Chapter Text
‘How old are you?’
Shouta typed out, letting a yawn escape him. Since they had first met Player on the document, about five hours had passed. It was one in the morning now, and Player was still typing studiously away.
Shouta, for better or for worse, had occasionally been distracting him with questions. Eager to get as much information from the guy as possible. So far, he had been far from forthcoming, dancing around questions.
‘Eraserhead, I told you that you could message me if you had any questions regarding the Hassaikai. I didn’t expect you would use it to ask me personal information that bears no relevance on this matter.’
And then he continued typing away on the document. Over the course of the last five hours, Player had completed the analysis on Chronostasis, Mimic, Setsuno, Tabe, Hojo, and Rappa. Now, he was typing away about someone called ‘Shin Nemoto.’ He hadn’t got very far through it before Shouta decided to interrupt him again.
‘Is your quirk something computer based?’
The typing on the document paused for a moment, and then a reply sprung through.
‘Again, unimportant. I will tell you my quirk if I deem it necessary in future. Can you either silently watch me type, or leave me be. This is distracting.’
So, Shouta decided, he had prodded enough for the night. He turned off his laptop, lying down in bed beside Hizashi.
“You find anything interesting?” Hizashi yawned, eyes opening a crack to scrutinise Shouta for a moment, before rolling back over and closing his eyes at Shouta’s head shake. Maybe he’d bring this to Nedzu tomorrow?
-
Shouta woke to his alarm, feeling disproportionately not well rested. Instinctively, he flipped his laptop open, only to observe the fact that Player was still typing on the document. After scrolling through for a moment, Shouta realised that he was likely on the last person- one called ‘Deidoro Sakaki’.
‘Morning Eraserhead. Good sleep?’
Shouta had to admit, it was a little unnerving that Player could see whenever he was online. Still, he tried not to give it too much thought as he went to type out a reply, taking a swig of the cold coffee on his nightstand.
‘Hardly. And yourself? You slept right?’
‘Of course.’ Came the reply, and Shouta could practically feel the sarcasm radiating from the response. ‘I’m nearly done with this!’
That was the other thing which was wholly confusing about Player. Shouta had no idea how old he was. Sometimes, he typed formally and seriously, but other times he messaged as if he were a kid, sending emoticons and exclamation marks in abundance. Not only that, but Player was exceedingly immature at times, sending the nyan virus, for example.
Shouta decided that, as soon as he got into school, he’d bring up his concerns with Nedzu. Better to get it over with, he thought, even though he didn’t particularly enjoy the rodent’s company at the ebst of times. Going to him with a concern regarding a hacker slash analyst was far from the best of times. Still, it had to be done.
So Shouta pushed him out of bed, preparing himself for the day. Because it was the first day of school, after all. Shouta had been assigned to a first year class, and he definitely was not looking forward to that.
Still, some things had to be done.
After a substantial breakfast, he was well on his way to UA.
Nedzu’s lips quirked up as he skim read the document that Aizawa had brought to him, accompanied by some concerns.
Well this was interesting.
“And how did you come across this… Player?” He smiled thinly, looking up at Aizawa with a cocked head and glinting eyes.
“He hacked into Naomasa’s email and sent me some kind of troll malware,” Aizawa explained, brow furrowed, “said someone had paid him to do it.”
“I see…” Nedzu muttered, gaze returning to the document for a moment, scanning over the page on one of the Yakuza members- Yu Hojo. Despite there being remarkably little video footage of Hojo, Player had, somehow, managed to extract three pages worth of analysis. Not only that, but it was done to… an incredibly high standard, Nedzu thought, “I don’t suppose, Aizawa, that you have a way of getting into contact with him?”
Aizawa eyed Nedzu for a moment, but eventually conceded with a slow nod.
“He gave me an email.”
“A phone number, perhaps?” Nedzu hummed as Aizawa shook his head, “Hm… no matter. In that case, I shall leave him be for now.”
“For now,” Aizawa echoed, “What’re you planning to do with him?”
“Is it not enough that I simply might like to keep an eye on him?” Nedzu chuckled, before he felt a wolfish grin spreading up his face, “Do not tell me, Aizawa, that you don’t desire Player’s help. His… skills-”
“One of which is entirely illegal.” Aizawa muttered as Nedzu let out another sharp laugh.
“Illegal, maybe,” He agreed, “although I do believe a better word would be invaluable. It appears Player has not yet decided which side he’s on. I would rather he settled on the correct side. There are so few good hackers willing to work with us, and I am certain we could benefit from one who also seems to have an eye for analysis.”
“That’s true.” Aizawa sighed, adjusting his position in the chair slightly.
“And do you happen to know anything more about him? His quirk, maybe? His age?”
“I tried to ask a few… personal questions. He shut me down immediately, though. His quirk’s surely something to do with tech or analysis, given his…”
“Unusual talents,” Nedzu supplied with a curt nod, “yes, that much would make sense.” He fell silent for a moment, face falling into something a little more guarded as he contemplated, “and you said he was paid?”
“Yes.” Aizawa nodded with a slight inclination of his head.
“So let us email him and offer him a far greater sum of money? If money is his primary motivator, surely he will decide he falls on our side.” Nedzu hummed easily, smile spreading up his face as Aizawa nodded.
“On what grounds? I’m sure the commission wouldn’t be too pleased with you if they found out you were hiring a hacker.” He reasoned, pulling out his phone regardless.
“Oho, a valid point! We shall pay him off under the guise of employing him as UA’s official computing teacher.”
Shouta let out a breath as he tracked a group of three villains through the streets, mind hardly in it. He wanted to get back home, so he could get into contact with Player and explain what he and Nedzu had discussed.
He leapt over rooftops, falling into a rhythm as the villains below him got too comfortable, thinking they were safe. They had bags, stuffed to the brim full of jewellery and cash from the cash registers, all shadily gained.
Shouta chose then to strike, leaping down off the rooftops, quirk flaring to life as his hair raised off his neck. He reached for his capture weapon, and began to fight. He ducked below one’s punches, weaving between another’s kicks, moving to the third.
Only then did he realise that one of them was making sound effects.
Sounds straight from a soundboard came out loud as Shouta did anything. As he swung a punch at one of the three villains, a thudding sound effect would play. When he knocked one of them to the floor, the ‘downed teammate’ sound effect from that game Hizashi liked playing rung out. When one of the villains managed to get a hit off on Shouta, ‘emotional damage’ came the soundboard.
This was not funny.
Was it one of their quirks? He doubted it, because they had all made their quirks quite obvious by now. Shouta let out a growl, dodging another punch and tuning out the shimmering ‘wow’ sound effect that played. Then, he reached for his headset. Only Naomasa had access to it tonight, which must mean—
“Truth man,” He snarled down it, trying to reign in his breathlessness from the fight, “you better stop doing that right now, or I’ll-”
“It’s not me…” Naomasa cut in, “There’s someone else on the channel, but I can’t tell who.”
“Something tells me I know.” Shouta sighed gruffly, taking his opportunity to knock out the second of the three. A particularly loud ‘FAHHH’ from his headset made him lose concentration for a second though, and when he reoriented himself, he noticed that the third was legging it.
Through the headset came some kind of vine, going ‘run’ and then the beat dropped into a ridiculous, bass amplified tune. Shouta tried to give chase, but he realised he actually had no idea which way the third had gone.
“Player,” he hissed down the mic, “what the hell are you doing?”
“Good evening, Eraserhead,” came a voice which was… chilling. It had been changed and distorted by whatever softwares Player was using, and Shouta couldn’t help but think it was similar to the detective from that show some of his kids had been watching… Death Note? “I believe he went to the left.”
Shouta growled, deciding to cooperate. Last time Player had done something like this, he had been annoying once and then exceedingly helpful the second time. Hopefully it would be the same this time.
So, Shouta ran off to the left, following the route that Player had described for him.
He ran for about ten minutes to no avail, when Player sucked in a breath through his teeth and then clicked his tongue.
“Darn. I meant my left. You went the wrong way. You’re gonna have to backtrack.”
Right. Last time he did something annoying twice before the payout. How could Shouta have forgotten? He let out a breath of frustration, this time ensuring that Player told him the directions properly, until he stopped, finding the third man with his arms crossed, pacing up and down the alley.
With a quick blow to the back of his neck, the man was out cold.
And Player was gone.