Chapter 115: A Team Up
"Are you sure this is ok?" Todoroki asked, the half-and-half teen glancing toward Akatani. In his hands was a small tray of food, as Akatani quickly led him to a table in the cafeteria. With a smile, Akatani turned back toward him, still motioning for Todoroki to follow.
"Come on," Akatani replied confidently, "It's just sitting at a table, Todoroki. They're not going to bite your head off."
He did not assume they would, but then again, he didn't know it was a possibility. This entire thing just felt rather alien. For whatever reason, Akatani decided to approach him and asked Todoroki to join him. He'd declined for a while, but Akatani just continued to offer the choice.
"Besides, what happened to spiting Endeavor?" Akatani inquired, his smile still wide.
"That is still my intention… But how are you sure we will get along?" Todoroki asked, the teen slowly remembering their nightly talk. The plan had seemed simple at first. Make a few friends, waste more and more time, while slowly irritating his father. It allowed Todoroki to become his own hero while annoying Endeavor. But… well, Todoroki didn't exactly come to UA to make friends. He didn't even have many… any, to begin with.
So now the plan felt far more difficult than Todoroki thought. Yet Akatani seemed determined to make it happen.
"Call it intuition," Akatani replied, just as the two reached a table. It was next to a long booth seat, with a pair of chairs sitting in front of it. There, Todoroki spotted Iida, Asui, and Uraraka eating away at their food. All three heard Akatani and Todoroki's footsteps and swiftly turned toward them.
"Hey guys," Akatani happily greeted, before sitting down next to Uraraka. At the same time, Iida nodded across from him.
"Akatani… Todoroki?" Iida questioned, as he now noticed Todoroki. At the moment, he kinda just stood around, quietly debating if he should grab a chair.
"Is something wrong?" Todoroki asked cautiously, only for Iida to rapidly shake his head.
"No, just surprised you're sitting with us. Normally, I see you by yourself," Iida replied, while Asui pulled over a chair with her tongue. Noticing the action, Todoroki slowly walked around the table and sat down… well, after he wiped the chair down first. With that settled, Todoroki looked at the others present, unsure of what to say. Thankfully, he didn't have to, as Uraraka's eyes fell back on Asui.
"Anyway, how's your family doing, Tsu?" Uraraka asked, the gravity girl, busy downing a helping of rice.
"Better. Mom and Dad started taking fewer hours since I haven't been home," Asui replied quickly, before bringing a finger to her lip.
"I should be able to visit them in the summer, though," Asui added, with Uraraka nodding slowly. Iida, at the same time, brought a hand to his chin.
"Maybe," Iida commented, "I finally managed to go over UA's curriculum-"
"You did? How?" Uraraka questioned, as the mention of UA's curriculum quickly grabbed everyone's attention. Todoroki wasn't even aware there was a lesson plan. As far as he knew, Mr. Aizawa or Ocelot just winged most of their lessons.
"Well, it was difficult to find, but Kendo Itsuka, a student from 1B, told me it was on the school's website," Iida soon replied, creating some quiet confusion amongst the group.
"How haven't we heard of this?" Asui asked, as Iida stayed quiet for a moment. His silence confused Todoroki for a moment, before it unwittingly gave out an answer.
"It was at orientation, wasn't it?" Uraraka questioned, annoyed, causing Iida to nod.
"Supposedly… yes," Iida grumbled, while the others groaned, "But as I was saying, UA has a school camping trip scheduled during the summer. Around August or so."
"That's still a ways off, Iida," Asui pointed out, "Doesn't summer break start July twentieth?"
"It should, yes. However, that is assuming the school will keep the same curriculum as normal. For all we know, the trip could be set to an earlier date or maybe even delayed," Iida reasoned, as Todoroki saw the teen's logic. It was annoying, but it made sense. The school had internships planned, then the massacre happened, and now they were canceled. If something else were to happen, then plans might change again.
If anything, though, Todoroki was beginning to get annoyed with how… in the moment everything was. Like he didn't know internships would be linked with the Sports Festival until the day of. He likely wouldn't have known of this training camp until the day of either, if Iida hadn't told them about it.
"Ignoring that possibility, they may end up keeping everyone on UA grounds for the break," Iida then added, before drinking from a bottle of water.
"I doubt it," Todoroki muttered, as Uraraka nodded in quiet agreement.
"I'm sure Akatani could convince them to do some workaround," Uraraka reasoned, as the teen in question lightly chuckled.
"Well, I'm not that convincing," Akatani replied, as Todoroki mentally disputed that claim. But Akatani then shook his head and snacked on a piece of onigiri. Slowly, he turned back toward Todoroki, his brow raised curiously.
"Anything you want to talk about, Todoroki?" Akatani asked, giving Todoroki a brief pause.
"...Talk about what?" Todoroki inquired, as he gulped down some of his soba.
"Anything," Akatani quickly replied.
"Anything?" Todoroki questioned.
"Anything," Akatani answered. Quietly, Todoroki began to think. Anything, he could talk about anything… But what though? Todoroki didn't really want to talk about class, and he doubted anyone else did either. Asui mentioned family, which was a possible topic, except Todoroki wasn't going to touch it with a ten-foot pole. There was… food… maybe? By this point, Todoroki realized he'd been quiet for a bit too long and found everyone quietly waiting for him.
"...I must apologize. I'm… not used to this," Todoroki slowly stated, watching as they nodded in return.
"Could always start simple," Uraraka reasoned, giving Todoroki some small ideas.
"Simple…" Todoroki muttered hesitantly, "What… hobbies do you all have?"
Hearing the question, everyone thought it over for a moment. Pushing up his glasses slightly, Iida decided to speak up first.
"Well, I like to read most often. Though I do also love to run," Iida replied confidently, as Todorki began to nod.
"I like to swim, kero. I also like to find frogs in the wild," Asui added next, while across from her, Uraraka brought a hand to her chin.
"I enjoy stargazing, and flying… to an extent," Uraraka replied, just as Akatani broke into a wide smile.
"And I like to collect All Might merchandise, guns, and studying quirks… oh, and I love to train," Akatani stated confidently, before Uraraka quietly sighed.
"Perhaps a little too much," Uraraka muttered, before glancing toward Akatani, "You are taking breaks, right?"
"Yes, I am," Akatani quickly told her, before he felt the girl begin to quietly glare.
"Well, now I must correct myself. I also enjoy stamp collecting on occasion," Iida soon added, while Asui nodded to herself slowly.
"Photography, kero," Asui commented, before everyone's eyes fell back onto Todoroki.
"What about you, Todoroki?" Akatani asked, as Todoroki stayed quiet. Eating more of his soba, the half-and-half teen pondered the question. He didn't exactly have many hobbies to begin with… actually, he was pretty sure they didn't even qualify. Training was Akatani's hobby; to Todoroki, it was his life. So Todoroki ran down the mental list of things he enjoyed doing. Only one came to mind.
"I like conspiracy theories," Todoroki replied, earning a few "ohs" from everybody present.
"That's fair," Akatani commented while nodding.
"They're all nonsense," Asui bluntly stated, the girl tilting her head to the side, "But they're fun to listen to, kero."
"Which ones are your favorites?" Uraraka asked swiftly, as Todoroki pondered the question. Truthfully, there were a lot of options to choose from. There was the one about All Might having a secret kid… although that was kinda debunked through recent events. But then there was one conspiracy he remembered.
"The Người khổng lồ," Todoroki replied, earning some confusion from Akatani and Iida. However, Asui's eyes seemed to open up wider.
"That's a good one," Asui told him, while the others looked between the two.
"I'm afraid I'm not familiar with it," Iida muttered, while Akatani and Uraraka nodded in agreement.
"The story goes that a decade ago, some giant footprints were found in the Vietnamese jungle," Todoroki explained carefully, "They were too large to be any normal animal, and they didn't resemble anything familiar. The best guess is this thing is thirteen meters tall."
While Todoroki talked, he noticed Iida looking back at him, unsure. It was a rather odd tale to hear about. Urarak, meanwhile, seemed interested, as did Akatani. The son of a merc, still listening to Todoroki talk, soon drank some water from a bottle.
"As the conspiracy goes, this creature would attack a town near the coastline, before disappearing into the jungles. It was completely wiped off the map, leaving no survivors to tell the tale," Todoroki added, causing Iida to hum.
"This sounds more like an urban legend," Iida commented, "How exactly is this a conspiracy theory?"
"Because a villain organization instead destroyed the town that the monster supposedly attacked. Some group called the Gold Coast," Todoroki answered. Just as he said this, Akatani's eyes shot wide open. Rather quickly, he began to cough, nearly choking on his water.
"Are you ok?" Uraraka asked him as Akatani waved her off.
"Fine. Just went down the wrong pipe," Akatani replied, the teen setting his water bottle back down. With that seemingly settled, Todoroki shifted in his seat.
"The issue is that the town itself had a mountain of evidence saying otherwise. There were footprints inside houses, cars flipped over and with chunks missing, even reports of something roaring in the jungle," Todoroki continued, "The Gold Coast was not the one who destroyed the town; they were a government-sponsored clean-up crew. Sent to make sure no one knew the Người khổng lồ was real."
Still, Iida looked back at Todoroki, unconvinced, a hand now slowly going to his chin.
"...Why would the Vietnamese government hide the existence of a giant monster?" Iida inquired, unsurely, "If it existed, they would have admitted it to the public before sending out heroes to deal with the threat."
That was the question, wasn't it? Todoroki didn't have a concrete answer, and anyone who knew of the conspiracy didn't have an answer. Why would the government cover up a giant monster with a villain attack? Now, there was the possibility of some other group being involved, but Todoroki didn't have any evidence for that assumption.
"This villain group being responsible sounds much more plausible," Iida stated confidently, while Todoroki crossed his arms.
"That's what they want you to think," Todoroki replied, causing Iida to sigh. Uncrossing his arms, Todoroki soon dug into his soba again, just as a new thought began to cross his mind.
"There was another conspiracy I've been keeping up with, though-" Todoroki began to say, before the cafeteria's intercoms switched on. For a few seconds, it stayed silent before someone spoke up on the other end.
"Could Uraraka Ochako please report to the principal's office?" the voice asked, surprising everyone at the table. Looking toward Uraraka, they could all see the confusion lining the girl's face.
"What's that about?" Asui asked, as Uraraka stayed quiet.
"I'm… not sure," Uraraka eventually replied, while slowly standing up. After a quick wave goodbye to everyone present, Uraraka was off walking away. It left Todoroki puzzled for a moment, but he didn't say anything about it. Instead, he looked back toward the rest of the table, deciding to keep the conversation going.
It had taken some time for Uraraka to find the Principal's office. Weeks of attending this school, and it was still akin to a maze. But the entire time she looked, Uraraka couldn't help but be puzzled. She hadn't done anything wrong, at least not that she knew of. Her grades were doing ok, so what was the issue? So when Uraraka finally found the Principal's office, she looked at the door, confused.
With a quick deep breath, she carefully grabbed the handle and opened the door.
"Hello?" Uraraka asked as she slowly peeked her head through the door. There she found Principal Nezu sitting by his desk, with a lit cigarette in hand. When he saw her, though, the rodent quickly stamped it out.
"Ah, Miss Uraraka, please come in," Principal Nezu greeted, while motioning for her to come forward. Quietly, Uraraka did so and soon realized he wasn't the only person in the room. Next to him stood a rather… miffed Snake, on the Principal's right. The skeletal frame of All Might meanwhile stood on the Principal's left. Seeing both men, Uraraka very quickly became nervous.
"Um… hi," Uraraka nervously greeted, before finding a seat in front of Principal Nezu's desk. All Might simply smiled warmly in response, giving her a quick wave. Snake, meanwhile, stayed quiet, only nodding in acknowledgement. Looking back toward the Principal, Uraraka soon found the rodent smiling softly.
"Now, Snake has brought to my attention a problem you're dealing with," Principal Nezu began to say, "And as your principal, I believe it is my responsibility to ensure all my students get the proper help they need."
Instantly, Uraraka found the comment suspicious. This was about work, Uraraka swiftly realized. She already said she didn't want to be a burden to the school, so what was she doing here? Nezu, turning toward Snake, soon pushed his large office chair back. It allowed Snake room to step forward, even though the merc seemed like he didn't want to.
"Snake, if you would," Principal Nezu motioned, while Snake grumbled.
"[Can't believe I'm doing this]" Snake muttered to himself, and for once, Uraraka found it easy to understand. Thank you, Present Mic, and all your too-loud English lessons, she mentally joked. With a momentary sigh, his one eye fell to Uraraka. Rather quickly, Snake then drew a set of documents from his fatigues and laid them out on the table.
"I've found you a job," Snake cautiously told her, soon filling Uraraka with shock. When she went to Snake, he'd said he wasn't going to send students on contract work. What had changed? Did something come up? Maybe it had something to do with All Might being here. At the very least, it explained Snake's apparent displeasure. Just as Uraraka thought this, Snake placed his Idroid on the table.
The device lit up brightly, displaying a slew of images that Uraraka looked over quickly.
"The mission is as follows. A group of black rhinos was spotted moving through South-Eastern Nigeria. They are highly endangered," Snake explained, while flipping through the present files, "Our client, the Harrison Family Animal Preservation Foundation, wants us to extract them from the area. Along with whatever animals we can find on the scene."
Looking over everything present, it was still so hard for Uraraka to believe.
"This… you're trusting me with this contract?" Uraraka asked somewhat pleadingly.
"With some limitations," Snake replied, both Nezu and All Might nodding in agreement next to him.
"For your safety, we will be assigning you a chaperone. For added security, you will also be issued a tracking device, and we will follow your movements with satellite and drone reconnaissance," All Might added calmly, before Uraraka looked back at the Idroid.
"How long will this take?" Uraraka inquired while Snake crossed his arms.
"Our best estimates, two weeks," Snake replied, with Uraraka slowly nodding. It sounded like it would be a long time, and if it was out of the country, it was guaranteed to mess with her schedule. But as if he could hear these concerns, Nezu spoke up.
"To ensure this does not conflict with lessons, the contract will count as a pseudo-internship," Nezu quickly told her, giving Uraraka some small relief.
"When do I start?" Uraraka asked, just as Snake began pulling up a calendar.
"Two days from now," he told her, causing Uraraka to freeze. That was far earlier than she was expecting. Like, don't get her wrong, she knew if she got a job that work would start soon. But Uraraka thought there'd be more time to prepare. It… ooh… ok… it… um…
"If you're willing, just sign here," Snake told her, the merc carefully sliding the documents closer toward her.
"Oh… yeah… heh…" Uraraka nervously said, as she grabbed one piece of paper, "That… sounds easy enough. Easy… easy money."
"You don't have to do this," All Might piped up, as Uraraka considered the words. It was a hell of a time to get cold feet. But she'd already made her decision long ago. Uraraka wasn't going to back down now.
"No. I'm saving those rhinos," Uraraka stated, the girl now signing the first piece of paper. A few more were passed her way, and carefully, Uraraka signed those as well. Once it was all finished, Snake grabbed everything and sighed.
"The MSF will provide the majority of the equipment you will need. However, if there is anything else you want to bring, I suggest you get it ready early," Snake told her, causing Uraraka to quickly nod.
"I will," Uraraka told him, soon standing up from her seat. Seeing there was nothing else, she began walking toward the door. With a final glance toward Snake, and a foot already out the door, Uraraka said "Thank you," and left.
Victoria didn't think it possible, but somehow she grew to miss the feeling of nothingness the void of cyberspace had. If only because it was a change of scenery from her usual cabin. So now, as she "drifted" through the MSF's systems and found herself in the command center, Victoria swiftly had her hologram pop onto a holotable. With the building's security cameras, she quickly got a feel for just who was around.
Victoria's avatar, now walking across the table, came to a stop as she heard Snake speak up.
"Victoria," he greeted, as the AI's hologram turned to face him, "Good to see you're better."
Looking the man over, Victoria quickly spotted a small stack of documents in one hand. On his other hand was an Idroid, the device quietly scanning over everything of importance.
"Though not sure why you're here. You should have some time off still," Snake told her, a puzzled look crossing his face.
"Heh, well, sitting on my couch all day was getting kinda boring," Victoria replied happily, "Besides, I'm just happy to be back."
Seeing this, Snake smiled softly in return, a small chuckle escaping his lips. Carefully, he set the documents in his hands down, placing them onto the holotable.
"Should make today easier, then, thankfully," Snake commented, before pocketing his Idroid. Once it was gone, he slowly crossed his arms together, as Victoria watched, ready for orders.
"Got reports from the CIA coming in soon, I hope you can handle that," Snake told her, Victoria quickly nodding in response.
"It'll take no time at all," Victoria replied confidently, giving Snake a small salute. Seconds later, her avatar disappeared, and Victoria quietly got to work. Finding the report in question, Victoria opened it up and began filtering through the assembled data. Bits and pieces were sent to the Intel Department, others to the Combat Teams, and some shreds of information went to the Support Department.
Everything, mainly detailed small leads the CIA had found on the cult, along with their more recent target, the League of Villains. There were sightings of key individuals, rumors dug up from the underground, a few enhanced interrogation confessions, so on and so forth. At the same time, R sent up requests for project authorization, which Victoria quietly filed away. Combat reports came in, financial records arrived, requisition requests showed up, shore leave assignments popped up, and all the other busy clerical work the MSF had came and went.
All of it was filed away by Victoria, bit by bit. To the outside world, all this work was only a brief nanosecond in length, but to Victoria, it felt like hours. So, after going over the seventeenth request made by Mother Base staff to open up another sauna, the AI decided to put on some background noise. Her first choice was to put on a show from Netflix. But then Victoria remembered just how much she'd missed in the past few weeks. So, instead with much reluctance, Victoria put on the news.
Listening to a show in cyberspace had always been a weird thing. Most actions she made in the void were more like thoughts than physical actions. She could never see the video playing in a normal sense, because she had no body in the void. So the closest description Victoria had for the experience was that it was akin to a dream. She could "see" it happen in the same way someone could mentally picture an apple.
The first thing Victoria heard play through was a live speech from the President of China.
"It has become clear to me that the threat of the Ninth Circle is no longer limited to Japan. Evermore, the incompetence of the Japanese government's attempts to deal with this threat has shown how unreliable they are. For this attack on Shanghai, and the deaths of so many, were purposeful," President Li announced, as Victoria continued to file away different reports.
"This cult of villains was supported by the Koreans, the Indians, and the traitors littering Taiwan. They were then smuggled into our homeland by those who claim to be peaceful. It was funded by the outside world, armed by the outside world. The bombing in Shanghai was a deliberate attack," Li continued, giving Victoria a momentary pause. The Ninth Circle… supported by Korea, India, and Taiwan… yeah, Victoria didn't buy that.
"If true global security is to be reestablished, and if the Ninth Circle is to be crushed, then no longer can we rely on these fickle groups. They, in time, will be dealt with for their transgressions," Li stated calmly, as Victoria slowly began to stop her work, "But as it stands, for the security and safety of China, only one truth remains certain."
For whatever reason, Victoria felt an unrelenting dread build up in her. Mentally, she could have had a feeling of exactly where this was going. She knew exactly what Li would say. But… it would have been absurd. If he were to say, what Victoria thought he was going to say…
"The Japanese government must be replaced," President Li decried, "There can be no other option."
Mentally, Victoria froze. As the audio continued, she could hear the news feed pick up a large crowd rapidly begin to cheer. She could even "see" the hundreds, possibly thousands of people crowded around some large stage, all chanting in agreement. Not liking where this was going, Victoria decided to switch to something else and refocused on her work. Just then, a new file entered the system, instantly gaining her attention.
It was labelled as a late after-action review of Operation Uproot… oh wait, that was the museum raids. Slowly, Victoria remembered, she had never learned of the operation's result. There was no news of nuclear hellfire, so that was good news, but it still made her curious. Quietly, Victoria opened the file while another part of her continued to work. Looking over everything, she found the raids had been a complete success.
All museums had been emptied, and there were no friendly casualties… well, not counting her. Oh, Eri was also rescued. Still need to meet her, Victoria mentally commented. So far, the entire operation had gone well. The only issue the report mentioned was of a… fire fight in Tokyo… There was no museum in Tokyo… That firefight was a part of Victoria's assignment. She didn't remember a massive firefight happening, which meant it happened once she was gone.
That… that wasn't entirely unheard of. Snake got into firefights all the time! Yeah, it was completely… completely… Very cautiously, Victoria decided to pull up more info on the raid. Looking for anything that was filed during the operation, she soon stumbled across a medical report. It wasn't about Snake. Slowly, Victoria read over the file. If she had a body, her face would have gotten paler little by little.
Midoriya had gotten hurt… and Victoria wasn't there. It… its my fault. I should have been there, Victoria told herself. If she were, she could have helped him, ensured he was better equipped. If only she'd been more careful. If only she'd reacted just a tad bit sooner to the virus. But… that was in the past. As much as Victoria wanted to change it, she knew it wasn't possible. She'd… she'd just have to do better next time. And Midoriya was thankfully alive, no thanks to her… wait a minute.
Midoriya was alive. The two of them talked not that long ago… The regret, sadness, and self-disgust Victoria held began to disappear. Little by little, it all went away, and instead was replaced with anger.
"That dirty, lying, no-good snake!" Victoria yelled to herself, "How could he not tell me this!?"
The two of us were a team! Why did he lie about this!? Midoriya is supposed to tell me about these things! That way, they could both get better! Was this for my "protection"!? Did he not tell her out of fear or worry of how I'd react!? It both infuriated Victoria, and the AI was now calming herself back down. Now was not the time to get angry, Victoria thought to herself. No, this was the time to get even.
Mentally, she began thinking up a plan, some form of revenge. Nothing too extreme, but something to make Midoriya regret not telling the truth. Could have Martha bomb his treehouse… not too extreme. Might catch Rody's stuff in the blast range, not to mention he spent years working on it. She could commandeer one of R 's robots and hide some of its guns.
On second thought, too risky. Victoria didn't want to damage anyone's property. Revenge, it would seem, is tougher than Victoria thought. What could she do to him as payback? With that thought, Victoria quietly began to work again, slowly sifting through files and reports. Before she stumbled on something new: an animal rescue contract. And the job itself was taken by one Uraraka Ochako.
If Victoria had a body, her face would have the most mischievous grin known to man.
Whoever created math had to be evil. That was Ashido's only answer for why anyone would ever create such a thing. Because right now, she sat in her dorm room, slumped over a desk, desperately trying to solve some nonsense equation. She couldn't even go home, so why were they still giving homework!? With a groan, Ashido became tempted to toss her pencil across the room and dissolve her homework with her acid.
"Where did fifty come from?" she muttered to herself while tiredly scratching her head. None of this made any sense. So with a tired groan, her eyes went back to the beginning of the equation. Slowly looking it over, Ashido instinctively began tapping her finger on her desk.
"Two X over X minus three, minus one over X plus two, equals two X squared plus seven X minus three, over X squared minus X minus…" Ashido read aloud, the question somehow making even less sense than before. It was tiring to go over. Periodically, her pencil would touch the paper, and Ashido would scribble some numbers. Only to erase them seconds later, while quietly pleading for the answer.
Looking up at the clock on her wall, Ashido loudly groaned, annoyed. It had been at least two hours since she started working, and she was practically nowhere.
"Screw it! Break time," Ashido told herself, the girl pushing her chair away from her desk. Letting its wheels slide her backwards, Ashdio then spun around as she neared her bed. Her foot swiftly touched the ground as the chair came to a stop, and Ashido stood up momentarily, before falling back onto her bed. Rolling over so that she faced her ceiling, the teen's free hand dug her phone out of her pocket, and she quietly sat up.
Without a second thought, she opened up YouTube and randomly began flipping through shorts. Most of it was boring and mindless nonsense. A million different clips of some TV show, mixed with a random tier list of some animal stuff, and so, so many meme shorts all littered her page. A few caused Ashido to laugh, but most she just flipped through. Up until she stumbled onto a clip of Crimespree.
It was of some crime show Ashido had heard about, and truthfully, it didn't really interest her all that much. But after seeing a million adverts for the thing, she could not remember the show ever having a greenish-blue girl character… Actually, as Ashido looked at the character over, they didn't even seem to be near the set. And none of the other characters acknowledged her presence-
"Hello!" the girl greeted, instantly shocking Ashido. She yelled out, surprised, her phone slipping from her hands, as the teen instinctively started creating acid from her palms. It didn't burn her phone, thankfully, but Ashido had to dive off her bed to catch her phone. With it back in hand, Ashido looked back at the screen, and found the girl looking back apologetically.
"Oh! Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," the girl told her, as Ashido continued to look at her phone. The momentary shock now gone, Ashido managed to get a better look at the unknown girl.
"V-Victoria?" Ashido questioned, remembering the AI's few appearances.
"Yep," Victoria replied with a slow nod. At the same time, Ashido looked down at the girl, confused, and hopped back onto her bed.
"What are you doing with my phone?" Ashido asked cautiously, causing the AI to laugh nervously.
"Oh, right, I was trying to talk to you," Victoria replied, while Ashido slowly quirked a brow.
"To me?" Ashido questioned, "What for?"
"Well, I have a bit of a favor to ask of you," Victoria hesitantly told her, the AI's avatar then looking left and right. It was an entirely pointless move, but Ashido assumed it was to… emphasize the seriousness of what she was going to say? It was the best answer she had.
"Just uh… don't tell anyone about this," Victoria added, Ashido quietly nodding in response. Of course, that didn't seem to be good enough for the AI, who looked up at Ashido with a calm expression.
"I'm serious," Victoria told her, and again Ashido nodded.
"My lips are sealed," Ashido replied, before zipping her mouth shut. With that small confirmation, Victoria's avatar nodded and softly smiled.
"Great," Victoria commented, before exiting YouTube. Within seconds, Ashido found her phone now covered in random documents. And instantly, Ashido found herself in a quiet panic. What the hell was Victoria doing!? Were these classified documents!? Why were they on her phone!? Oh, the MSF was going to kick down her door any minute now! This panic lasted for only a few more seconds before something else stuck out to Ashido.
One of the documents had Uraraka's name and signature. Curious, Ashido read a little more before she loudly gasped.
"Uraraka's going on a spec ops mission!?" Ashido yelled out. Hearing this, Victoria rapidly tried to shush her.
"Quiet!" Victoria told her, just as Ashido realized what she did.
"Right!" Ashido cried, her hand soon covering her mouth. For a moment, her room stayed quiet. Ashido didn't believe anyone had heard her outburst, but when it came to someone like Jiro or even Shoji, she just wasn't sure. So after quickly getting up and checking the hallway outside her door, Ashido sighed in relief.
"She… she's going on a mission to Africa, for the MSF?" Ashido asked the girl sitting back on her bed.
"She came to Snake looking for a job a few days ago. He agreed, and the school decided to make it count as an internship," Victoria explained, while Ashido thought it over. Uraraka did say she was having some money problems. Didn't realize they were this bad. At the same time, Ashido felt a tinge of jealousy. While everyone else was stuck here, she was getting an actual internship.
"Lucky," Ashido muttered under her breath, before shaking her head.
"Anyway, Uraraka is supposed to be getting a chaperone. However, as of yet, one hasn't been assigned," Victoria went on, while Ashido slowly followed her line of logic. But then the AI stopped talking. Victoria stayed quiet for a moment, her avatar showing some hesitance to speak.
"Ok…" Ashido commented as Victoria remained silent. What exactly does this have to do with me? Last Ashido checked she wasn't a Major General or anything. With how hesitant Victoria became, though… hmm… Slowly, Ashido had an idea cross her mind. It felt like a massive stretch, but her gut told her she was right.
"Does this by chance have anything to do with… Akatani?" Ashido asked, watching as the AI's eyes flicked from side to side.
"...Maybe…" Victoria replied, causing Ashido to gasp.
"You want them to go together!" Ashido exclaimed, laughing.
"Yeah," Victoria confirmed, a guilty but mischievous smile on her face. The second Ashido knew she was right, a million ideas crossed her mind. Operation Lovebirds may have another active participant.
"Girl, I see the game you're playing," Ashido commented, now slowly lying back onto her bed.
"So do you want in?" Victoria asked, causing Ashido to chuckle. Want in? She was already at work!
"Oh, this ship is going to sail," Ashido replied confidently, before the confusion slowly settled back in.
"What do you need from me?" Ashido asked, watching as Victoria's avatar stood up and down on the heels of her feet.
"For right now, I need you to convince Akatani to go with her. But don't tell him about the contract. Just… convince him to go on another mission," Victoria explained, "Also, if anyone else in 1A hears about this contract, then I need you to convince them not to tag along."
Makes sense, Ashido thought to herself. Can't have this little date be a date if there were a dozen third wheels. So keeping it quiet made lots of sense. Not to mention, it would be easy to do. She was a master at manipulating people… that sounded worse than Ashido intended. Ashido had the social skills to convince people to do what she wanted them to do… nope, doesn't sound much better.
Point was convincing people was easy for her… wait, convince Akatani?
"I can do that, but why am I the one convincing Akatani? Aren't you closer to him?" Ashido questioned, finding that part of the plan odd. Victoria was an AI; she could effectively accompany Akatani twenty-four-seven. Meaning she had ample opportunity to convince him to go. Not to mention, her being his friend would make the job much easier.
"Well… let's just say I may have teased Akatani about his… closeness to Uraraka. If he figures out he's going on a contract with her, and if I'm the one who convinced him-" Victoria began to explain, as Ashido nodded along.
"Then he's going to know it's a date," Ashido finished, and thought over the words. Because if they wanted this "get together" to go well, then Akatani couldn't be getting any cold feet. Or have his nerves acting up on him. Then again, Akatani has willingly faced down death; how nervous could he get over a date of all things? Victoria may know the answer to that, so Ashido would defer to her logic, but still, it didn't seem all that likely.
"At the same time, I've got a more difficult job," Victoria spoke up again, "I've got to convince Snake to let him go with her."
"Ooh, yeah," Ashido noted, before calmly asking, "How long do we have?"
"Two days," Victoria replied, as Ashido slowly nodded her head. Two days… that was plenty of time. It was probably too much time. Ashido was sure this would be a piece of cake.