~~~
A Few Hours Ago
"What if he's not there?" Kira questions, her legs swinging over the side of the building.
"Then we'll try again until we do find him," Bakugou replies, pacing along the edge of the roof. "One way or another, I'm gonna get back, even if I have to beat the crap out of that damn villain."
Kira sighs, the wind blowing her hair in her face. She scoops it aside to face her impatient classmate. "Y'know if someone were to overhear us right now, they'd immediately assume that you were the bad guy."
"So what if they did?" He retorts, finally standing still with his hands in his pockets. "We don't even belong here so why should I care about what others think?"
"That's a hell of a way to think, Bakugou."
He looks down at her. "I do whatever the hell I want and no can tell me otherwise."
"That's the spirit," she nearly laughs.
He scoffs, but doesn't reply as he begins his pacing again.
"When we find him, then what?" Kira wonders, allowing her hair to obscure her features as she gazes down the multiple floors to the ground below her dangling feet. "Even if we spot the villain amongst the couple other hundred people in the theater, how are we supposed to get him to come to us?"
"We're gonna have to get his attention or something."
"Like... make a scene?" Kira frowns. "Away from prying eyes if we can."
"It'll be easy. Stop worrying."
~
"You're gonna send us back where we came from, you dumb villain!" Bakugou orders, ducking under a more aggressive bubble.
"Back?" The villain ceases fire momentarily, straightening and fixing his tie. "Ah - I see now. I see your aura."
"My what?" Kira frowns, taking a tentative step forward so she's beside Bakugou.
"I've jumped around quite a bit," their opponent explains. "I've evolved my Quirk along the way and I've come to realise that people have a certain aura. For both of you... it's kind of pinkish."
"Uh huh," Bakugou grunts. "I don't really care, just send us back to our reality."
"Everyone else in this reality is more of a light orange," the villain continues, ignoring Bakugou altogether. "The fact that two kids are able to find me and not the pro heroes is quite amazing."
"Look," Kira steps forwards with her hands up. "We didn't come here to listen to your sob story. We just wanna get back home. We don't wanna fight."
Bakugou starts to grumble his argument, when Kira hushes him abruptly.
The villain seems to be thinking it over, but it's not really that difficult. "Well, if another me sent you two over here, then you must mean trouble."
"The other you is an idiot!" Bakugou counters. "He tried to rob the store across the street and his dumbass failed!"
The villain sighs, itching his face under the mask. "Let me guess, you two stopped me."
"Who ever said it was just the two of us?" Kira says, finally lowering her hands. "Our classmate was left behind, back in our world and is probably kicking your ass to a bloody pulp because of his Quirk."
He barks a laugh. "That's funny. All it takes is one of my bubbles to touch your skin and I can send you wherever I want."
"So, you do have control over your Quirk?" Kira questions.
"Huh?"
"You see, your duplicate is a bit of an idiot," Kira says. "He doesn't know how to control his Quirk." Kira barks her own laugh. "I mean, he even brought a gun with him!"
"A gun?" The villain echoes.
"Yeah," Bakugou sneers. "Not that it did him any good."
"You better send us back," Kira warns, glowing her arms. "Or we'll make you."
"Oh please," the villain scoffs. "You're just a couple of kids."
"Maybe so." Kira nods. "But we were taken by the League of Villains and were able to escape." Kira feels Bakugou side-eye her uncertainly.
"Who?" The villain asks and Kira hesitates.
The League of Villains don't exist in this world? Tsu was killed by Shigaraki during the USJ attack, but... Iida was killed by Stain. So, without anybody to stop Stain, the other members of the League of Villains, including Dabi, Toga and Spinner never would have joined.
"I wonder if the Bakugou of this world ever got taken too," Kira wonders.
"Get your head in the game!" Bakugou roars, as he dodges a bubble.
While she's been lost in thought, the villain seems to have lost his patience and has decided to attack, sending a dozen or so bubbles her way. Quickly, she kicks off the heels she stole and they fly off easily. She activates her Quirk in her feet, soaring through the air to avoid the incoming bubbles. It would be best not to underestimate this guy, seeing as he claims to have more control than the previous villain.
"Come on!" The villain yells over Bakugou's explosions. "I'm just trying to send you back here."
"Yeah, right!" Kira exclaims. "I can tell by the grin hiding underneath your mask!"
"You should have just done it and be over with," Bakugou snarls, closing in on the bad guy. "Now it's gonna hurt."
As Kira's head grazes the ceiling, she gasps as the bubbles veer midair and zoom towards her. She barely has time to throw herself aside, smashing her shoulder into the far wall.
"You bastard!" She cries out, feeling her arm hang limp by her side.
"Die!!" Bakugou roars, sending an explosion straight at the enemy, only for it to be blocked by a million tiny bubbles. "You're starting to piss me off!"
"Just send us back already!" Kira orders, landing with a stumble, clutching her arm close to her. "All this chaos is only gonna bring the pro heroes down on your ass real quick."
"I can't risk you informing the heroes about me, sorry." He sends another barrage of bubbles towards her and she raises her one usable arm, emitting bright light from her palm.
"Behind!" Kira shouts randomly and the villain pauses before spinning around. It looks as though he expected Bakugou to be there with a face-full of explosions. "You idiot," Kira chuckles. There's no one there.
In the midst of Kira's bright light, Bakugou had closed his eyes to avoid being blinded, allowing him to use it as a distraction to hide from the villain. The villain doesn't even have time to turn again when Bakugou sails towards him, his hand wrapped around the villain's face, as he pummels him into the floor.
"Make one move..." Her classmate warns.
The villain looks up at them darkly as Kira stumbles over, still clutching her arm at the elbow.
"This little dance is over," Kira pants. "Send. Us. Back."
"And if I don't?" He sneers, his voice slightly muffled as Bakugou's hand pushes down on his face. "What the hell are a bunch of kids gonna-"
Kira lights her hand up a brilliant stark white, and grabs onto the mans arm. Her white-hot light instantly sears through the villains jacket and then onto his skin. Bakugou silences his screams with a hand over his mouth as Kira clutches onto his skin. She can feel the flesh melting under her skin. The smell of burning meat instantly took her back to the villains bar and she releases, the mark sticky.
"You crazy bitch!"
Bakugou glances at her, slightly concerned about her sudden willingness to torture.
"I don't know why, but it's suddenly come to my attention that Kirishima really is alone against this guy back in our world," she explains, keeping her eyes locked on the villain as he writhes in pain.
"Shitty hair can take care of himself," Bakugou says. "Besides, this guy back on our world is even weaker than this one."
"You stupid kids!" The villain spits.
"Send us back, or it's your face next," Kira threatens. "After I'm done with you, you'll definitely need a mask to cover it up."
"Alright! Alright!" he shouts.
Bakugou slowly releases his hold on the guy and he grabs his burnt arm in pain. "How do we know he'll send us back to our reality?"
"We don't," she says, eyeing him suspiciously. "But if he tries any funny business-" she speaks up, so he can hear her clearly -" I'll make sure that whatever world he sends us to, I'll find his duplicate, hurt him just as bad, until he sends me back to you and then... I'll start with the eyes next time."
"Tch." The villain stands up slowly, wincing as his new flesh wound makes contact with the cool air.
"You said you can sense our aura," Kira states. "Send us back to our pink world then. Make it yesterday at - what time was it?"
"Sometime after half one," Bakugou says.
"Right. Yesterday at half one, please."
"That's not gonna-"
"Ah," Kira halts him, holding up a hand already burning brightly. "It was your own words: you evolved your Quirk. So send us back to our correct date and time. If I'm not back where I belong..."
"Yeah, yeah," the villain mutters, as he slowly raises his usable arm.
Under the mask, his face twists in pain and concentration as a large bubble forms from his finger-gun hand, one big enough to envelop them both. Kira keeps her eyes locked on the villain, watching for any kind of hint in his eyes that he'll go against his word. But, as the bubble wraps around both her and Bakugou, dimming the world and their senses, it seems the villain may be staying true to his word. After all, once they're gone, he can keep robbing the poor civilians of this reality to his heart's content.
"Here goes," Kira sighs, her fingers crossed behind her back as she glances up at her classmate.
With a blink, she lands in a heap on her forearms to a brightly lit store. So not only is he able to bounce between realities, he can also change the location. That was an added bonus she didn't know she needed.
"Akira?"
She looks up from her spot on the ground to a very confused red-headed Kirishima. He's still wearing that mint green shirt with a black blazer. He blinks from her to Bakugou behind her, lying on his back with his elbows propped behind him.
"Where is he!? Where's that damn villain!?" Bakugou yells from behind her, already on his feet.
"He... he already left," Kirishima explains, not able to take his eyes off Kira. "He teleported right after you guys..."
Kirishima barely has a chance to sit himself up before Kira throws herself into him, wrapping her arms around his body and squeezing him so tight, she's worried he might not be able to withstand it, even with his hardening Quirk.
Kirishima hesitates before he too slowly but surely bundles her up in his arms, his hands gentle on her back. She can hear his ragged breaths in her ear and sudden tears spring to her eyes. She's suddenly reminded of the other Kirishima - the one drawn to suicide and she clutches him tighter, if that were even possible.
"Are you my Kirishima?" She whispers, her voice wavering ever so slightly.
His hold loosens and she eventually peels herself off from him, as if they were two pieces of velcro. A frown creases his brows at her question, but he nods slowly nonetheless.
"I hate to ruin the moment," he starts, a slow smile creeping across his face. "But what the hell are you guys wearing?"
Kira looks at Bakugou behind her, still wearing his tux, bar a tie. The sleeves are slightly torn and he has remnants of smoke across his cheeks. She probably doesn't look much better - her dress torn, her feet bare.
"It's a long story, believe me."
"But you guys were only gone for a few minutes," Kirishima says, helping Kira to her feet.
"Try twenty-four hours," she tells him. "Give or take."
"Yeah," Bakugou shrugs, finally accepting that the villain took off. "We had to find that damn villain and get him to send us back."
"Find him?" Kirishima's frown hasn't disappeared.
Kira sighs heavily. "His Quirk enabled him to send others and himself to alternate realities."
"There's a multiverse?" He gawks.
Kira nods just as police sirens start to sound, their tell tale blue and red lights flashing brightly outside.
"Well," Kirishima grins. "Good luck explaining that one to the cops."
~~~