Chapter 11: Giran, Chizome, Cookies, Giran, Patrol
Prior day…
Giran answers his phone and promptly turns pale as a sheet.
"Hello, this is Giran."
"Giran, I have a job for you. Pick up is waiting for you in the back alley." Says the monster of the underground.
Mind you, the monster is someone Giran works willingly with, but if it wouldn't cost him his life to refuse, well…things would be different.
"Alright. Give me a couple minutes to shoo a client out." He answers as if his heart isn't beating so loud in his ears that he can barely think over the thrum of it.
"Take three." All for One says, apparently in a generous mood.
Nonetheless, Giran has no intention of testing his patience by taking that long.
~
Current day…
Chizome steps off the train and blends into the hurrying crowd, looking up the venue from the special event flier on a map app. Hm. Seems he needs to go halfway across the city. It's late afternoon, but that gives him plenty of time to find a place to sleep so he can get up early and get in line to be one of the first to enter.
Sure, they claim to have enough of the limited edition All Might figurine for everyone who attends, but he knows better than to trust that. The venue might only be rated for 500 people, but there will probably be a minimum of 2000 people who crowd through the venue during the three hour event.
He doesn't want to resort to killing a civilian in order to get the figurine. There are still a few lows that he's reluctant to sink to.
~
He doesn't notice Present Mic walk in until he opens his mouth.
"Good afternoon, Novell! How are you liking the paperwork? Are you ready to patrol, YEAH?"
Izuku jolts in surprise and his pen goes flying, by some coincidence hitting the center of Mic's glasses and bouncing off.
"Uh, uh, sorry!"
"Good reflexes, listener! Didn't mean to startle you. But hey, you should probably work on your situational awareness. Being focused is one thing, but losing track of what's going on around you can be lethal in the field." Mic chides, handing back the pen he had snatched out of mid-air before it could hit the floor.
"Th-That makes sense. Sorry again."
"No need to be sorry. It was an accident. Just try not to do it again." A smirk crosses Mic's face that leaves Izuku worried. "Now, you got your phone on you? I need you to unlock it and hand it to me."
"Is this a test?" He wonders, pulling out his phone.
"Nope! But good question. Never let someone you don't trust have access to your phone. I just need to put an app on there that you normally wouldn't get until third year, but given the trouble you've already run into, I think you need it now."
"Oh. Okay." He unlocks his phone and hands it over.
Mic fiddles with his phone for a bit, then leans over to show him the new app. "This is HeroLine. Like I said, normally we don't hook students up with it until third year when they all have their provisional licenses and some experience, because its main function is to let police and others alert heroes of crimes going down and give the address, so the nearest hero or heroes can respond. Now you can't do that, because you don't have a license yet. But it's other function is to allow police, heroes and other trusted sources, like hero students and certain other exceptions to report villains and crimes, so heroes show up to take care of it and you don't have to."
"Oh. That makes sense. This is because of Eri, right?"
"In part. The USJ is also a part of that. This app also has a communication sign tracker that I've turned on. Meaning it'll send out an alert if your phone suddenly loses contact with the network. Meaning you really don't want to let your phone die if you don't want the nearest hero checking to see if you're alive. Also try not to break your phone, because that will have the same result. Most heroes only turn on the function if they're going on patrol, which is why we weren't automatically notified of something wrong at USJ, but I'm going to ask you to leave it on."
"Okay. Does that mean you can track me? And others can?"
"Well, yes and no. Since you don't have a license, I had to verify the account with my ID. Not just anyone can use this app! Since I'm the one who verified it, I had the option to let me track you and I chose to take it. Once you get your provisional, you'll be allowed to turn that option off if you want or allow others to track you if you trust them. But normally your location is only available if your phone goes offline or if you share your location while reporting a crime or need for assistance. Currently I can track you at all times, but no one else can except in one of those two instances. Got it?"
Izuku nods, feeling a little overwhelmed.
"Good. Now this icon here is how you share your location while reporting villains or a need for assistance. And this one is how you open the map to see where a reported location is. You can use the map, but don't respond to requests for assistance against villains or criminals until you get your provisional. You will be accompanying me to respond to some, if something happens, but otherwise no."
"Got it."
"This is easy to figure out, but tap on this side to scroll in and this side to scroll out." Mic backs out of the map. "That's how you close it. Now here is where you see the messages, but if you tap on a message, you can have a conversation with the person reporting without spamming the network. If they don't want to have a conversation with you, they can kick you out of the connection, which they will do if you're being a distraction. So don't do that. And if you're the one reporting, only report useful things and answer relevant questions, because if you're just giving chatter or nonsense, they can tap here to completely ignore your conversation. And you can tap that to ignore any conversation that isn't relevant to your area or you. Another thing you can do- Oh, this is where you type to report or carry on a conversation. Anyways. Another thing you can do is if you have someone's ID is to go to this tab and add them as a contact, so you can tag specific heroes or officers. See? You've got me and Eraser and Nedzu as contacts. If you need one of us, you can tap on our names to tag us for a conversation. And that's all. Ask me if you have any other questions."
Izuku looks at him wide-eyed. "I understand you and Aizawa sensei, but why Nedzu?"
"In case you run into another Eri situation and need help that will affect the school in some way. Or if Eraser and I aren't available and you get in trouble. Don't worry about bothering him. He finds you interesting."
"Is that a bad thing?"
"Not per se, no. But it does mean he keeps tabs on you whether you like it or not. There have been people who regretted that."
A pale blue pane pops up.
He can only track us if I allow it.
Mic stares at the pane in surprise for a long moment, then shakes his head. "Do me a favor and don't turn to the dark side, no matter how many cookies they offer you."
Cookies are a pain. They have to be deleted constantly.
A cackle of sheer amusement slips out of Mic's mouth while Izuku just face palms. There's no way Find-san didn't recognize the meme and obviously it just chose to be literal with computer context. He's pretty sure that Find-san doesn't even work like a computer and thus doesn't have to worry about cookies.
~
Current day…
"What have you got for me?"
Giran represses a bone deep shudder in favor of a cheerful smile. "I've got three large vans that will be ready to go at 6am tomorrow morning. Do you want to have them meet at this address or do you have another address for them to show up at?"
The monster of the underground gives him a different address with an edge to his voice.
Yikes.
"Sounds like a plan! Don't worry, the drivers are trustworthy and will follow instructions without asking unnecessary questions."
"As expected." Is the flat reply.
~
Patrol is interesting.
At first it seems that they're just strolling along, waving and smiling now and then, but it doesn't take long for Izuku to notice that Present Mic is constantly scanning the area for signs of trouble. So he takes to doing the same.
In addition, it takes quite a while for the extra stares and attention to quit making him jumpy, since he's not really used to much positive attention. Usually if this much attention is focused on him, he's having a particularly shitty day and it's about to get worse. Mic's pretty good about distracting him with anecdotes, general chatter, gentle touches on the arm now and then or just pointing things out that he needs to know.
A lot of what Mic deems he needs to know is body language. Now, given the way he's grown up (quirkless) he's always considered himself good at reading body language, but with the stuff Mic points out casually, that notion is blown out of the water. There's so much more to body language than one would first expect. When he mentions it to Mic, the man nods seriously.
"According to Mehrabian, a pre-quirk researcher, 93% of communication is nonverbal and 55% is strictly body language, with another 38% coming from the tone of voice. Some people only listen to words or tone, though, so it's best to be aware of that when communicating to others."
"Does that mean some people only read body language?"
"A few. More commonly you'll get people who weigh body language against your words to determine how truthful you are. A lot of times, people coming from different cultures or subcultures will read body language and tone differently, so that's something to be aware of too. For instance, in most cultures, a wide smile is friendly, but in a few baring your teeth is a sign of aggression, so if someone looks nervous when you smile at them, try covering your teeth when you smile. I trip over that one more frequently than you'd think."
Izuku tries a teeth-covered smile, grimaces and frowns, only to plaster a wide smile on when he sees someone looking at him in concern. "That's harder than it sounds."
"Indeed it is. Think of it more as a half-smile. Like being amused, but not ready to laugh."
He tries again, then stops when Mic snorts softly. "I think I'm going to have to practice that in front of a mirror. It feels really weird."
"Good idea, because right now your attempt just looks like you're trying not to be angry." Mic comments, making him flush in embarrassment.
"Sorry."
"No, no. It was good for a first try! You're used to doing the All Might smile, right? This is like the direct opposite, but still conveying the same emotion." Mic encourages, then crouches down to the level of a six year old kid who runs over. "What can I do for you, little listener?"
"Can you sign my arm, P'sent Mic? Please?"
"Sure thing, listener!" Mic says and produces a nontoxic marker from his jacket pocket, which he uses to sign the little boy's arm.
The kid squeals delightedly and runs back to his mom, waving his arm excitedly.
Mic caps the marker, puts it away and stands. "I only do that for kids ten and under, because they're not really aware of why I shouldn't be doing signings while on duty. Occasionally I get waylaid by a kindergarten class, though, which is a little awkward."
Two blocks later, they get stopped by a group of teenage girls asking for signatures.
"Sorry, ladies. I'm on duty right now, so I can't. If you want one, their available at my agency front desk for 5000 yen. Or if you want a personalized one, my public signing times are available on my website."
"What? But you signed for that little kid! We saw you!"
"Are you under the age of ten, listeners? No? I didn't think so." Mic chides in a pleasant tone. "You're all bright young ladies and I'm sure you understand procedure."
"Aww, but I wanted to get a personalized one for my boyfriend's birthday! It's tomorrow and he's like your biggest fan!" One of the girls pouts.
Mic does finger guns at her. "Tell you what, listeners. Just for you, if you find me at nine when I get off shift, I'll sign things for you then. Okay? Don't go spreading it around, though. And make sure you have your parents' permission to be out that late!"
All the girls perk up except one, who is busy staring at Izuku. "Hey, you're that green kid who let that Shinso guy win, aren't you? Why did you do that? Did he pay you?"
"Wh-What? No! He didn't pay me."
"But you let him win. Why?"
"Um. I just didn't think it was fair, y'know?"
"Why not?"
"Well, he would've won if my quirk wasn't sentient, so I thought he should get the win, because two on one isn't fair."
Her eyes narrow dangerously and he has to stop himself from taking a step back.
"Can I have your signature?"
"Mine!?"
"Yeah. That Shinso kid has a 'villain's quirk', right? And you let him win anyways? My kid sister has a 'villain's quirk' and I want her to know that there's a hero out there who's willing to treat people like her fairly." She says, making aggressive air quotes around 'villain's quirk' as she speaks. "Don't worry about it now, though. I'll catch you after your shift is done, same as the others."
"Oh, um, thanks." He tries not to squeak as he replies and mostly succeeds.
By her smirk, he doesn't succeed as much as he hopes.