Secrets worth revealing. [Yusaku/Mia]

Right. They wanted to do this the hard way huh? Mia had been camping out on a rooftop near the abandoned factory, staking out the location as she’d heard a local gang of illegal quirk users had been using it to run their operations from. Said operations were about as legal as the use of their quirks. Now, Mia would never take someone down for illegal quirk use. She felt it was good kids were showing off their unique talents and gifts, and adults, but these guys were using it to push others around and get their own way, and to this extent that was certainly no longer okay with the red horned blonde. Resting her foot on the edge of her building, she watched the punks drag in a scared shopkeeper, the cold air turning her breath into a fog as it left through her slowly growing tusks as her muscles tensed. Rolling back her shoulders, she walked up to a fuse box resting on the outside of the building, and followed the wires flowing from it with her eyes.

As far as she could tell the floors were separately connected. Damage as a hero was to be kept to a minimum, and from the commotion she could hear through the walls, it was clear the punks were still on the ground floor. The Oni hooked her fingers into the locked lid of the box, pinched down, and tugged hard. The metal casing tore off it’s hinges with ease, Mia not even noticing the briefly red coating her fingertips got as her skin hardened against the sharply torn metal. Following the wires from each fuse with her fingertip, she spotted the ones checking the power for the first floor. Her titanic hand wrapped around all of them in one go, listening carefully with her faintly pointed ears as she heard the laughs of the punks as they pushed around the store owner…and then she tugged once again. Hard.

Sparks flew in Mia’s face but she barely flinched. Cries of confusion came from the boys and girls inside as they were enveloped in absolute darkness, and ask Mia stood before the door to the factories inner workings, she reared her body back, bent her knee, and kicked hard. The wooden slab broke oh so easily off it’s hinges and from the sound of a cry of pain had bounced off the face of one of the punks. While Mia was enveloped in shadow with the light of the nightsky creeping in through the doorframe behind her, she was blessed with that light showing her the faces of the punks as they rushed towards her, slamming her fist into her palm, and charging towards them, slamming the most eager of them with a lariat by slamming her bicep into their face as she charged past them, and meeting the next with a gut check. Mia could feel unnatural resistance, like skin had turned to stone, but from the sounds he made it wasn’t enough as he quickly dropped to the floor all the same. Her cocky white smirk amidst the darkness had one running scared and another frozen in their place, Mia seeing only one option. It was time to play ball.

Leaping over the head of the cowering shop keep, she grasped the back of his the first punk’s shirt and flung him at the other, easily knocking the two of them out in the process as one’s head met with the other’s spine, and the other’s head met the floor, Mia in her towering monstrous shape in the shadows only defined as a hero by the smile she bore…and even then it wasn’t too clear if it was a sign of heroic morality…or weird glee at the chance for a fight.

The squeaking fear of the shop keep caught Mia’s attention out of her ‘zone’, and her eyes softened as they shifted to him, her muscle mass lowering a fair bit as she held a softer smile in turn. “Hey Mr Hanizawa. It’s me, Mia. Red horn?” The man peeked up, and instantly calmed down a fair bit as he dusted himself off. Mia was relieved that was enough to calm him down. Go to a man’s store for a snack enough times and it’s good to see they recognize you. “These boys rough you up any? Need an ambulance.”

“No no…I’m good just…”

“Hey. Look. If there’s any more of them you’re afraid of, I’ll take a look around. Till then I don’t think any of these boys are gonna mess with the guy who’s got a monster looking over his shoulder.” Mia held a strong post, her hero costume still a bit minimalist but…with the striking figure it helped her give out, it was working well. Her wrist up to her mid forearms wrapped tight in bandages, roomy pants with a torn off effect at the bottom of each leg, a rope acting as a belt, and bandages around her chest. Very ‘Oni’, if not quite her…but yeah. She was growing to like it.

“You go home and close up shop. Dipshits pulled you out before you could lock it I bet. I’ll handle this place.”

Waving to the shopkeep, Mia glanced to the stares and started to all but jump up them, taking two steps at a time in her eagerness, hearing the soft sounds of exertion…she slowed herself up the last few steps, ready to tense her muscles…but from the look of this kid he wasn’t the same brand of those punks…pinching her fingers in her lips, she gave a harsh whistle to get his attention. “Oi kid! You a Koala?”

Mia almost felt stupid saying that. Koala. Why had the punks named their gang the koalas? Apparently it had something to do with the fact that they could eat poison leaves like it was lunch and they thought it was badass, but Mia wasn’t gonna give that any respect, just letting out an internal sigh as she looked to the kid again. “Well?”


WC 1009

Mia hadn’t really expected the kid to be a Koala, but she was being cautious, and still felt tense from taking out the punks downstairs. Didn’t lead to a good first impression to say the least, but she did her best to calm herself down as the kid reacted with such shock. He could just be trying to cover his ass, but Mia saw the punks downstairs. Even when one ran he didn’t plead or turn on the others, so she assumed someone like this kid definitely wasn’t one of their breed…plus the kid seemed a bit young…as young as a 1.7m robotic cat could look at least.

“Oi oi, calm down. I’m gonna take your word for it there.” She glanced about, wondering what he was doing up here but not really seeing too many signs that made it obvious. Walking over to the kid, she offered her hand. If his metal touch could sense anything it’d be clearly her own skin was a little rough and coarse. Maybe a little thick too if he squeezed her hand to get back up to his feet. “Sorry about the scare. There were a few punks from that gang downstairs so I’m just scoutin’ the rest of the place. What you even doin’ up here?”

WC 214

Grabbing that metal paw she hoisted him up to his feet, Mia was surprised by the wright even with the metal appearance he had, but hoisted him up to his feet very easily all the same. She actually weighed more than him after all, and she could handle far beyond that. She offered him a light smirk as he seemed to be standing straight for just a moment, but pulled away as he shrunk into himself. Damn she really did need to work on her behaviour around civilians. She knew she could be a scary presence but this kid seemed borderline terrified. So he came here as a hidden base sorta thing? Probably wasn’t…toooo illegal? But she should probably let him know…”Yeeeah. See you’re not the only one who had that idea. Turns out a gang calling themselves the Koalas use this place to torture people into paying up with protection money…so er….maybe time to find a new place to stay before someone else mistakes you for their gang eh?”

She felt a bit bad for the kid who seemed to just be here trying to train. Okay technically that was illegal too since it wasn’t on school grounds but she wouldn’t drop that on him too. She had a lot of quirk pride in her so she wasn’t about to punish him for that by any means. Rubbing her shoulder she wondered if she should really do anything about this beyond suggesting better places for him to practice but er…right now she just felt like shit for raining on his parade. One bit of information definitely struck her though. “Yuuei kid though huh? Jasmine – you know her? – anyway think she mentioned you can use the training facilities there if ya liked…guess there’s a reason you’re hanging out in this dinghy shit hole instead right? The training grounds usually busy?” She glanced about, resting her hands in her pocket as she looked about.

Glancing back to the kid as he explained further, noting how short a distance she had to look down for the age he sounded, she supposed that was fair in it’s own way but instead she gave a nice big grin. “Hey don’t mind that. Sure people might be ahead of ya but that just gives ya something to aim for!” She clenched her fist tight and pumped it back towards herself. “Heck gotta admire ya for looking for a way to improve yerself, but if I were you, I’d let them all see just how fast you’re catchin’ up. Show off to ‘em and all!”

She snickered a little through her grin at that idea but didn’t get too excited. “Still, best ya keep yerself informed, maybe check out what all the noise you hear downstairs is before focusing on your own training next time.” She reached over and lightly flicked his forehead as a ‘pay attention’ gesture. “Least now ya know, best ya just do your research on the next place.” Looking about one last time, she glanced back to him, noticing the worried look in his cyber eyes, narrowing her eyes at him for a moment as she wondered what was going through his head, before smirking a little as she had a strong guess.

“Look kid, I’ve seen that look a few times before. You ain’t in trouble…tell ya what. Police’ll only get here to pick up the ‘trash’ when I call ‘em. This place should have some decent scrap metal…go find me anything more than a few feet long, bring it to me downstairs, and I’ll make sure you don’t get in a lick of trouble.” She offered out her palm with a tusky, cheeky smirk. “Deal?”

WC 615

Mia could understand that…well no she couldn’t. Mia was a girl who lived in the limelight, but at the very least she could see where the kid was coming from. Even if she couldn’t empathize she could try her best to see it from his view, and while Mia pushed herself, and others to be better, she wasn’t gonna push someone out of their comfort zone. “Ah that’s fair kid, that’s fair…” The comment about Jaz made her snicker though, offering a wide smirk. “Girl in 1 A. Makes explosions. Little protégé of mine…gotta talk to her about building up her reputation.” Her smirk made it unclear if she was fully joking about that or not.

Seeing the kid run off to fill out his end of the deal, Mia called out after him. “I’ll be downstairs cleaning up the mess!” Hopping down the steps, bounding down the staircase entire stretches at a time, probably having leapt down the entire case in one bound if it didn’t turn a corner, Mia spotted the goons she’d left resting on the floor before, one of them groaning on the floor close to the door, starting to come back to reality and spotting the blonde Oni out of the corner of his eye. He scrambled rapidly to his feet, only to come to a sudden halt as a piece of re-barb impaled the wall beside the door. Metaphorical miles away from his head, but close enough that he could feel it woosh past his head.

Mia was standing by the stairs, tossing the piece of loose rubble she’d ripped the metal from between her hands. “You really wanna test my aim a second time kid?” The punk raised his hands, slowly got back to the ground, and literally played dead for the blonde as he cowered on the floor. “Atta boy.” Tossing the rubble on the ground to the side with enough force it shattered into smaller chunks, Mia walked across the floor and started collecting him and his buddies, dragging them by their ankles across the floor, maybe slinging one or two over his shoulder. Ultimately she gathered them all about a support beam in the middle of the floor, pointing a finger between the eyes of the one who was conscious. “Behave.”

With the cat robot returning, Mia frowned a little but held out her hand for the metal rod, taking it as she knelt down to the level of the slumped, unconscious bodies, testing the strength of the metal between her hands and hearing it creak with ease as she started to bend it. “Kiiinda was looking for more than one but…I guess I can work with this.” Looking to the one that was awake, she smirked at him and stood up, placing the bar infront of him as she rounded the beam. “Suck in your gut…! RARGH!” With a tug, the metal rod bent around the entire group of punks, locking them in place around the support and leaving Mia to dust her hands of it, walking over to the kid and grasping his shoulder as she walked off to one side with him, the other hand pulling a phone to her pointed ear and dialing the Japanese emergency services line.

“Yeah Hero code 23875. Alias Red Horn…No I don’t need to hold just need a pick up for some punks in the warehouse district, building 4 I think. I’ll be outside waving ‘em down anyway.” She glanced to the feline robot beside her and continued. “Got a kid here who needs a ride home too so bring an extra car….nah. He ain’t done no wrong. Reported the crime to me and stuck to the sidelines.” With that Mia closed the phone, patted the kids back and smiled at him. “Sorry about that. Just stick to that okay? Won’t get in any trouble.” Pocketing her phone she turned and leaned back against the wall with a strong smirk. “Got a name kid? Might help me file my reports later if I actually knew who it was who-“ She paused to add air quotes to her words “ ‘reported’ the crime. I mean nameless UA student works if ya don’t like having your name on the record.”


WC 707

Mia looked at the punks as they seemed to be a little eager as each of them started to wake up. Realizing they were confined already but not about to quiver in fear in the face of a hero. Especially since they knew she couldn’t do much more to them if she wanted to STAY a hero. Until the cops came they could all stare down here and the kid as much as they liked. Mia would have let them too, glaring right back at them as she leaned against the wall, her tough skin not minding the roughness of the material holding this building up. Her mind changed quickly however when she noticed the soft squeeze to her hand, looking to the feline kid beside her, and then slowly turning her eyes back to the punks who were clearly starting to get under his shell. She squeezed his hand back, pulled out her free arm across her chest, then slammed it into the wall, cracking the stone work and making a good portion of the place rumble just faintly.

“You guys looking at something important there?”

Suffice to say all of them rapidly turned their eyes away. Mia may have thought to threaten them, remind them that it’d be very hard for the cops to prove that anything she did to them wasn’t necessary to stop them since they all had a quirk of their own in some form or another, but she didn’t wanna get too scary or unruly herself infront of the kid, and just turned her gaze back to him with a soft smile and a reassuring squeeze of his hand in turn. At the mention of the throw, she glanced to the metal rod sticking out of the wall, gently pulling her hand from his as she flexed her bicep and squeezed it with her other hand. “Blame these girls for it. They did all the hard work.~”

Resting her hands back in her pockets, she caught the question of her name. She’d given it before, her hero name at least, but that was just over the phone. Assuming he hadn’t caught it, or thought it was some code name, she chuckled and shook her head. “Damn, looks like Jaz isn’t the only one who needs to work on her reputation at that school.” Pointing a thumb to her horn, she spoke confidently, heroes being more public figures than those in comics she had no qualms about giving her true name. “Mia Kearney, Aka, RedHorn. Not too original, but I weren’t so good with Japanese when I chose it, and hey, it stuck with me.~” Her smile turned into a light grin as she genuinely did enjoy her simple name. “Translates a bit better than my vigilante name from America anyway. ‘Texan Terror’, and ‘Dallas Demon’ Don’t translate so well into Japanese.” She spoke the quoted parts specifically in english, revealing a bit more of her inherent southern American drawl in her accent that had been washed away as she learned Japanese.

WC 507

Mia smiled a little as the kid explained she didn’t need to be famous to be a good hero, but she shook her head. She didn’t disagree with him, oh no, but she still stated- “Well kid I’m still aiming to be both, so make sure you remember the name for me yeah? Next time the pro hero rankings come in I’m gonna be aiming for that top spot no matter what, so keep an eye out for me standing out of the crowd sometime soon.~” She gave a cheeky smirk and a wink, her ego always leading her to chase the biggest accolades she could, and right now being the number one pro was definitely what she was aiming for, no matter what hurdles could possibly be in her way leading to it. “So, here’s hoping I can still be a great hero AND a famous one yeah? I promise I ain’t about to let anyone down, and if it comes to it, I’d definitely pick being a good hero over being a famous one, though if I can have both, I’m not passin’ up the chance.~”

Hearing him talk about Jaz, she chuckled and shook her head, this time definitely denying it. Maybe Jaz DID look up to her, but for a change Mia couldn’t believe that. “Honestly I see Jaz as more of an equal. Sure she’s still in school but we got a lot in common. We’re bruisers, we have…similar pasts.” She caught herself before divulging that the girl had been a vigilante before she’d joined the school herself, much like Mia before she’d went pro. “I think she’s a good kid…heck I’d be honoured if she ever wanted to be my partner when she graduated, but I’d be even happier if she went independent and offered me a real challenge in the future! Gotta have someone making me strive to do better eh?”

At the comment about the paparazzi, she smirked a little and saw where he was coming from, but- “I actually enjoy the limelight a little myself. It ain’t why I’m a hero, but it’s nice icing on the cake for sure. Though…when they get in the way of a fight for a scoop, or put themselves in danger, I ain’t having none of that. I report ‘em, they potentially lose their license. End of story. I don’t got no time for anyone who’s gonna put themselves in danger to further their career while I’m doing my job trying to keep their dumb asses safe in the first place.”

Glancing to the door, Mia too wondered when exactly the cops were getting here, but with Yusaku’s question, she checked her phone, narrowing her eyes at the time and pocketing it. “Er…yeah. Sure kid. It take long? Don’t wanna dismiss ya, I’m always eager to see what someone can do, but don’t want the police walking in on ya showing off your illegal behaviours.” She offered a light smirk to show she was just being pretty playful. “Come on, show us, nice and quick.” She did realize it may not involve his quirk and they may be safe, but she was ready to observe and offer advice all the same.

WC 536

“Oh please, I’m gonna be taking as many of you kids on as I can. Trust me I’d have the entire school filling my offices if you all wanted to intern under me. I think I might get limited picks though, but if I don’t, I’m gonna have to actually start thinking of work for you all to do while you’re stuck with me.” She offered a cheeky smirk, not knowing what she could actually do with so many interns, but more than happy and ready to accept them all onto her workload. Whether for more hands to help around the office, or to have more young heroes she could hopefully see in action and inspire to do greater as they developed into true heroes in the future. She tried to offer him a reassuring smile and added. “Honestly though you look like you got a pretty interesting quirk. I’d definitely be eager to see what you could do, even if I’ve already got a few top picks out of the kids I’ve seen so far.”

While many heroes looked for more wealth, that wasn’t Mia’s agenda. She simply had an ego and she wasn’t ashamed of it, because she behaved with it. She would soak up fame to fuel her ego sure but she would never take credit for the work of another. If a vigilante helped her out she would cover for their ass, then be humble to the camera, because she could take credit to save their ass, but she couldn’t take credit away from them to fuel herself.

Waiting for the kid to display what he could do, glancing to the door, half expecting cops to show up midway but mainly focusing on him. Her eyes widened briefly, not by much, as he cracked the concrete. Certainly some potential there, but she was really impressed when the column blew, and the koalas quickly squeaked in response as they realized the kid was packing heat too. A little stunned just from not expecting it, Mia let out a low whistle and started to applaud his work. “Damn kid you’re really packing some juice in that little body o’ yours huh?”

Walking over to help him back to his feet, she looked over the column. “I can offer you some advice but you seem to have some monk shit going on here with that delayed impact.” She pulled him back from the rubble a bit, and positioned him like he was when he was wearing his punch back. “Now, I dunno if you need to halt to do that electricity thing, but here’s a hint. Keep moving. You stopped a lot of the momentum hat coulda been behind your fist, so this is just some general advice if ya ever need to go for a normal punch. When you’re in range, you put arm back, step forward on your opposite hand, and let all the force travel through your arm, landing on the same foot, and that’s where you stop. AFTER decking the bad guy”

She did everything she was describing to show him, but slowly and without force. “Here, lemme show ya.”

Stepping back she started to charge towards a far wall, not aiming for a pillar, but just displaying the skill more in real time. What she didn’t expect was the force of her punch, with everything she had behind it, seemed to travel beyond her arm. The sound of a gust of wind going through the warehouse, and a sheet of metal leaned up against the wall suddenly getting a dent in it despite Mia standing a good few feet from it, looking to her own arm in confusion.

“…I just…?”

Her curiosity at what she’d just pulled off however was short lived as the sirens started to sound, Mia’s pointed ears picked up and she walked back over to Yusaku just in time for the boys in blue to arrive so they wouldn’t think he was one of the Koalas. They were all pretty chill though, no guns drawn, and a younger black female officer tipping her hat to Mia, Mia saluting back with two fingers as it was clear they recognized eachother.

“Sup Mia? See you did away with the Koalas. This all of ‘em?”

Mia shrugged and scratched the side of her neck. “Can’t tell, just stumbled on ‘em. Could be more out in the wild.”

The black woman nodded along, but her eyes drifted to the tall robot boy, the back to Mia, a small smirk forming on her lips. “This the ‘informant’?” Her tone made it clear she’d dealt with Mia before, but the blonde folded her arms and shook her head, keeping herself quiet so the other officers didn’t here.

“He was just on scene and I didn’t want him getting in trouble for being here. None of the V word this time, promise.”

The woman had a sassy “mmmmmhm” But she clearly believed Mia as she glanced to Yusaku. “Nice to meetcha kid. Don’t worry, so long as red here’s the only one who did any damage here-“ Mia casually looked away at those words given what Yusaku had just destroyed to display his quirk. “You ain’t in trouble…we do got a spare car outside if you still want that ride home?”

Mia glanced to Yusaku, thinking for a moment, then smirking as she offered. “Or I can take ya home…bit of a distance to UA but I know a handy few shortcuts.”

WC 915