pranking," she admitted, the girls staring, "but other than that... he's a nice guy... just don't piss him off and you're safe."

"You have some strange friends," sweat-dropped Uraraka.

"Speak for yourself," she rolled her eyes, motioning for her two cousins to come closer. Todoroki, making eye contact with the assassin, furrowed his brows and made his way over to the small, huddled group. He wore a pale-grey suit with a red tie and a blue collared suit.

"Kirishima and Bakugo aren't picking up," he stated, holding up his phone. Rie's eyes widened, fishing out her own phone. Killua peered over her arm, pulling it down gently

"I don't have-" she halted as the lights began flickering, metal doors slamming down with a loud THUD! and locking, "cell service..." she finished quietly, placing her phone back into her pocket. Karma frowned, a solemn expression crossing over his face.

"Nobody has any cell service," he observed. Alluka trembled, clinging onto her brother, terrified as her face paled drastically. Iida pushed his glasses up, about to command silence to the murmuring and terrified teenagers, only for the dark-green haired boy to interrupt.

"We should go to the party," Midoriya insisted confidently, much to everybody's alarm, "because that's where we can find All Might." He turned to a hesitant Melissa. "Can we get down there without the elevator, since it's not working?"

"We can use the emergency stairs," she stammered, shaken-up and leading the teenagers down the stairs. The group turned a corner, heading back into the emergency stairwells. They panted, leaning on their knees to catch their breath and waiting for someone to at least start a conversation.

"We've received orders from All Might," Iida was the first to speak - unsurprisingly - and pushed his glasses up, straightening himself, "he's our teacher, and we should follow his instructions."

"I agree," YaoMomo stepped in, "we're still only students, we can't fight these Villains if we don't have our Hero licenses."

"Karma's not even training to be a Hero," the assassin pointed out, the said boy poking his tongue out playfully. And I've fought plenty of Villains before, you don't need a Villain's license to be a Villain. Iida sent him a slightly sceptical glance.

"Not that I'm doubting your abilities or anything..." the class representative stated slowly, "but we don't even know how strong - or how many - Villains there are."

"Eh~? Are you sure you're not doubting me?" Karma snapped, irked as a vein popped. Alarmed, Rie quickly rushed forward to calm him down, only for the boy to shoot her a glance. His eyes glowed yellow, a dark purple aura radiating around him. "Because it sure sounds to me like you're doubting me~"

"Karma, please," hissed Rie in a slightly impatient yet pleading tone, "not now!"

The devilish prankster flashed her a side-glance, deactivating his Quirk and sighing, motioning for the boy to continue.

"It's not going to be easy to escape this place," admitted Melissa after the tense silence had somewhat ensued, "the security here is the same as the Tartarus Prison, if not stronger."

"I guess we're just gonna have to sit here and wait 'til someone finds us," shrugged Kaminari hopelessly. Rie's jaw dropped indignantly.

"'Sit here and wait until someone finds us'?" she quoted incredulously, "what if that someone is a Villain? What if the situation is already getting out of hand as we're sitting here, arguing what to do? If something happens, we'd all blame ourselves, right?"

"It doesn't hurt to try," Jiro agreed.

"But they've got All Might!" complained Mineta, shutting up as they sent him a death glare.

"Shoto, say something, please," she begged quietly, tugging the end of his jacket, "your silence is killing me."

The heterochromatic-eyed boy stared down at her wordlessly, turning back to the quarrelling group and cleared this throat, attracting their attention. After asking them they were going to be Heroes, a bewildered Iida blinked, arguing that they still weren't allowed to 'do Hero things'.

"So does that mean that it's right to idly stand by and do nothing, while there are people in the building who are held hostage or being attacked?!" he shot back.

The group went silent.

Rie frowned. Normally, either Killua or Alluka would have said something by this point; make a suggestion or calm everybody down. Neither of them had spoken since they had made it up the stairwell.

"Killua, Alluka, you guys have been kinda quiet..." the girl observed suddenly, turning behind her. Her face paled drastically.

"H-hey... you guys?" she stated, her voice rising. Karma let out a low hum, freezing as they found themselves staring at empty space. The girl's heart skipped a beat, her hands breaking into a small sweat. Her pupils dilated, her voice in a strangely high and quiet pitch.

"Where did Killua and Alluka go?"