"What happened to Shinsou, Sakura, Syoda, and Hyuuga?" One of the staff of the academy asked the homeroom teacher of class 1-A, Narumi.
Narumi sighed, "I don't know. Ever since Natsume was in the hospital, I haven't heard from either of them."
Jinno frowned, "That's concerning. And then them planning an escape right after the hospital feat? That's suspicious."
The other two teachers stayed silent, they agreed with Jinno, but clearly wouldn't voice it.
"It wasn't on purpose!" Ruka, who had been eavesdropping on their conversation with Hotaru by accident, said.
"How do you escape the academy and have it not be on purpose?" The unknown teacher asked.
"Natsume was kidnapped!" Ruka defended them, "And you guys wouldn't listen, they had no choice."
Jinno sighed, "This propaganda again..."
Hotaru's steely gaze kept the other two from saying anything as she said, "I have proof."
That caught the teachers' attention.
~~~
Natsume opened his eyes for the first time in ages as he observes his surroundings. He is slightly disgusted by how Mikan is chewing on Sumire's restraints, although he doesn't show it. -He also can't deny it's somewhat(?) effective.-
"Natsume!" Mikan exclaimed in happiness.
"Shut up, baka. They might come back," Sumire said, ignoring how Mikan paled ever so slightly at her sentence.
There was a barrier surrounding them, "We can't use our alices."
Mikan frowned as she nodded, "Yeah, we've tried using them multiple times but to no avail."
"You have earmuffs," Natsume said, "Why?"
"Oh these earmuffs were to communicate with Hota-" A look of realization dawned on her features.
-In the shadows, Shinsou prevented himself from facepalming at Mikan's momentary stupidity.-
"Well?" Sumire glared at Mikan, "Call them!"
Mikan did just that, and luckily, the teachers and Hotaru replied.
"What are they saying?" Natsume asked.
Mikan smiled, "They're trying to locate us so we shouldn't try to antagonize them or we could get hurt."
-That was one of the dumbest pieces of advice Hitoshi had ever heard. Shouldn't they be trying to escape? Nonetheless, Hitoshi left to do some work.-
Mikan then said, "You should burn the ropes if you can, Natsume-kun."
A small fire exploded in Natsume's palm. He used that to slowly burn his rope. He was about to go to Sumire's but paused when he heard the door creak slightly. The three kids looked like deers stuck in headlights as Reo came in and took the earmuffs right off of Mikan's head. The barrier was seemingly disabled so Reo could do his true objective, that Mikan and Sumire had heard earlier, and making join the Z organization.
Reo gruffly grabs Natsume with his hands, he pulls on Natsume's collar, "We need you. You should join our organization. You won't be alienated since we're all just like you."
Suddenly, a thump interrupted everything. That thump was then followed by at least fifty more. Mikan looked around, "What's going on?"
They heard Reo's comm switch on from the dead. "There's an intruder in the building-- it's a kid. His Alice is really strong and he can fight--" Everyone in the room heard as the guy was cut off, his comm falling onto the floor, the line dead.
"Anyway," Reo somehow seemed unaffected by the sudden fall of his men.
"How could you not care for them?" Mikan asked. She looked absolutely distraught.
"They're the low-level pawns, why should I care?"
There's a man in the room that wasn't Reo, he hadn't chosen to speak until now, "That girl doesn't seem affected by your Alice."
That's when Mikan realized Reo was still using his Alice. She hadn't noticed, but a quick glance at her dazed friends confirmed the fact. Reo's eyes narrowed in suspicion, inspecting Mikan closer, "Her face matches that woman's too."
More thumps resounded on the top floor, this time, they were in such rapid succession that they gained Reo's attention.
The man that spoke out earlier said, "We should check that out and take out who's doing it."
Reo sighed before agreeing. They both left the room.
-They didn't know that Hitoshi was planning this, and thus, their fall.-
"We need to escape. Sumire, do you smell anything?" Natsume asked.
"Gunpowder," Sumire answered immediately, "Lots of it."
Natsume managed to get them both out of their restraints before saying, "Here's the plan-"
~~~
Hitoshi yawned. Using his quirk so much does have some kind of backlash, although right now, it's just a dull headache. He wasn't a fan of the new restraints. Those things zapped him every time he used his quirk on more than two people, thus him having to take out most of the men using combat. Which Hitoshi duly noted, much to his annoyance, made all the men fall unceremoniously to the floor, creating loud noises. That 1, gave away his position to the enemy, and 2, just annoyed him in general.
He met this 'Reo' guy and immediately noticed how much his quirk was like Midnight's and his mashed together. If his qui-Alice. Alice, Hitoshi. He doesn't have a quirk. If his Alice is the Voice Pheromone, and Narumi's is just a pheromone, then I can infer that they're all just like Midnight's quirk but without the gas. Shinsou's eyes narrowed ever so slightly, Meaning if I listen to this guy too much, it might be me getting knocked out.
That just makes everything more difficult, Nonetheless, Hitoshi had people to save. And with that, he jumped into action.
~~~
Mikan, Sumire, and Natsume were unnerved with how quiet the base was. Sumire then heard one final, soft thump, "So, there are really no enemies here."
"What do you mean?" Mikan inquired.
"There's no one left," Hitoshi appeared from a door nearby. The first thing the kids noticed was the fact that he had a very visible limp.
"Hitoshi??" Mikan looked over at him in concern, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine-"
"Did you take down all the guys?" Natsume asked.
Shinsou nodded, "But they all got a few lucky hits in though. I'm rusty."
Sumire stared in slight awe before her face fell, "They're waking up."
Hitoshi nodded, "They'll only stay unconscious for a few more moments so we need to get going."
They all agreed and got going quickly. However, they were stopped, by a very persistent Reo. "You will not be leaving anytime soon."
They briefly panicked, before Natsume said, "I'll hold him off until you guys escape."
~~~
"If you're ever caught, make sure the enemy and you don't survive. You'll erase all the evidence."
~~~
"Natsume?! We can't just leave you behind!" Mikan argued.
"We're all going to be left behind if we don't rush," Sumire commented.
Shinsou stayed silent. I can't really take on Reo. Not like this. I'm not the Shinsou Hitoshi I was. I barely survived the first encounter. The second encounter? Not a chance. Luckily, the only advantage here is my quirk.
That I, unfortunately, can't use due to these blasted restraints. It was easy to notice how annoyed Shinsou was about that fact.
Before Hitoshi could come up with a good decision, Sumire took him and Mikan and ran. The sudden grabbing made him stumble, but it just made the pain in his ankle worse. Shinsou knew that it wasn't broken, so it was most likely sprained. That didn't stop it from hurting like hell though.
"Syoda, can you please slow down?" Shinsou asked, "My ankle, I think it's sprained."
Mikan glanced at Shinsou in surprise, "I thought you said you were fine!"
"I was until we started running."
Sumire, luckily, slowed down a lot, which lessened the strain put on Hitoshi's ankle. But the sharp pain didn't stop. At least it's manageable. With that one thought, it was enough to let Mikan out of their sight. "Mikan?"
Sumire completely stopped. She frowned, looking around wildly, "Where did the baka go? We can't leave without her!"
"Or Hyuuga," Shinsou dryly commented.
That one comment was enough for the two to infer where Mikan went.
~~~
I have to save Natsume-kun! He shouldn't have to fight alone! Mikan tried speeding up her sprint. She had to get there faster, what if it was already too late to save Natsume-kun?
Luckily, she found Natsume still in the same room. He was fighting Reo and he looked to be panting hard. A good look at Reo suggested that he was doing better than Natsume, and that was not good. Mikan panicked. In her panic, she grabbed Natsume and began running.
"Wh-"
Reo looked alarmed. By now, nearly all the men in the warehouse had awakened. "Get them!" Reo commanded.
Mikan was running with Natsume to a different room in the warehouse, which was much like a labyrinth.
"Why- why did you come back?" They had paused so Natsume could catch his much-needed breath.
"I couldn't leave you, you're my partner, you're my friend."
Unfortunately, again, Reo had appeared. But due to Mikan being near a bag of gunpowder, she threw the gunpowder at his eyes. Reo shut his eyes briefly, but that brief second was enough for the kids to go running again.
They fell down a flight of stairs due to Mikan's misdirection, much to Natsume's growing annoyance."You need to leave, Mikan."
"People are waiting for you at the Academy! I can't leave you!"
"That makes no sense! We're not even friends!" Natsume was dead tired. He just wanted all of this to end. The boy was in no mood for a dumb conversation with Mikan, which somehow, escalated into a full-blown argument.
"Ack-" Natsume is grabbed gruffly by one of Reo's lackeys.
"Natsume-kun-" Mikan tries to reach out for him but was thrown into a wall. It caused her to automatically slump, clearly unconscious.
Natsume snapped. Even if he's not their friend, he doesn't like people getting hurt because of him. Flames ignited around him.
The lackeys panicked, "He's going to blow up the ware-"
The last thing Natsume saw was his very familiar sensei and an annoying mop of purple hair.
~~~
Mikan opened her eyes, only to immediately close them again, as they adjusted to the lighting of the room. She felt groggy, absolutely exhausted even though she seemingly just woke up. Mikan looked around her room, a smile growing on her face when she sees two people, "Hotaru, Hitoshi!"
"Mikan, you're finally awake, baka," Hotaru said, "Don't stay sleeping for that long ever again."
Shinsou had a small, light, and rare smile planted on his lips, "Welcome back to life, Mikan."
Her memories came rushing to her, which caused a wave of realization to whisp over the brunette. "Where's Natsume-kun, is he okay?"
Hotaru nodded, "He's asleep in his room."
"Reo escaped though," Shinsou said, "So now we gave to be careful."
"I'm just happy everyone's okay," Mikan smiled. "We should visit Natsume-kun!"
"Yeah, yeah, let's go, baka."
~~~
Nothing can explain the immense relief Shinsou felt when Mikan woke up. Seeing her all bright and bubbly again made him somewhat happy. He was happy they survived that, although somewhat frustrated again at this new environment.
This same environment that took Aizawa, forced him to work for them, forced restraints on him, and took Eri. He was annoyed, and beyond mad. But seeing Mikan's and everyone's happiness just washed all that frustration away.
Mikan finally got promoted to a one-star, and she was delighted. Right now, they're all heading to Natsume's room due to Mikan insisting.
As they walked, it was dead silent. It seemed that Mikan was lost in thought. She was thinking, and that was something Shinsou and Hotaru weren't willing to interrupt.
She needs time to process things, Shinsou thought, since it made a lot of sense. After all, they did get kidnapped, and survive an explosion. Along with the fact that she woke up today, Mikan needed time to process things.
Perhaps she's in shock, one could say, but they wouldn't know, would they? The mind is a person's personal, unknown to anyone else. That's why when someone's thinking, Shinsou doesn't annoy them.
They made it to Natsume's room. There he was, snoring softly. Mikan looked like she was going to cry from relief, but she didn't, which to Hitoshi, was very surprising.
The moment just reminded Hitoshi of how he needs to work harder, just so he can prevent things like this from happening again.
~~~
Author's corner:
N: Hey! I hope you like this chapter! What do you think is going to happen next? Thank you for reading!