Ch.16 - Soulmates Share Minor Injuries

Todoroki had no idea what he was doing. Well, the vigilante hadn't lashed out at him so he supposed the situation could be worse. Still, what was he even supposed to say? He'd grasped at straws and tried to guess at what might give him a way to ask about what was going on and found that above all else, he ought to thank her for saving him.

He had and somehow it'd been enough for the tiny stones beginning to hover around her ankles to clatter to the ground. Still, that now left him with the dilemma of what to say next. While there were a number of questions to pose, somehow he felt as though he was about as likely to get them as he was to see Endeavour being a good father.

At the small token of gratitude for how they'd saved the heroes before, Sky shrugged "We're not villains, despite how you heroes treat us."

He blinked at the tone. There was no anger but in its place there was a weariness he hadn't witnessed before. Different from Shinsou's tired expression just as it wasn't akin to his own hate-filled expression he'd seen reflected in Iida before the incident with Stain.

Something about the words stoked his own quiet fire though and he turned, meeting the ice and steel in the other's expression. "You're still a criminal. Heroics or not."

Sky shrugged and there was a flat boredom in her expression as though this conversation was an utter waste of time. "That we are. And actually, I suppose I ought to rephrase that statement and say that some of us aren't villains."

He blinked and backed up a step, temperature suddenly dipping and rising in response to the flash of panic that shot through him. No way... despite saving them, were some of them seriously real villains?

"Who?"

The female said nothing and instead sketched a brow as though debating what he would do if she didn't say anything at all. She went to breeze past him; to head inside of the café and at the sheer nerve of the gesture he stepped away from the side enough to block her.

She stopped at the movement and was close enough as her hair swayed slightly with the movement that he felt a brush of her quirk nearby. He had no idea what it was, but he could sense and feel that invisible barrier merely a hair's breadth from him. The realisation hit him that there was nothing he could do to force her to tell him. At no point had he debated having a fight and if he were being honest... he was tired of fighting them. Mutual understanding was what he truly wanted right now - to know why people decent enough to save him would be considered villains.

Sky shoved her hands in her pockets and braced her feet slightly farther apart and the cold that splintered across her gaze was more frigid than his ice as the temperature around them dipped in response to the unspoken challenge.

"Take it from me, hero, that vigilantism is laughable as a crime to some of us. We would be locked up for a long time if we tried to be real heroes."

Todoroki remained silent for a moment and didn't know what to think. On the one hand, knowing they were taking down real villains was a relief but yet some part of him wanted to believe that this group of misfits was trying to help. Their software had taken out a mole who had been dangerous and the two girls had put their lives on the line to save his friends and himself.

"Why save us then, if you're so bad?"

The other tilted her head in curiosity as though contemplating the question, and he felt her gaze settle on the burn across his left side. "Just because the heroes did nothing for us or for those kids doesn't mean we'll stoop to their level and let innocent people get hurt or put into a critical condition."

He was about to try and find some argument - something to try and persuade her that the heroes could be trusted, but she shuffled her feet in almost a guilty gesture and lowered her head slightly and he caught a hint of apology in the gesture.

"Besides, it was our fault for not being quick enough knocking the mole out. I- that was my mistake. If nothing else, I owed it to you for not thinking that whole interaction through. I'm sorry about that." Of all the things he'd been expecting from his debatable enemy, that was not one of them. Receiving apology after they'd fought a good number of times was stranger than he thought.

She... believed it was her fault? Bakugou had blasted through the floor but- she had noted that Amelia was getting better at baiting. Wait, did that mean that this girl had brought down an entire floor of the agency and simply made it look like Bakugou had gone through it?

Todoroki suddenly realised how much trouble they would've been in if they were real villains. The fact that neither of the three of them hadn't been hospitalised was nearly proof in itself that the vigilantes really didn't harbour any ill will towards them.

"The others listen to you."

"That's probably because I've got the most experience in managing people. I've been calling the shots from the beginning, though now the management is spread across a few of us." There was a hint of gratitude in her tone as she mused, giving away information. Enough to keep him curious, but-

"Who else is managing with you?"

"Wouldn't you like to know." She gave a small, cunning smile. Hook, line and sinker it appeared. "So what're you here for anyway? To thank me, put me in cuffs - which you won't, by the way - or to ask some questions and hope that I've got enough goodness in me to give you the answers."

She sighed and her shoulders slumped as her phone began buzzing before Todoroki could even open his mouth to answer that he did just want one vital piece of information if nothing else.

Sky slipped seamlessly into her natural language on the phone and seemed annoyed... but there was warm, good-natured humour in that smile that followed. "Honestly, trust them to run out of something just as we get back when we didn't pick up extra... Well, it's a nice day out. If you want to ask me anything, you can come along if you want."

Startled by the sudden lack of hostility after the conversation, Todoroki couldn't help but let his surprise show and Sky gave a small grin. "Sorry, I can tell you don't harbour any ill-intent. I shouldn't have said those things. It's hard to turn off the defensive side sometimes. Guess my quirk's the same. Barrier's still up, too."

"What... is your quirk?"

"Something I'd rather not talk about." Was the quick response as she strode past him and out into the sunshine, giving a satisfied puff as the delicious warmth washed over her after the shadowy chill of the alley beside the cafe.

What on earth was he thinking? Going for a leisurely stroll with a vigilante would never be a good idea on paper. For all he knew, she could whip around and put him out of commission for a while just to get their group off her back. From how irritated she'd been at their last encounter, he honestly wouldn't have been surprised. Then again, maybe that was because he'd been dealing with Bakugou too much recently and no level of grouchy behaviour could eclipse his after a three day coffee-induced investigation binge.

Something suddenly struck him about the tone, thinking about Bakugou. Sky hadn't shut that question down out of secrecy or hostility - he recognised those two things well enough by now. No, things weren't awkward after that comment and it felt to him like she genuinely didn't want to think about her quirk or discuss it with him. Out of all the things they could see eye to eye in... that might've been something.

Ah, but now wasn't the time to dwell on that because Todoroki did have quirk-related questions for her. "The villain had petals on him that petrified himself and Burnin. Do you know if it'll wear off?"

Sky blinked and nodded. "Yeah. About that, give it about a month. Or, here." She tossed him over a small vial. "That'll cure it."

"You just have this on you?"

She gave him a sheepish look and rubbed her arms as though cold as they carried on down the sidewalk but made no further comment. Something about the idea of carrying medicine seemed to make her uneasy and Todoroki found that he was going to have to try harder to catch some small social cues and hints.

So he simply watched and tried not to get slightly embarrassed when she flatly pointed it that it was rude to stare. Sky hadn't even looked at him to know he was staring when she'd said it. It nearly confirmed the suspicion brewing in his mind, that despite the uninterested, casual expression on her face, she was aware of everything happening around her. Despite the nonchalant movement as though she were wholly at ease, he got the sense that the white-haired female knew where every single person around them was and how they were moving.

Another lapse of silence hit and some part of him fell still and quiet. Their primary goal had been to find a way to help Burnin and figure out what the quirk was that gave out those petals. While they didn't know exactly what the cure was, this little vial could probably be analysed.

His voice sounded quiet even to his own ears as his next question finally arose. "Who are they?"

"Petal girl isn't from Japan. She was part of something else before; when it shut down she came here. Apparently the kidnapping business pays pretty well." Those eyes darkened slightly as though clouds had passed over an internal sun and she rubbed a hand against her nape. Sky blinked and it was gone.

He watched as she went into a small corner shop and followed after. So... mundane. It felt almost strange watching a vigilante going about ordinary business and then thinking about how quickly they could shift from this life into their shadowy side operation. Not to mention the vast difference in her attire from being in her own causalwear and her outfit. He was getting distracted wondering how many sizes too big the hoodie she was wearing was.

Pulling some cash out of a deep pocket in that oversized garment, she paid a cashier who laughed at the two boxes of pocky alongside the baking supplies and enquired as to the wellbeing of Sai. He guessed the bouncy female must've been a regular at some point.

"Weren't there enough snacks in the bags your friend took inside?" Todoroki had never seen anyone eat anywhere near that amount of sweet food before. Even if it was being shared it was still an awful lot. It was an effort not to mentally scold himself for wasting an opportunity to ask something serious on the pressing matter of snacks.

"Eh. The more boxes of snacks Sai has, the more she has to gamble and lose to me." Sky shrugged before giving him a lingering look as though internally debating if she ought to answer his other question which she'd left hanging between them. One she knew had been burning ever since he'd shown up.

"Why are UA students involved with you?"

Her brows rose slightly followed by a glimmer of approval. "Took you long enough to ask about our members. That's their stories to tell though, sorry."

They fell into silence but, even with their own differences, it wasn't uncomfortable. He was searching for something else to ask about, wondering what was the most important thing. So long as they could revive Burnin from her state in heroic purgatory, that was his highest priority. Now was the matter of the group itself. He had a pretty good idea that they weren't fond of heroes and if they couldn't become heroes but wanted to help then he could understand why they would take on the role of vigilantes.

It didn't make things any easier. It didn't make what they were doing right.

"This kidnapping case is important to all of us. The victims are children this time. They're vulnerable and the heroes can't touch this case due to the political issues with it going abroad." When he found it in himself to look back at her from where he'd been watching the path ahead, that blue gaze was fixed on his own. "If you're going to try and arrest us, at least wait until we've brought those guys down first."

They turned the final corner back to the maid café and Sky's pace faltered until she stopped, a couple steps back from him. That icy gaze had thawed and warmed as it fell on the maid café and when she looked at him, there was a silent request that he understood.

Leave the café out of this.

It was impossible. "You're vigilantes. We're heroes."

Sky loosed a breath and nodded, slowly looking at her little workplace and then back at him. "Mmn. We are."

"Why does this case mean so much to you all?"

"Why does it mean so much to us?" Sky echoed, almost numbly as she looked at him and he realised that the look lingered pointedly on the burn across the left side of his face.

He fought off the spark of repulsion he had at her stare. He'd never been bothered by it before so why- why did it feel as though she was reading him like an open book when she looked at it? For an instance he was tempted to give her a piece of his mind about it, and tell her it was rude to stare, as she'd murmured to him earlier, but she went first.

"I'd say that it's largely because some of us didn't get to have happy childhoods, but I think you understand that." Sky looked at him and gave a small smile. "If you're going to be a hero, why don't you focus on the real bad guys out there? Speaking of, drop by after hours sometime. We can probably give you some villain profiles to help you out with looking into the kidnappings as a better way for you three to spend your time. If you can at least cut off the kidnappings on this end, the trafficking business will wither without a supply of children to exploit."

Without waiting for a response she turned on her heel and raised a hand in farewell. He hadn't missed the look at the café and the fondness she'd let him see for a moment. It'd lasted long enough that he'd taken it for the warning it was. Sky had shown that in order to let him see how much the café and the employees inside meant to her.

It'd been nothing short of a warning that if they brought the café into things, that they'd get no mercy whatsoever from her. Todoroki had the feeling that the others inside felt the same. The little bell chimed as she opened the door and watched from that corner as she staggered back as someone came shooting at her. Blonde and brightly dyed hair flashed as Sai nearly swung Sky into a hug before the other batted the older female off and went inside.

Wait- why was he waiting here? Oh, right, Midoriya.

Thankfully for the aspiring pro, he didn't have to loiter for long before the freckled hero appeared, looking utterly red in the face. Had it been unbearably hot inside there or something?

"S-Sky-san s-said you two spoke, so I thought I could get out of there." Midoriya looked as though he was having trouble putting words together. Heatstroke maybe? Still, getting that inside would be quite a feat, but he really didn't look well.

"Yeah."

"Wait..." Green eyes widened as he started looking around. "Where's Kacchan?"

"Bakugou? He left."

Midoriya's shoulders slumped slightly as he let out a sigh but smiled. "Yeah, I guess I should've expected that. Well, let's head back for now. Maybe we'll find Kacchan at the dorms."