A/N: I put a lot a lot of effort into the drawings for this chapter, because they're gifs this time around! I hope you like them ;)
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"Now that it's been decided," Todoroki said, turning away from the hospital entrance, "let's go."
He, Midoriya, Iida, and Yaoyorozu started walking away before Kirishima stopped them.
"Wait!"
They all turned back to look at the redhead, confused.
"Kirishima-kun?" Midoriya asked. "What's wrong?"
"We can't leave yet. There's one more coming with us. She should be here any minute now..."
"One more?"
As if on cue, they heard footsteps approaching them, turning to see another one of their classmates.
Who it was surprised them.
"Kanetsukabe-san...?" Yaoyorozu said, shocked.
"Sorry I'm late," Hitomi replied. "I had to switch train lines to get back here."
"Wait, you're coming with us?!" Midoriya protested.
Hitomi stopped in front of them, clenching her fist as she stared at the ground. "Of course I am... I know exactly how Kirishima feels. This isn't... this isn't the first time I've felt so useless before."
The others silently stared at her, Yaoyorozu knowing exactly what she was talking about.
"A long time ago," Hitomi continued, "I couldn't save someone that was right in front of me. I promised that person I would never let it happen to her or anyone else ever again, and I failed to keep that promise. It may be selfish of me to do this in order to absolve my own feelings, but unlike before...
I can actually do something this time."
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"So this is Camino Ward?" Midoriya asked as they stared at the buildings in front of them.
"There are a lot of people," Todoroki observed.
"So, those guys are hiding somewhere in this city?" Kirishima said, looking around. "Okay, where are they, Yaoyorozu?!" He suddenly ran off, nearly separating from the group before Hitomi grabbed his shirt collar.
"Please wait!" Yaoyorozu exclaimed.
Kirishima didn't try to fight Hitomi's grip, turning back to look at Yaoyorozu.
"From here on out," Yaoyorozu declared once she'd had everyone's attention, "we must be very, very careful. The villains know what we look like, remember? We must also consider that we may be attacked at any moment."
"Got it!" Midoriya said, covering his face with his arms. "Gotta be covert!"
"But at this rate," Iida stated, placing a hand on his chin, "we won't be able to scout very easily."
"Then what are we supposed to do?" Kirishima asked.
Yaoyorozu fidgeted, Hitomi noticing her cheeks tint a slight pink as she pointed to a store. "I have a suggestion."
Dirt-Cheap Donki Oote.
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Hitomi pulled back the fitting room curtain, revealing herself dressed in a frilly baby blue dress, bows sewn into the neckline along with a large ribbon wrapped around the waist, tied in a large bow at the front of the dress. Along with black tights, the outfit was completed a surgical mask to cover the bottom half of her face. Hitomi's long hair was tied up in a bun, two locks of hair left to frame her face.
"Is this really necessary?" the blunette asked as she pulled the mask down her face. "It seems a little overboard..."
Kirishima gave her a thumbs up as they all left the store. "Looking great, Hitomi!"
Hitomi sighed, pulling the mask back over her face as her friend instructed Midoriya and Iida on how to act.
Yaoyorozu huffed, a satisfied smile on her face. "Kids would stand out in the shopping district at night, right?"
"Yaoyorozu," Todoroki said. "Wouldn't it have been free if you used Creation to make all this?"
Ah.
He's right.
Yaoyorozu made a noise of embarrassment, protesting against Todoroki's question as Hitomi and Kirishima stared at the two of them.
"The innocent rich girl just wanted to go inside Donki, huh?" the redhead said.
Hitomi sweatdropped as she agreed.
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"There's no reaction even though we've gotten this close," Yaoyorozu muttered as the group loitered by a vending machine.
Yaoyorozu had taken their little rescue squad to the location the receiver was showing, and now the group was trying to look for a way they could get inside the seemingly abandoned warehouse.
"Hey, what are you doing, hostess?!" a new voice suddenly said.
Hitomi turned towards the source of the noise, finding two grown, and clearly drunk, men trying to reach out for Yaoyorozu.
"Come drink wit' us!"
Hitomi grabbed Yaoyorozu's arm, pulling the girl away from the men as Todoroki called for the group to move somewhere else.
...
"We can't do anything to stand out," Todoroki explained, the group now standing across the street from the building.
"Then what now?" Hitomi asked.
Midoriya looked back at the building, his eyes falling on a small alleyway. "Let's try going around to the back. No matter how little information we have on this place, it's all we got."
...
"We can't move for sure until we know for sure it's safe," Midoriya said as the group walked through the narrow crevice. "No one will see us here," he glanced up at the building, noticing a window, "and at that height, we should be able to see inside, too!"
"Will we be able to see anything in this darkness?" Todoroki asked.
Hitomi saw Yaoyorozu pull off her sunglasses as she said, "I can make a night vision scope-"
"Wait, Yaoyorozu!" Kirishima interrupted, pulling something out. "I actually brought one with me..."
"Kirishima, how long have you had that?!" Hitomi asked her friend, surprised.
The redhead stared at the scope, a troubled look on his face. "When I thought about what we'd have to do, I thought we'd need it..."
"But isn't that super expensive?" Midoriya questioned. "I was doing some research on them when I was thinking about my hero costume, and if I remember correctly, they cost around fifty thousand yen..."
"Who cares how much they cost?" Kirishima said. "Stop talking about it!"
"Okay then," Hitomi interrupted. "Kirishima, Midoriya, you two look through it. I'll make a platform for you to stand on.
Hitomi had to squeeze past the others to get to by the window, Yaoyorozu, Todoroki, and Iida maneuvering around her so she could get to the front. After finally making her way through the cramped space, she made a force field platform by Midoriya and Kirishima's feet, allowing the two boys to step on. It slowly lifted into the air, giving them a chance to look through the window.
"Kirishima, what's inside?" Iida asked.
The boy in question leaned over the edge, looking through his night vision scope. "It's just dirty... I don't really see anything..." He suddenly gasped, taking a step back on Hitomi's force field.
"What's wrong?!" Todoroki said. "What do you see?"
Hitomi could see her friend trembling as he handed the scope to Midoriya. "In the back on the left...! Midoriya, look in the back on the left!"
Midoriya did as he asked, making a noise of disbelief as he looked inside.
"What?!" Hitomi exclaimed, concerned. "What is it?!"
She never got her answer, as Kirishima turned to look outside the alley and called for the group to do the same. Hitomi saw a glimpse of a car rising into the air before a loud crash sounded through the building, knocking the group off their feet.
They all had to gain their bearings for a moment as the dust slowly cleared, Hitomi making another platform for Kirishima and Yaoyorozu to stand on and find out what was happening.
"Mt. Lady and Gang Orca..." Kirishima muttered. "Even the No. 4 hero, Best Jeanist?"
"Tiger is there too!" Yaoyorozu added.
The students all breathed a sigh of relief as they listened into the heroes' conversation, Hitomi lowering her platform to let Kirishima and Yaoyoruzu back down on the ground.
"The heroes were already moving way before we were!" Iida exclaimed. "Now, we can fall back immediately. There's nothing left for us to do now."
Midoriya turned back to glance at the wall of the building, a curious look on his face. "Since Mt. Lady said 'with All Might,' does that mean Kacchan is there, too?"
"If All Might is there," Yaoyorozu responded, "then there's even more reason to rest easy. Now, hurry!"
...
Hitomi heard the sounds of Best Jeanist restraining someone with his quirk, fearing who it was the hero captured.
They had sounded awfully confident, and their words of "taking Ragdoll's quirk" and "their body depleting a lot of what they'd stocked up" gave her the feeling they needed to get out as soon as possible.
It had all happened in an instant.
A huge explosion sounded, decimating the building the heroes-in-training were standing by with the wall of the alleyway being the only thing keeping them hidden from view.
Hitomi could smell all the dust and smoke of the destruction as the voice spoke, her body unable to move a muscle.
She had just seen the image of her own death flash before her eyes.
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A/N: The first gif is actually taken from a small animation I made. I spent two hours looking for a voice clip from the voice actor I picked for Hitomi, putting a ludicrous amount of effort into a 6-second clip. You can find the whole thing on Hitomi's Instagram account, hitomi.mi.mii .