In Your Shadow [Chapter 37]

“Thank you all for rearranging your schedules to be here on a weekend,” Deku began, when Paragon slid into a seat, apologising for the delay – not that it was really a delay, considering he’d come straight from a patrol and they all knew it. “I’m sure you’ve noticed, I’ve asked Katsuki to join us, for the sake of learning more about how we operate, here. He’s promised to behave, so don’t hold back on anything you want to say because of him.”

Katsuki mimed zipping his lips, and caught a couple of grins appear in the group over it.

“There are a couple of big topics I want to cover today, and I’m going to let Tokue start us off on the first one.”

“Of course you are,” Spelling Bee said, with a slightly pained smile. “You couldn’t do it for me?”

“Do you want me to?”

“It’s fine,” Spelling Bee sighed. “I submitted my resignation to Deku, this week.”

Even if Katsuki had been allowed to contribute, he wasn’t sure he’d have been able to, in that moment. He’d seen no indication that anyone was preparing to leave the agency, and didn’t understand why they would. Any attempt he’d made at words likely would have failed immediately.

“I’ve been talking to an old friend,” Spelling Bee explained. “We’ve always wanted to start an agency together in our home town, and we’ve both reached a point where it seems feasible. We’ve gotten enough experience in amazing places, we’ve saved up some cash for a starting point, we’ve even found a location that looks perfect, if a lot less fancy than this place.”

“It sounds like the right time,” Plasmatic agreed. “But we’ll be sad to see you go.”

“We’ve never had a Deku Agency without a Bee in it,” Deku said softly, his smile sad. “But I’m proud of you for taking this step, and if you need any help, at any time, I hope you know we’ll be here for you.”

“I appreciate that.”

“So as you’ve probably all guessed, one of our big tasks is going to be picking out a replacement for the Lead team. I want to get Bee’s thoughts before they leave, especially, and of course you all know better than me about who would fit into that spot. Trax, Igneo, I know you haven’t officially done one of these with us, so as a brief for you, and a reminder for everyone else, our main priority is choosing someone who can lead a team and keep things under control even when they go south. If we think we have multiple good options, priority goes to who will serve us best for the future in taking on subordinates. While we don’t get a huge number of intellectual and support quirks here, Bee has always been a valuable asset for helping those who come in with them.”

“I only have the one ‘ord right now,” Spelling Bee added. “But if I can start handing him over to someone, so we have some transition time, that would be great.”

“Plain Sight?” Trax asked. “I can do that.”

“That would be great,” Deku said. “Going from Bee to a former Bee ‘ord is probably the smoothest transition we could hope for. I’ll find a time the four of us can all meet and have a chat.”

“I don’t mind taking more on in future, either,” Trax offered. “I know it’s annoying for some of them, having to work nights, but it’s an option, if we don’t pick a newbie who can take that role.”

“Thank you, I really appreciate that. I also want to chat about our sidekick team, before we settle on a Lead, in case it impacts our decision at all.”

“Is there an issue?” Spark Plug asked. “I thought they’d been handling all the recent business really well, at least from what I’ve seen.”

“They have,” Deku agreed. “I know the ten of you have been really overburdened lately with things like patrol reports and ‘ord training and all our extra calls. I was really pleased by the way our sidekicks were able to step up and take over the patrols, when the rest of us couldn’t be there. I think our team of ten is great for patrol numbers, but I thought maybe we should create a kind of senior-sidekick team, who we can provide with extra training, then call on for things like covering illnesses. We have the ten who filled in already, but if there are any others who we feel should be given more responsibility, or even any who we want to start coaching toward it, it would be good to know.”

“Framerate,” Spark Plug suggested immediately. “Xe’s been invaluable lately. I know xe hasn’t been here very long, so I’d be hesitant to say Lead material, but for a seniority role, one hundred percent.”

“I agree,” Paragon said, nodding along. “I think if xe’d had more time in our system here, it would be worth considering, but maybe a little more time before leadership.”

“Okay, that sounds great. I haven’t spent much time with xem yet, I’ll have to find a chance.”

“I think Puppetmaster should be in there too,” Nightbolt suggested, and Katsuki racked his brain to try to place the name. “He always had a lot of leadership potential, even as an ‘ord, but lately he’s had some massive successes, and I think we should reward that.”

“Perfect,” Deku agreed. “Anyone else?”

No one spoke up, so Deku nodded.

“I’ll make some notes and suggestions, send them to you all for approval, then get in touch with them. If you think of anything else in the meantime, let me know, and I’ll add them to the list.”

Katsuki made a mental note to find and meet this Puppetmaster guy. He thought he’d met all the major players in the agency already, but it seemed he was still missing some.

“Last sidekick discussion,” Deku said, smiling wryly as he looked straight at Igneo. “What are your thoughts on promoting one of them early?”

“Maelstrom?” Igneo asked, grinning. “I’m all about it.”

“Hell yeah,” Trax agreed, chuckling. “He’s always been right at the top end of the ‘ords, let alone recently.”

“The fact that he showed up to help, from home, after he’d barely finished a ten hour shift, speaks volumes,” Deku said fondly. “I want to reward that, not make him stay as an ‘ord just for the sake of timing.”

“Totally agree,” Igneo said. “I’ll miss having him around all the time, but he deserves it for sure, and we could use him.”

“I’ll let you tell him,” Deku offered. “Just get him to contact me about his schedule preferences.”

That Katsuki hadn’t considered. The ‘ords were more like him, bouncing around on different patrols and trainings to learn from people, but the official sidekicks tended to have more consistent schedules. He was happy for Maelstrom, obviously, but it was kind of a shame to hear they might not be on patrols together as much. Then again, it would probably save him a hell of a lot of teasing, so maybe he should have been counting his blessings.

“Alright,” Deku said with a sigh, finally sitting down. “So, is there any reason we wouldn’t go straight to the ten who already covered?”

Everyone shook their heads, reaching for tablets from their bags in a weird unison, pulling up some kind of app or document that Katsuki apparently didn’t know about, considering he had no clue why they were doing it.

“Starting with the obvious,” Ephia offered. “None of them are Bee ‘ords.”

“Yeah,” Paragon agreed, swiping through something. “That would’ve been nice.”

“We have Trax,” Deku reminded them. “Focus on their strengths first.”

“They’re all capable of doing the job,” Spark Plug pointed out. “It’s gonna be the tiny details that set someone apart. Like, Virtus has been here longer than most of our staff, and he has a lot of respect from the sidekicks.”

“He’s never seemed keen on it though,” Ephia said, sighing. “I think he’d agree if we asked him, but if it was the other way around and we were asking candidates to step forward, he definitely wouldn’t.”

“From interest or doubt?” Paragon asked.

“Isn’t either one bad?”

“True.”

“Borealis has been around forever, too,” Plasmatic suggested. “She’s more interested, but probably less prepared.”

“She’s great, but I think she could use a little more experience. She hasn’t had to deal with anything weird yet.”

“Mason? They’re a great leader.”

“Hasn’t been here long, not very useful as an instructor when we have Igneo.”

“Stagger is amazing in combat and level-headed, but hasn’t done a lot of leading.”

“Thermo would be useful for lightening Plasmatic’s workload.”

As one, the group paused, and Deku cracked a smile at the silence.

“I was thinking the same,” he said quietly. “You’re all more equipped than me to judge, but after some of our recent incidents, the way he responded and took care of his team, I think a lot of him.”

Katsuki was itching for one of the tablets, to see who they were talking about, but he had no way of getting a peek at them without walking halfway across the room.

“Any objections?” Deku asked. “Don’t be afraid to say so.”

“He didn’t come through our system. He’s seen it a lot, but didn’t personally experience it.”

“Good thought, thank you,” Deku said, nodding along. “He also hasn’t been here as long as some of the others.”

“Yeah, but he has experience from other agencies.”

“That could even prove more beneficial.”

“Are we all in agreement, then?” Deku asked. “Please speak up, if not.”

“I’d be happy with a few of them. Most of them,” Razor said. “But yeah, I’m cool with that.”

Everyone nodded their agreement, and Deku smiled again finally, reaching for his phone.

“It’s settled; I’ll give Orus a call.”

“He should be on site right now,” Trax pointed out, grinning. “You should just ask him to come in and join us.”

“That’s so mean!”

“Nah, it’ll be hilarious,” Igneo agreed. “Bee, do you have a spell that’ll make party poppers or something?”

“I could do flashing lights?” Spelling Bee offered.

“Colourful ones?”

“Sure.”

“Excellent.”

“I’ll order a cake,” Spark Plug offered, grabbing his phone. “And drinks.”

“You guys are gonna be the death of me,” Deku sighed, though Katsuki noticed he made no attempt to stop them. “Let me know how long the delivery will be.”

“Aww, you’re gonna let us get set up first? You do love us.”

“No, I’m gonna ask him to grab the delivery at the door and bring it in,” Deku informed them, grinning. “He won’t question it.”

“Hell yes!”

They moved on to other subjects while they waited, including the new meals system based on Katsuki and Mirio’s talks, and the change in the ‘ord contracts to remove their expense cards – though he insisted they would still be included for any future interns they took, for commute purposes, despite Katsuki’s objections behind the scenes. The kitchen staff were going to make bigger meals, to start with, and portion up the leftovers in a communal fridge, for staff to grab them whenever they needed it. A dinner service was going to come in on a trial basis, to test out costs and how many people used it, and they were going to do the same with their leftovers. Katsuki was pretty sure their staff could get away with never buying groceries again, if they wanted to.

“I don’t think the ’ord cards will save us much money in the long run,” Deku admitted. “But I think this system will work out fairer to everyone, if nothing else. If there are any financial changes, they’ll go back into the food budget, to help with the costs of extra ingredients and such.”

“You’re about to take away the Lead budget, aren’t you?” Spark Plug pouted. “I like our little parties!”

“You mean the piggy bank?” Deku laughed. “No, you can keep your change.”

“Yay! Oh, the cake is on its way.”

“I’ll shoot Orus a message.”

Sure enough, soon there was a knock at the door, and Spelling Bee was quickly whipping out her giant tome, mumbling words off a page that they found surprisingly quickly. The room filled with flashing lights, and the door opened, Orus stepping in and immediately looking confused.

“Congratulations!” Igneo and Trax declared.

“Come have a seat,” Deku laughed. “Do you have a few minutes?”

“For my boss and leads?” Orus asked, raising an eyebrow. “Uh, yes, Sir, I have time.”

“Great, open up that bag for us.”

Orus sat down obediently, setting the bag on the table and pulling out the cardboard box from within. He looked up at Deku for clarification, getting a nod, so he lifted the lid, staring.

“I think the best place to start is that Bee handed in his resignation,” Deku said, smiling when Orus’s headed darted up, wide eyes staring at Spelling Bee. “We were wondering if you’d be interested in taking their place.”

“Me?”

“You did an amazing job when you were covering for us recently, and we all agree that you have the leadership, the composure, and the technical skill to be able to excel in the job. You genuinely care about your colleagues, and you do your best to help at every opportunity, and those are all qualities we need in our Patrol Leaders. If you’re not interested, for any reason, please don’t feel obligated to say yes, but if you are, we’d like to welcome you to the team.”

“And either way, we’re eating the cake!” Spark Plug grinned.

“I’d be honoured,” Orus agreed, getting cheers from the room. “Thank you for thinking of me, it means a lot.”

“Welcome aboard,” Deku said, visibly relieved. “I’ll arrange a meeting with you another day to start talking about contracts and schedules, but we’ve got a few more weeks before Bee leaves us, so please don’t worry – you have plenty of time to learn the ropes.”

With everyone in agreement, they began cutting into the cake, but Katsuki just reached out, gently tapping Deku on the arm.

“Everything okay?” Deku asked, immediately focussed on nothing but Katsuki. “What’s up?”

“Sorry,” he mumbled. “I uh, it’s almost two.”

“Oh! Sorry, Katsuki, I lost track of time. You go, take some cake with you.”

He picked up two pieces before Katsuki could object, wrapping them in paper towels, and Katsuki managed a little smile when Deku shoved them into his hands.

“Be good,” he instructed, grinning all the same. “Thanks for coming.”

“Thanks for having me.”

He shot a last wave at the leaders, but he didn’t bother trying to congratulate Orus, while he was so deep in the attention of the others. He’d have plenty of chances later, when he was supposed to officially know, rather than just being on deck for the meeting.

With his hands awkwardly full of cake, Katsuki hurried to the elevator, making his way to the little office. What he didn’t expect was to find Yutaka opening two big boxes inside, flashing Katsuki a grin when he heard him arrive.

“I got beanbags!” Yutaka said excitedly, and Katsuki couldn’t help but laugh. “I thought I’d open them up so you can be the first to try them out with me.”

“Sounds good,” Katsuki chuckled. “I brought cake; now it’s a party.”

“Oh man, what a week!”

———

“You all good?” Katsuki asked, when Igneo flopped dramatically onto a break room couch. “Need anything?”

“Sleep,” Igneo chuckled. “Spark desperately wanted the night off, so I agreed to do the extra back-up, but I’m regretting it now, after staying for the meeting.”

Katsuki had never really thought about it before, but it was true, Igneo didn’t exactly get a break between patrols, most of the time. There were back-up times, sure, when if he was lucky, nothing would go wrong and he’d just get to chill, but he still had to be prepared, had to be ready to go at a moment’s notice. And sure enough, their Lead meeting had fallen right in the middle of his one short break for the day, keeping him away from any chance at a nap or even a decent meal.

“Have you eaten anything today? Other than cake?”

“I had a couple of onigiri between patrols.”

“Between patrols?” Katsuki asked, brain whirring. “So, before the cake?”

“Huh? Yeah, I guess so. Why?”

“It’s eight o’clock,” Katsuki pointed out.

“You policing my eating habits?” Igneo teased. “I’ll grab something on my way home, don’t worry.”

Katsuki huffed, glancing toward the break room door, then back at Igneo’s collapsed, but smiling, frame.

“I’ll grab you food,” he said, already walking toward the door. “If anything happens, you can just drop it and run.”

Igneo hesitated, but managed a laugh, slinging an arm over his eyes to block out the light.

“Thanks, Dynamight,” he conceded. “That'd be nice. I appreciate the concern.”

Katsuki slipped into the cafeteria, feeling weirdly like he was doing something wrong as he picked up a container. It was the first of their new dinner services, and while there were far fewer staff around than during the week, they all seemed to be making the most of it – himself included, just a couple of hours earlier. Deku would be pleased, he was sure.

Katsuki realised too late that he didn’t really know what Igneo liked to eat, though he’d definitely eaten some of the bulk batch of katsudon, so at least he wasn’t a vegetarian or something. Katsuki settled for a bit of everything – rice and noodles at the bottom, topped with three different meats and seven vegetables, barely staying within the confines of the container as he balanced a lid precariously on top and hurried back to the break room.

Igneo sat up when he heard the door, and managed another tired smile when Katsuki set the container down in front of him, offering him a napkin with a knife, fork, spoon, and a pair of chopsticks wrapped inside.

“You know I wouldn’t have been picky, right?” Igneo asked, a little teasingly. “Thank you, Dynamight. It’s nice to have you here, keeping an eye on us.”

“Not much else I can do,” Katsuki said awkwardly, eyes darting away. “May as well try to keep people alive in the boring ways.”

Igneo chuckled, reaching for a skewer of grilled beef that Katsuki mentally took note of for next time.

“What are you working on, anyway?” Igneo asked. “I don’t often see you in here.”

“I usually do schoolwork when I have a break,” Katsuki told him. “But it’s summer, so I don’t have any right now. Just been writing notes and stuff for Deku, before I head to bed.”

“Notes? Oh, your weekly things?”

Katsuki blinked at him; he hadn’t realised anyone but Deku and Mirio knew about those.

“Apparently he didn’t realise you weren’t in the group chats until a report you wrote for him?” Igneo continued, snorting a little as he laughed. “God, it’s a wonder that you found anything in this place.”

“It’s been a lot easier lately,” Katsuki admitted. “Hey, do you get a summer break too?”

“Yep! From the end of the month, though. A bunch of people are taking leave while we have extra staff to cover things, so you’ll see me around more often.”

“Cool,” Katsuki said, cursing his face for getting warmer. “Um, we can spar again then, right? A bunch, even?”

“Damn right,” Igneo assured him, getting a genuine laugh out of Katsuki for it. “I’m looking forward to it.”

Katsuki’s smile lingered as he sat down, a little less nervous than he’d started out.

“Sorry to distract you from the food, but uh, Aizawa-sensei said I should tell you about an incident I helped with recently. He said you’d have something to tell me, after.”

“Oh?” Igneo raised an eyebrow, taking a bite of noodles before he nodded. “Go ahead.”

Once more, Katsuki repeated the bridge story, though he noticed, this time, that the adrenalin didn’t seem to hit him quite so hard. His fingers still drummed against the table, oddly twitchy, but he didn’t have that urge to look over his shoulder, to make sure there were no mangled cars waiting behind him.

“Have you talked to someone?” Igneo asked first, when Katsuki had finished regaling him with it. “Yutaka, right?”

Katsuki didn’t remember telling him that, but he supposed he must have, for Igneo to ask it so blatantly.

“I have,” Katsuki assured him. “It still makes me a little… anxious. But I’m doing better.”

“Understandably,” Igneo said, sighing. “I hope the others are, too. Your classmate, Shouto? Has he talked to someone?”

“I… don’t know, but I doubt it.”

“You should mention that to Deku.”

“Shouto’s family isn’t exactly the therapy type.”

“Endeavour, right?” Igneo asked, though it clearly wasn’t actually a question. “That’s why I thought maybe Deku could sort something. Aizawa, even. Between the two of them, surely.”

“Oh. Yeah, maybe.”

“Want me to talk to him?”

Katsuki paused for a second, then shook his head.

“I can do it, but thanks.”

“All good. You know I’ll do it, right? Anything you aren’t comfortable addressing, or if you want back-up when you do, just hit me up, I’ve got your back.”

“You have too many ‘ords,” Katsuki said, smiling a little teasingly. “You’re going all parental on me.”

“I just know what it’s like,” Igneo laughed. “I’ve never been good at standing up for myself.”

“Really? You seem… confident.”

Igneo just shrugged, and Katsuki didn’t dare to push it further.

“So, my provisional licence,” Igneo began, and Katsuki perked up again. “It was supposed to be about rescue simulations. You know they always try to theme it based on recent events and stuff? So Deku’s year had been caught in a bunch of weird attacks and been thrown in the deep end with rescue work, and they decided to test us out, see how we’d handle doing the same. They set up these different environments, a lot like USJ, and it was basically like ‘hey, all these people are gonna die, figure out how to stop that. Go.’ with us all left to organise ourselves by area and form teams based on the strengths of people we didn’t know, all that kind of thing.”

So far it sounded like any other exam, but still Katsuki was on the edge of his seat, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“I dunno if you know this, but the group they hire to act as victims, they have like a safe word, a phrase that means ‘something got fucked up and we’re in legitimate danger’. But it’s kind of funny, thinking back, because you know the difference before it actually happens, before they say the words. You know when the screams become real.”

Katsuki just nodded. He’d been involved in enough incidents to understand exactly what he meant.

“I guess the arena they built was too temporary, too flimsy since they’d be pulling it down afterward anyway. There was this massive bridge spanning the entire arena, and before they even said ‘go’, there was this awful grating noise and the whole thing began to fall apart.”

“Fuck.”

“Worse,” Igneo said softly. “There were a bunch of cars up there, people driving back and forth. Apparently there was meant to be a car drive off the side at some point, to add an extra incident into the mix. It wasn’t attached to a real road, just cars driving in circles.”

“Fuuuuuck.”

“Yeah. So I hear this awful noise, and I look up, and suddenly chunks of metal are raining down on us, and people are screaming, and cars are falling, not just toward us, but into all the other rescue simulation zones. Of course they don’t happen to make stone bridges which sure as hell would have been nice, because my quirk is useless to me in that moment. But as soon as that first car hits the ground, I’m running. I’m helping people out of their vehicles, checking for injuries, yelling to the medics who come rushing in and letting them know who needs help first. And all the heroes are flooding in from the stands where they were watching, racing over to help. Endeavour is there carrying people away from fires, Best Jeanist and Aizawa are hauling people up from cliffs, All Might was just using sheer brute force to get people out of danger. But I’m just running alongside them, helping wherever I can, doing what they tell me if they give me orders, helping build pathways for people who are stuck, whatever comes up. Like my brain goes on autopilot, except every minute of it, I’m just screaming at myself to keep going, to not think about it, to just keep doing what my body knows it should be doing. I didn’t know until hours later that when everything went wrong, all my classmates turned and looked into the stands. Out of forty students in my year, I was the only one who ran the right direction.”

“You were the only one who passed?”

“From my year,” Igneo specified, smiling wryly. “There was one other person who ran with me, but he was a year older. He’d failed the year prior because he broke a ton of bones during the exam, overusing his quirk. He had a bit of a history of it, and they refused to reward him for spending over a year in the school without learning any self-preservation.”

Katsuki just stared at him, and Igneo chuckled.

“We’d never really interacted before that day, and after it, we basically just exchanged smiles in the hallways. But that day, he walked over to me and he patted me on the back, and he said ‘we did good’. I knew he was gonna be a great hero just from those few hours with him.”

“Fuck,” Katsuki said again, a lot quieter this time. “No wonder Aizawa-sensei told me to bring it up, that’s… jeez.”

“We all get fucked up at U.A.,” Igneo laughed. “Some more than others, sure, but all of us get hit with something.”

“Yeah,” Katsuki agreed. “I uh, failed mine too. My first one.”

“I know,” Igneo assured him, surprisingly gentle. “I was there.”

“What?”

“You think I’d let a year go by and not be at those tests?”

“Oh. Shit.”

“The one year I don’t go is gonna be the year something goes wrong,” he said, shrugging. “I know, I know. Just let me have this one.”

“Not gonna say a word,” Katsuki promised. “But um, I don’t mind… listening. If you ever want it.”

“Thank you,” Igneo said, smiling a little more genuinely. “Same goes for you.”

“And you’ve, uh, talked to… other people, right? Yutaka or something?”

“Hatsui,” Igneo told him, nodding. “Every week like clockwork.”

“For… years?”

“Yeah. Does that worry you?”

“I guess not. I just… I’m graduating in a few months, so.”

“Ah. Not sure you’ll be here, still?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, there are always other people to talk to. But if you feel like Yutaka is the one, talk to him, talk to Deku, you can work something out. Neither of them will mind, I promise.”

“Okay,” he agreed. “Um, I’ll talk to them both, at some point.”

“At some point?”

“I’m not avoiding it,” Katsuki huffed knowingly. “Just not gonna run there right this minute.”

“Okay,” Igneo chuckled. “So, when Aizawa asks, what are you gonna tell him you learned from this?”

“That Deku fucks up exams too occasionally.”

“Probably not the best answer,” Igneo said, laughing all the same. “Anything else?”

Katsuki paused, feeling his face turn warm again as he looked away pointedly.

“That all my favourite heroes are the ones who don’t hesitate,” he mumbled.

Igneo’s chuckle was a lot more forced this time, and Katsuki nervously looked back at him, concerned and kinda terrified when he saw steel eyes turn watery.

“This never happened,” Igneo said sternly. “Get outta here, go get some sleep.”

“Yes Sir,” Katsuki agreed, cracking a smile as he stood up. “Thanks for the talk, I hope you get some rest soon, too.”

“Counting down the minutes,” Igneo said, crossing his fingers. “If the alarms sound, I’ll give you a call.”

“Don’t bother,” Katsuki grinned. “I’ll already be there.”