Down the Rabbit Hole: Chapter 2
-Rain of Sins-
-Down the Rabbit Hole: Chapter 2-
Izuku was nervous.
…
Ok maybe that didn't really do the situation justice.
Izuku was, and always had been, a tad socially awkward, as well as being an individual who naturally shied away from attention. Unfortunately it wasn't until he was practically a block away from his destination that he realized how much his plan went directly against both of those things.
' It sounded fine at the time!' He reasoned 'Just go up, knock on the door, ask if Dr Ujiko worked there, and if I could talk to him.'
Yes, walk up to an unknown door, knock, put all attention on him, and ask a complete stranger if they knew if another complete stranger worked at the building, and then ask if he could talk to said stranger. All perfectly normal and easy for someone like Izuku to accomplish, especially at midnight of all times.
… he was really starting to wish All Might hadn't saved him from the sludge villain.
After he got the address from Mr Kurogiri, Izuku had gone home, gotten scolded by his mother, gotten cried on by his mother, and then made dinner for and ate with his mother. His original plan had been to get a good night's sleep and then go in the morning, hopefully well rested enough to not make a complete fool of himself.
Two and a half hours of tossing and turning in bed, unable to sleep, and he had decided to just get it over with, throwing the address into his phone's map, only realizing what time it was when he did all the other problems with his plan. When he was cold, tired, and less than a block away from his destination.
Izuku let out a sigh bordering between exhausted and exasperated.
His "determined" or "hero" mindset and his normal mindset were very different, anyone who had seen the two could attest to just how different he acted when he flipped between the two. A bold young man, determined enough to run headfirst into danger with a smile on his face, became a stuttering boy who couldn't so much as talk to a girl without dissolving into an incoherent mess.
Needless to say, they didn't always work together the best. His current situation was a fine example of this. Plans made when he was in hero mode didn't tend to work that well after it wore off.
' Come on Izuku, you can't give up now, you'll never be a hero if you can't even knock on a door!'
The quirkless boy steeled his resolve as he turned the corner, preparing to face the place that could very well hold the answer to the question he'd been chasing for over a month now, only to find…
"Is… Is that an old warehouse?" he asked no one in particular "No, I-I must have put in the wrong address."
It was one of the only logical conclusions his worn out brain could come to. Why would the scientist who had almost single handedly created the basis for modern day quirk theory be working out of an old abandoned concrete hut in the middle of downtown.
But as he checked the map, then the address, then pulled out his scrap of paper to double check, hit his phone a few times, checked the map again and then re-entered the address in his phone, another logical conclusion came to him.
' D-Did Mr Kurogiri lie to me!?' He wondered, but no, that didn't make sense either.
What would he get from sending Izuku on a wild goose chase for a made up lab, plus he had referred to the man as Dr Ujiko, not Scientist Ujiko, meaning he had to have some previous knowledge of the doctor, which supported the theory he knew him.
' You've come too far to chicken out now!' Izuku scolded himself as he forced his feet to move towards the door. "Besides, what's the worst that could happen?"
-The Rain of Sins-
Daruma Ujiko was an oddity of a man. If you were to ask his assistants or anyone else who worked for him, they wouldn't say anything downright negative about the doctor, but they would definitely make it known that he had his issues, just like everyone else.
He was overbearing, constantly checking on the various projects he had given to his employees, and critiquing them as they worked. He liked to micromanage, seemingly determined to have a hand in everything that was going one, all the way down to walking around and testing various appliances to make sure they were working and well stocked. He was unempathetic at times, uncaring for reasons or excuses for missing deadlines (Unless it was a really, really good one). But one word seemed to come up much more than any other in the hushed conversations in hallways.
He was a perfectionist.
Now that last one seemed a bit unfair. All the other ones, sure he could totally agree with, but he wasn't a perfectionist.
No, Ujiko knew that not everything could be perfect, in fact very few things ever could. This was why he put so much time and care and effort into his creations. They were his artwork, they were his children, they were his gifts to his master, and one day he would create his magnum opus! His true masterpiece.
There would be no flaws, no errors, it would be what so few things could ever achieve.
Perfection.
…
However .
Just because he didn't expect perfection from his assistants, he most certainly expected them to do their jobs right !
"This lab was supposed to be completely set up and running three days ago," Ujiko growled, "So can anyone explain to me, why the security system HASN'T EVEN BEEN STARTED ON YET!"
"W-Well sir we w-were running perfectly on schedule, e-even ahead of it actually, u-until a few weeks ago."
"Oh?" The doctor paused, turning to the brave worker in a lab coat who had interrupted his- he sent a quick glance at his watch, now 25 minute rant. "Well then why didn't you say so sooner? It's not like that doesn't change the fact you are now behind schedule!" He swatted at her with the small stack of papers in his hand, growling when his height caused him to miss her head and lightly wack her shoulder instead.
"S-Sir we can explain!"
"Well then explain. Now."
"Heroes." A woman from the small group of workers he had been scolding for the past half hour stepped forward, he recognized her as the scientist he put in charge of this (very unfinished) lab.
"A string of robberies took place and Hero activity skyrocketed, we had to slow down everything to avoid detection." She said with her hands clasped firmly behind her back "It was my order sir, if you're going to punish someone then I'm the one at fault."
The doctor gnashed his teeth and turned away from the group to find something to punch. The closest potential victim was a cardboard box lying on the ground, which soon became a very dented box after a quick kick to its side.
"It's always Heroes this, Heroes that… They don't even know the lab's here, and yet they still seem hell bent on causing me problems!" The short genius grumbled some choice words under his breath before spinning back around to his people, jabbing the lady with his papers
"Fine, I'll let it slide. But just this once!" The crowd let out a sigh of relief. "Now what are you all still doing here? Scram! Run! Back to your stations! I want this lab up and running by Sunday- no- Friday! And if it's not damn sparkling when I come to check on it again, I'll have all of you scrubbing toilets for a year!" He yelled as they all ran off with relieved smiles on their faces. "WITH A TOOTHBRUSH!".
The doctor took a moment to compose himself, panting slightly from all his yelling. Feeling a hand lightly pat his head, he swatted at the offending appendage with his trusty paper stack.
"Thank you for your understanding Dr Ujiko." Yuyara Ito, the lab's head scientist, said as she calmly walked past him, a friendly smirk on her face.
The doctor growled as he attempted to put his (imaginary) hair back in place… stress and age did terrible things to one's style.
"I would fire her and her sassy-ass attitude if she weren't so damn good at her job." He complained to no one in particular as he watched her walk away.
He sighed as he rubbed his temple and ran through everything in his head, trying to figure out how far back this would push his plans, when a light knock echoed from the door. The mad scientist raised his head, about to yell at someone to answer it, before pausing and letting out an annoyed huff when he realized he just sent them all off.
' I swear to God Kurogiri!' He complained to himself as he marched towards the door. ' I know I said "Come back anytime if you need anything!" but I figured it was implied that "anytime" didn't include THE MIDDLE OF THE DAMN NIGHT!'
"What do you want now!?" He yelled as he swung the door open, only to find…
' That's not Kurogiri…' His sleep deprived mind noted 'It's just a kid.'
And Indeed there was, in fact, 'just a kid' standing at the door.
A few moments passed with the two both staring at each other, but just as the green haired boy worked up the courage to say something, Ujiko came to a conclusion.
' Not my kid, not my problem.' He told himself as he shut the door.
…
"Wait…"
He stopped a few paces from the door. ' There's a kid at the door.' He blinked behind his goggles. 'There's a kid at the door of one of my secret labs!'
"Shit!"
He made a 180 degree correction to his course and flung the door open.
"Kid!" He yelled at the teen who appeared to have been dejectedly walking away. "Get over here!"
The "Kid" scrambled back towards the door, his face seeming like it couldn't decide if it should smile in joy or cry in terror… or do both at the same time.
"What the hell are you doing here!?"
The boy tried to respond, he really did, but with the traits of "bad at talking to people" "bad at talking to strangers" and "bad at talking to angry people" forming a metaphorical bingo, all that came out was a noise that most closely resembled a porcupine dying in an echo chamber.
"...What?"
"I-I-I-"
"Spit it out boy!"
"I-I'm l-looking f-for D-Dr U-Uj-Ujiko"
The scientist's eyes narrowed to a dangerous degree, as his left arm slipped under his lab coat and thumbed the pistol that sat at his side.
He was a scientist, a doctor, and his quirk wasn't combat oriented, but that didn't mean he was defenseless. Any Villain dumb enough to not carry any form of protection, wouldn't be a Villain for very long.
"You're looking for Daruma Ujiko?"
"Y-Yes, do y-you know h-him?"
Ujiko took a moment to better examine the boy. His green hair was disheveled as if he had just crawled out of bed, he was wearing blue jeans, sneakers, and a white T-shirt with the words "T-Shirt" scribbled on the front, on top of that he had a jacket haphazardly thrown on to protect him against the night's cold.
His jeans had small pockets, too small to be concealing any guns, but still able to fit a pocket knife in each. His shoes, again, too small to carry a gun, but small knives could easily be slipped beneath the soles. No bags that could be explosives and his shirt lacked any sort of carrying capacity. The most dangerous variables were the boy's jacket, which had big enough pockets to hold a small gun or large knife, and that the kid was scrawny enough to have knives or even a small handgun strapped to his chest, arms, or legs without causing any real displacement of his clothes. There were no signs of a mutation type quirk, which meant the kid most likely had an emitter or transformation type quirk, those were the most annoying because they were the hardest to make educated guesses about from appearances alone.
Combat analysis:
The kid couldn't be armed with anything more than light weapons, but had an unknown quirk which could prove to be very dangerous.
Ujiko on the other hand had a heavy pistol, a not set-up security system, a small squad of guards patrolling the building, and a handful of nomu that had been transferred to the lab yesterday, although it would take time for either of the latter groups (his heaviest hitters) to get to his location.
He brought a hand to his goggles, making a show of adjusting them, as if to see the kid better.
' He's here alone.' The doctor observed as he scanned the courtyard and adjacent abandoned warehouses with the infrared vision he had enabled on his goggles.
' He's either really confident in his abilities, or… he's an idiot.'
"Well of course I know him," He said, deciding to take a risk and gauge his opponent's reaction, "He's me."
The kid's eyes grew to the size of saucers and his jaw dropped.
"I-I, y-y-you're?"
"Yes, I am doctor Ujiko. Might I ask who you are, and more importantly why you're here"
"I-I-M-My n-na-name i-is Iz-Izuku M-Midoria, a-and I-I"
"Stop stuttering and spit it out boy!"
"I NEED TO ASK YOU A QUESTION!"
"Oh really?"
Ujiko leaned forward slightly to disguise the motion of him pulling the gun out of its holster and bringing it up to his chest.
"And what question would that be?"
The gun's safety was flicked off with an inaudible click.
"Because, well let's just say, I do hope it's a good one."
The gun was now aligned with the boy's head, hidden perfectly behind Ujiko's lab coat.
A bullet hole in his coat wouldn't be that big of a deal, it could always be replaced. The boy's head on the other hand…
The kid tracked down a disgraced scientist.
A man who had his entire presence practically erased from the world, every book he had ever written, either burned or in his own possession, the Internet scrubbed of his existence by All for One's top hackers-
A man who only ever left the safety of his labs when traveling between them, and even then only traveling via a nomu with a warp quirk.
A man who was one of the very few to work for All for One directly.
Learn of his existence, pinpoint where his hidden labs were, pinpoint which one he was at and when he was at it (Because he never stayed in one place for very long), and then corner him at midnight when no one was around, all to ask a question?
It better be a very, very good question.
The boy clenched his fists and took a deep breath.
The scientist steadied his gun and prepared himself.
"WHAT IS A QUIRK!?"
...
...
...
...Ujiko wasn't drunk enough for this.
Did Yuyara need a live body for experimentation?
No wait, this lab was to see if there was a way to add quirks to nomu after they were created, not for making the creatures.
But she could still use one right?
Meh, it didn't really matter.
He'd hand the kid off to the lab head, and then finally get some sleep.
-Chapter End-
Short chapter is short, man I remember back when I first wrote this thing, it was such a struggle to even get out 2K worth of words on paper- who knew all it takes is several years of stubborn writing to unlock the ability to just vomit up 5K+ words without even realizing it.