The following day, Medea had her therapy session with Cece...and a lot to tell her.

Cece was used to not asking certain questions by now, but it must have tried her endurance.

Afterward, Medea checked in with the other students.

"It's all almost a blur now," Momo commented about the mission. "Between that and school and the other mission we went on with Shine, I just don't know what's important to focus on anymore."

"It does feel like we're just along for the ride a lot of the time," Shoto said.

"Well, you guys are students," Medea said. "Isn't that how it's supposed to be?"

"We hardly got any time to breathe before," Jiro noted. "And now we have time, in a way, but stuff keeps happening around us."

"Well, I'm usually in the thick of it too," Medea sighed.

"Yo, I am sorry about your little bro," Kaminari said. "I'm sure it's rough."

"Ah, the craziest thing is, after talking to Cece, I realized in a way I'm relieved," Medea commented. "I'll miss him, but it was going to be so much trouble if he stuck around. Does that make me a bad person?"

"I think if you were willing to help him, you're a good person," Shoto said. He frowned. "I know I wasn't so ready to help my villain brother."

"Oh...right, I forgot about that," Medea said. "Guess it sounds weird to you, then."

"I can kind of see why you're worried about him," Shoto said. "At least he was forced into it."

"How is Dabi these days?" Kaminari never knew when not to ask things.

But Shoto took the question pretty well. "It's been a couple weeks since we really talked, but I think he's doing all right. If he wasn't, they'd have called us."

"Perhaps it would be good to check in," Momo said.

"We may not need to." Shine walked in, holding a scroll-shaped piece of parchment. "Look what I just got from you-know-where."

"The other world?" Shoto said.

"Oh, really?" Kaminari said.

"It's a bit last minute," Shine said, "and I couldn't read all of it, but I think the word War was in there somewhere. It's from Temari."

[All references to my other story. Trust me, it makes sense in context.]

Momo took it. "I haven't heard from her recently, you now. I think things must have been busy."

"There's a war that happens," Bakugo said. "With clones."

"The Clone Wars?" Shine said.

No one got it.

[MHA is full of Stars Wars references, so that joke had two meanings.]

Momo looked over the scroll. "She says it started because of something called the Akatsuki."

"Bunch of emo jackasses." Bakugo was unceremonious.

"Can you let her finish?" Shoto said, irritably.

"Gaara allied the 5 villages," Momo read on, "and he's holding them together somehow, but things are getting worse and out of control. A lot of people are dying."

Shine bit her lip. "So she wants us to help."

"She wants advice, guidance, or some key that might give them the upper hand." Momo looked up. "But if I had to read between the lines--"

"She wants us to return," Shine said. "Well...wow, it must have been 2 years at least in their time."

"2-3," Bakugo said.

"That means they'll be our age," Shoto reflected.

"Older, actually," Shine mused. "Except for me... Temari must be 20 by now. Good for her... Well..."

"You can't actually be planning to go back. You just got done beating one kind of ninja," Jiro said.

"Weren't you listening Jiro? They have to fight clones, not ninja," Kaminari said.

"That's not any better," Jiro argued.

"I admit....the stress of fighting a whole war sounds exhausting..." Momo said.

"It only lasts for like a week," Bakugo said.

Shoto tilted his head. "A week...maybe we could manage."

"It'll be half over by now anyway," Shine said, "a few days at most... But you know, Jiro, when you go to one world, the problems of this one fade into a dreamlike memory... It'd be like you stressing about a test you took 5 years ago. It's simply not relevant at the moment."

"Oh, that's great. We're not relevant, then," Jiro grumbled.

"Not what I said," Shine said. "Actually...could be a welcome break from all the drama here. A war with clones sound fairly easy compared to getting kidnapped..."

"How is that a sentence?" Medea said, shaking her head. "Well, I think you guys should go. I mean, they definitely need it."

"We'd be gone for mere hours of your time," Shine said to Jiro, "if it helps. You can survive that long, right?"

"I don't know--give Kaminari a chance," Jiro said flatly.

"Hey! I think we all know it's Midoriya we should worry about," Kaminari said.

They all rolled their eyes or nodded by turns.

Bakugo frowned. "Well, have freaking fun." He got up and started to stalk out of the room.

"Katsuki, where do you think you're going?" Shine said. "It better be to go pack an overnight bag."

Bakugo stopped to cast her a look.

"I feel it's time," Shine nodded. "Not just you. Camie also, if she's willing. Your expertise is going to be necessary in person. We have only days there, can't wait for messages to go back and forth like before. If you're up for it, that is."

"He-- yeah!" Bakugo got a little too excited, then he realized his mistake an became sullen. "I mean, I know you idiots will probably die without someone there to tell you what's what."

"Yeah, we'd be lost without you." Shoto was successfully sarcastic.

"Don't freaking mock me!" Bakugo snapped.

"Don't make it so easy," Shoto said. This time it was hard to tell if he was doing it on purpose or not.

Momo winced at that burn.

"Well...I hope that doesn't indicate how the rest of this is going to go," Shine said. "Wally had better come too, if he's willing."

"You had me at 3 day vacation from school," was what Wally said to it later.

[I can't wait to actually upload that story, so all this can stop being cryptic, but I hope it is at least making some of you curious.]

* * *

Spinner was a nervous wreck when he went to meet up with Kitsune at the pizzeria.

Medea had given him major crap about what to wear before leaving for her appointment, but he didn't have that many clothes anyway, so he just ended up in a hoodie and jeans.

He felt stupid.

Compress was no help either--his advice was to be "confident" but "not too pushy."

Whatever that meant.

It's not like it was even really a date, just assessing risk.

But he had to admit, when he arrived, it almost looked like Kitsune was of a different mind about it.

She wasn't dressed up exactly, but she had on one of those flared skirts that was red to match her skin tone and hair.

She was a red fox, naturally. Her face was human, as with most animal quirk people, with human like hair, but it was a bit frizzier than usual for a Japanese girl, and it was rusty red. Her skin was also rusty red, not exactly out of the range of natural skin tones, but just a little too red to be a tan. She had regular eyes, dark.

She also had on light makeup.

[Updated note: image design by Onerose.]

Spinner hadn't given much thought to if she was cute or not when she'd been severely beaten up the last time he'd seen her, but he had to admit...she was pretty cute. Though she had a few bruises and scrapes left that even concealer wasn't enough to cover, not that he knew enough about make up to know that.

[Women get it, though. Though I guess a lot more boys wear make up now, so them too.]

Kitsune noticed he was staring and winked, making him blush.

"So can I pick 'em or what?" She gestured to the restaurant. "Nice digs, right?"

"It...looks like it's got a decent rating..." Spinner stuttered.

Kitsune giggled. "A decent rating? Okay, fine, Connoisseur. Let's find a table."

So they did.

Spinner felt as self conscious, as he usual did in public, and while he hadn't brought his swords with him...maybe it was foolish not to bring them. He had a knife, just in case, but he kind of thought against a sidekick it wouldn't be much of a weapon.

Kitsune seemed at ease to him, though a more socially aware person might have interpreted that a cover for being nervous.

"So, Spinner..." she said, "you got a real name or what?"

Spinner looked at her warily.

"I'm just asking because if I keep using Spinner, someone could hear it," she said, fiddling with a napkin holder.

"Shuichi Iguchi," Spinner mumbled.

Kitsune raised an eyebrow. "Well, that's not as bad as mine--Oh sorry, that was weird, huh? I just meant, you know, parents and naming you after your quirk, am I right? Whoever started that trend should just go crawl in a hole."

[Shuichi means 'excellent, outstanding one,' and Iguchi means 'Iguana'.]

"Can you just get to the point?" Spinner said.

"Excuse me?" Kitsune looked caught off guard.

"Why did you really want to meet up? Something you want to know about the Lea--the group, right?"

Kitsune studied him. "Well, can I at least order my pizza first?"

Spinner shrugged grumpily.

Kitsune waved a waiter over and did so. After they'd gone, she commented,

"You're not very good at this, are you?"

"Eh?" Spinner didn't know if she meant interrogation or life in general.

"I mean, that was one heck of a start up line," she said. "Go right for the suspicious tact?"

"I...well, I just hate small talk."

More like he couldn't do it at all... This was making him even more nervous.

Kitsune sized him up. "Hey, relax, okay?" She dropped her coquettish tone for the moment. "I don't have a wire or hidden cameras, okay...and I might regret telling you that if you came here to kill me, so who's really taking their life into their hands in this situation? Loosen up a little, Gecko Boy."

"Don't call me that," Spinner said, feeling a little better, surprisingly.

"Sorry...but what's the different between that and Iguchi?"

Not much semantically, when you thought about it. Curse quirk-based family names.

"I just don't like it," Spinner said.

"Sorry," Kitsune said. "You know what they call me at my agency?"

"No."

"I'm the rookie, so the older sidekicks rag on me a lot," Kitsune said. "Off the job we don't usually use our Hero names, just kind of how the supervising Pro is, so they call me Kit--you know, like a kit fox? But when they want to remind me of my place on the totem pole, they call me SideKit. Pretty bad, right?"

"That doesn't even make any sense. Aren't they sidekicks too?" Spinner said.

"Oh, sure, but I'm even more of one." Kitsune sipped some water. "Besides, since when is mocking people really clever? Kind of more of the point to be vulgar about it."

[A kit fox is the smallest species of fox in North America, by the way. Known for having large ears. Though she's a Japanese fox, but that just makes it more mocking.]

"Why don't you quit, then?" Spinner said.

"It's my job." Kitsune twitched her ears. "You don't quit a Hero agency, anyway. It's hard to get rehired. Why don't you quit yours?"

"I'm there by choice."

"Yeah, well, all anyone knows about you is you're a huge stan for that one guy." Kitsune mimed putting a mask on. "You must be ecstatic that he busted out of prison."

Spinner almost choked on the water he was drinking. "What?"

Kitsune looked up. "You...didn't know that?" she said oddly.

"No!" Spinner said.

Kitsune tilted her head. "D--- it, I'd swear that was genuine shock, too."

Spinner was reeling. Stain was out?

"I only knew Overhaul was out..." he said.

"Oh, that's old news now," Kitsune said. "Though keep it quiet, will you?" She glanced around. "Eh, this may not be the best place to talk about this. Let's wait till after we eat, huh? For now, just tell me more about you."

Spinner leaned away. "You're not gonna use your quirk on me, are you?"

"If I was using it on you, you would have thought to ask that question," Kitsune said very casually, snacking on one of the breadsticks that were the entrée.

That did make sense.

"Well, I don't want to talk about me," Spinner said.

"Shall I talk about me, then?" Kitsune said. "'Cause one of us has to talk about something, and work is out, need I even say why? And family is off the table too, isn't it? So what else is there to talk about?"

"I just want to hear about what you just mentioned," Spinner said.

"Well, you're just gonna have to wait," Kitsune said stubbornly. "So pick a topic until then. I'm not sitting here in silence like some loser."

Spinner frowned. "Well, I don't have any questions about you."

"Then answer mine... Let's see...Oh, I know. What are your hobbies, aside from beating the crap out of people?"

Spinner didn't think he'd ever beaten the crap out of anyone single-handedly.

[Canon events after the Meta clash do not count in this story.]

"I...don't really have hobbies. I sharpen swords."

Kitsune laughed till she almost choked, then she cleared her throat. "That's boring."

"What did you expect to hear? That I crochet or something?" Spinner shot back.

But she just laughed again. "You're kind of funny, Iguchi...You seem kind of socially awkward--don't you game or something?"

"That's an offensive stereotype," Spinner grumbled.

"So I'm right," Kitsune guessed.

Well...she was...

"I used to, before I found a higher cause," Spinner said.

Kitsune smirked again. "Okay, Robin Hood...Hmm...what else do people talk about?...Ever been in a relationship before?"

"What...? No... Why...?" Spinner sputtered.

"I dunno, isn't that the usual question?" Kitsune said. "And I'll answer it too, just to be fair. The answer is: not one that lasted longer than a couple dates. Guys were kind of weirdos. There, that's out of the way."

"What kind of weirdos?" Spinner was a bit more interested in that. Since he lived around weirdos.

"Oh, you know, perverts," Kitsune said, like it was nothing. "Being a tiny little fox gives some morons the wrong idea, I guess. Not so much after I scratched them, though." She flexed a rather long fingernail.

"I don't know." Spinner had avoided people like this most of his life, except Toga...and she wasn't that bad...right?

"Well, tell me about the game you were playing when we met," Kitsune said.

"Game?" Spinner said.

She jerked her head at the moderately busy restaurant and gave him a "duh" look.

"Yeah, it looked exciting," she said.

Clever, Spinner had to admit.

"Well...uh, the plot was you have to defeat this cult that hate quirks."

"Yeah, yeah, relatable," Kitsune said.

Spinner described more about the Originals activities, using this framing device, which worked surprisingly well... No wonder Shigaraki used it so often.

Kitsune listened very attentively to some parts and interrupted often at others to comment on it.

This took them most of the time actually spent on eating their order.

Spinner actually began to feel less tense.

He was almost sorry when Kitsune finally said, "All right, let's take it outside, huh?"

She found a nice rooftop to sit on.

"I guess fair is fair," she said. "You want to know about Stain, huh?"

"I don't understand how that kind of thing wouldn't make the news." Spinner was suspicious again. "Are you tricking me?"

Kitsune tilted here had. "Again, you wouldn't ask that if I was."

"I mean...the normal way."

"I guess I could be, but how would it help me? I don't know where he is." Kitsune shrugged. "Stain stirred up too much trouble--the law will hide the truth as long a they can. The LOV's been quiet for a while. Stain might stir up things just when they could settle down finally. In fact, I wouldn't even know about it, but my supervisor pro knows a top Pro, and they get told this stuff, so it got down the vine to us."

"But...if he's out, wouldn't he go and kill more pros?" Spinner asked.

"That's the really suspicious thing about it." Kitsune lowered her voice. "He's been out for...I don't know, a week, they say. But get this: There was no trace of anyone breaking into the prison. He was just gone. Nothing on security footage either. Like a ghost."

Spinner felt chilly. "How is that possible?"

"I don't know," Kitsune said. "I kind of thought maybe one of you would know more about it."

"We don't know anything," Spinner said. "Stain and the LOV haven't been affiliated in a long time."

"Is that so?" Kitsune said. "Well, there go a lot of theories, but I kind of thought that might be it after what I saw the other day.... But you spared heroes in the past, didn't you?"

"Just one," Spinner said. "One Stain picked out as worthy."

Kitsune leaned on her hand. "Villains like you always intrigue me. You think you're doing something good, but you kill innocent people."

"I haven't really killed anyone," Spinner said. "But if I did, they deserved it."

"Radical," Kitsune said.

"And you think you're not a radical?" Spinner had learned a bit from listening to Shine and the League's debates for months, and Mirko's own comments on things. "Heroes are a radically devoted to this corrupt system, even if it crushes people under it. Not that you would understand, sidekick."

"You think a sidekick doesn't know?" Kitsune said, kind of bitterly, to his surprise. "Some of us stay stuck at the bottom our whole careers. I probably will be one of those. I'm okay with it, but it annoys me that I don't really have a choice about it, sure. But you know, it pays bills, and where else would I use this quirk without it being a crime? Is that so wrong?"

"It's not very noble," Spinner said.

Kitsune fired back, "Are you noble, Spinner?"

"To devote yourself to a cause you believe in--that's noble."

"If I found a cause that didn't sound bats--- crazy, maybe I'd consider it." Kitsune sniffed. "But killing kids? It's messed up. Even Stain seemed better than that."

Shine had once made that same point.

"So maybe that was a little overkill..." Spinner admitted. "I've reconsidered that."

"Even considering it at all seems kind of crazy," Kitsune fired back.

"Well, if it's so crazy, why did you want to talk about it?" Spinner got fed up.

"Because I had heard all that," Kitsune said, more somberly, "but I didn't see any of it in your actions. The Spinner of the LOV didn't seem like a guy who'd bail out some random people and a sidekick when he could save his own skin much more easily. So I thought, well, how often is the media wrong anyway? Maybe I should see for myself. But you're saying one thing--your actions say another thing. So what do I make of that?"

Spinner couldn't answer because he kind of agreed with her... How long had that been the case?

"But actions are more important than words, I think," Kitsune said. [Very Aeasop's fables.] "So I think maybe you're not such a bad guy, all things considered. But you look up to Stain, is that right?"

"You know, even some heroes looked up to Stain," Spinner shot back.

"That was true. Many heroes are fed up with the system," Kitsune said. "And I get it. I don't get supporting a murderer. But...well...it's complicated." She rubbed her ear thoughtfully. "Him getting out is a major problem for us... Do you think he'd contact the League?"

"I...don't know..." Spinner really didn't.

Kitsune tilted her head. "If I said I wouldn't turn you or anyone else in the League in, would you agree to tip me off if he did?"

"So that's what you wanted," Spinner said.

Kitsune sighed. "Well, it is my job."

"I'm not interested in helping a Hero."

"Other than Mirko and Hawks, you mean," Kitsune said.

"That's...different... It's a long story," Spinner said. "And I can't trust you."

"Well, that's true. No one does anyway," Kitsune said. "And I can't trust you, can I?"

"Not really." Spinner backed up, hand ready to go for his knife.

"Well, in that case, just forget it." Kitsune shrugged. "I'm grateful for your honesty. I usually can tell when people are spinning a yarn at me--perks of the quirk--so unless you're a very good liar, you're genuinely as lost as I am." She walked towards the edge of the roof and looked down. "I kind of thought maybe the LOV had turned over some kind of new leaf, become vigilantes instead of villains...or antiheroes, maybe...so I wasn't sure, but I see it was too much to hope for." She put her foot on the edge lazily. "It's too bad about that."

"Why would we change our views?" Spinner said.

"Why would heroes change theirs?" Kitsune replied. "We're all changing with the tide, don't you think? I guess I can thank your League for that. But I get it, it's not personal. You probably don't care about the thousands of people whose lives get affected by what you do."

"Heroes don't care about the people who get treated badly because of them," Spinner said.

"I guess we're all screw ups, then," Kitsune said wryly, "or we're all just really shortsighted. I think a lot of people don't think they're ruining anyone's life, but down the line, it's easier to see. When I was younger, and I used my quirk on accident, sometimes I really screwed things up for the people who fell for it, in ways I never imagined, when I was just trying to avoid consequences of my actions." She shrugged. "It's a double edged sword, making people able to do whatever you tell them too. You think Stain might realize that someday?"

Spinner was silent.

"Or maybe the LOV will," Kitsune said, looking back at him. "I thought you all were crazy killers, but after seeing you in action, I think it's different. I get it, to a certain extent, but I think that you might find what I found. When you try to do things the fast way and crush whoever opposes you just so you get your way, there might be more far reaching consequences than you thought, and it comes back to you later. It hurts you to hurt other people after a while. It always does, without fail."

[Another fable, really.]

"You can't know that for sure," Spinner said.

"I ought to know it for sure," Kitsune said. "I could use my quirk and make you believe me right now...for a bit...but then you won't next time. One little side effect of my quirk I never mentioned to you--the more times I use it on the same person, the less effect it has. After two or three times, it usually doesn't affect them long enough for me to do anything. Like the boy who cried wolf. I can only try it so many times." She tilted her head again. "I won't just use it on you willy nilly. It would shoot me in the foot later. In the end, you'll suspect what I say immediately. And believe me, it bit me in the a-- when I used it on a teacher more than 3 times and spent the rest of the year getting in trouble for stuff I didn't even do because she suspected me first."

Spinner shuddered.

"So tell me, Iguchi, you really think that the LOV can do things that cut corners now and not have it come back to bite them later? At least Stain had some idea of it taking time to change things, even if he was loony about it. You all seem to think you just need to win the right battle."

Spinner was silent.

"But you win one now, you'll lose it two battles later, if you do it by cheating," Kitsune said. "Cheaters never prosper. And killing innocent people in order to get to the people you really hate, that's cheating, isn't it? You hate heroes, I take it, more for what we stand for, but all heroes stand for something a little different. You might find some of us quite charming. Declaring war on all heroes is like declaring war on a whole race of people--you really can't judge all of them by one or two you can't stand. Or even a lot you can't stand."

"Heroes treat villains the same," Spinner said.

"You're another is a pretty pathetic argument if you're supposed to be making the world better," Kitsune said. "I think rescuing a lot of people from a cult is a better way to make a change, personally...but FYI, that's something Heroes do." She swung her tail feistily. "So, aside from stealing and murdering, we'd almost be the same."

She shrugged. "I'm not one to hold someone's past against them, Spinner. I know that it's easy to ride the wave of what you can get away with, until it's not. So, hey, if you ever decide to stop surfing that, get caught in the impact zone, and want to come out of it, call me again."

She started to walk way. "Oh, and thanks again, by the way. If I ever have to fight you on the job, I'll make sure not to rough you up much if I can help it."

Spinner felt kind of like he shouldn't just be letting her walk away...but there was no reason to attack her either.

"Wait," he said, "are you going to report me?"

"No." Kitsune looked back. "I figure I owe you one freebie. Next time, I might have to, but the odds of my ever catching you again are kind of low."

"Well...uh..." Spinner felt stupid. "Look...I... It's not that some of what you're saying didn't kind of make sense... I guess not all heroes are totally bad... Even Stain liked a few of them, but it's not like we can just be friends after all that's happened."

"I guess that's true," Kitsune admitted.

"And I can't just abandon the League either. I've never had any other real friends," Spinner said. "And I don't have anything else."

"So be loyal just because you don't know what else to do. Sounds like what you all say Heroes do to me."

Silence.

"But I get it, in a way," Kitsune said. "It's pretty rare to fine anyone who actually gives a crap about you in this world, if you don't have friends or family already... I wouldn't want to give it up either. But I kind of think you have to do what's right too, even if your friends say not to. Peer pressure bites later."

"It's not peer pressure," Spinner said. "The LOV lets us do as we wish. Shigaraki is not a tyrant."

"Then he's not at all like how the news thinks," Kitsune said.

"He's really not," Spinner admitted.

"He did seem a little different than I thought," Kitsune admitted. "Something was going on with that Mirko lady too, wasn't it?"

"Huh?"

"Well, hey, good for you," Kitsune said. "Really, if you keep just taking down other bad guys, I got nothing against you. Too bad you hate Heroes so much--we could have been friends."

Spinner wasn't sure what made him say what he did next... Maybe it just seemed like a good opportunity.

"Look, if you do hear more about Stain...you should let us know," he said.

"Why would I let you know?"

"In case he tries to get in touch," Spinner said.

Kitsune smirked. "Only if you'd return the favor."

"I mean, it'd be good to have a source on both sides," Spinner said, "just in case...in case Stain doesn't like the LOV's new goals."

"I see... Well, if I happen to hear something, and you happen to call me, I might mention it," Kitsune said, "but you'd have to check in frequently. Never know."

"But you can't tell anyone about us," Spinner said.

"Please, I know that," Kitsune said. "I'll be sly as a fox about it, no worries."

She hopped across the space between roofs and on to the next one, then blew a kiss. "Until next time, if there is one, Donatello."

"Stop it with that..." Spinner muttered, turning red again.

[Hmm...

Who all was not expecting that reveal?

Eh, I try to copy canon now and then. Actually, I already considered it even before I found out it happened in the manga. But I don't think I'll use it the same way. I never do.

Also, Kitsune is cool.]