Chapter 31
Under the cover of searching for dirt, Tanya and Izuku went near the first gang hideout. Because of the fire, none of the gang members were out and about.
“I think this spot looks good.” Tanya said and pointed to a partially overgrown lot that was barely thirty feet across.
“I'll look for some old metal I can use as a scoop.” Izuku said and put the dumpster down, then covered himself in little green lightning bolts and disappeared.
Single Item Girl's hair fluttered in the wind he cause and her mouth dropped open in surprise.
“Don't worry, he shouldn't be long.” Tanya said with a smirk. She had almost let her manic grin out and she didn't want to scare the girl.
After a few minutes, Izuku came back and he had what looked like most of a car's engine hood.
“That looks like it could be useful.” Tanya said the first code phrase. Depending on his answer, her next move could change.
“It won't last long.” Izuku said and folded it in half to make it stronger.
Tanya smiled and nodded. Their plan was a go. “Do what you can with it and I'll go look for another fire hydrant or something better to use.”
“I'll soften the ground up first.” Izuku said and started to punch the ground and loosening the dirt.
Tanya lifted up into the air and then flew off.
Single Item Girl stood there, her mouth still hanging open, as Izuku quickly scooped up mounds of dirt and dumped it into the dumpster with the car's slowly crumpling hood. He topped it off and tamped it down a little.
“Okay, Single Item Girl.” Izuku said and pointed to the dumpster. “Store that.”
Single Item Girl made a gurgling sound and coughed. “I... I... I can't store that! That's like tons of dirt and...”
“I have a theory that I want you to confirm for me.” Izuku said and held a hand out to her. “Please. Try to store it and show me that you can be the hero you want to be.”
Single Item Girl looked into his eyes and saw confidence there. She took a deep breath and let it out. “Okay.” She said and took his hand. “I'll try.”
“Thank you.” Izuku said, sincerely.
Single Item Girl blushed as he almost cradled her hand, gave it a single pet, then he put it on the dumpster. She didn't need him to prompt her again and stored it. “AHHH!” She yelled as the dumpster disappeared and dozens of different sized rocks were left hanging in the air that then dropped to the ground. She stared at the piles of rocks. “It w-w-worked?” She asked, her voice cracking. “It worked!”
“Mostly.” Izuku said and picked up a very clean rock. It had no dirt left on it at all because Single Item Girl had stored the dirt inside the dumpster. “We can assume there's one rock left inside the dumpster.”
Single Item Girl wasn't really listening as she started jumping around. “Oh, my god. Ohmygod, ohmygod, oh... my... god!”
Izuku held in his laugh and touched her shoulder to stop her and calm her down. “We need to get back to the fire and...”
“CARRY ME!” Single Item Girl said and jumped up to hug him around his neck and pulled her legs up for him to grab.
Izuku didn't stop his laugh this time and held her tenderly. He ignored her returning blush when she realized what she just did. “Hold on. This will feel a little weird with the wind resistance.”
Single Item Girl nodded and held onto his neck as she tucked her head down to his chest. She shivered as the green lightning bolts flowed over her and then a few seconds later, they were beside the old fire truck.
“Where do we make a dirt barricade?” Izuku asked the closest fireman.
“I don't see any dirt.” The man said.
“Single Item Girl has it.” Izuku said and stood her on her feet.
Single Item Girl took the dumpster out of inventory and the fireman standing there directing the heroes and the hoses yelped in surprise.
“Over there! There!” The man wearing the chief helmet said and pointed to a spot down the street where the sparse trees were unprotected and could go afire.
“Mr. Brave! Do you have anyone that manipulates dirt?” Izuku asked.
“No!” Mr. Brave said and struggled to hold the fire hose. He was a little out of shape.
“The hard way it is.” Izuku said and picked up the dumpster, ran over to the spot, and shook it upside down to dump the dirt out into a large mound. A single rock was left on top. He ran back over to Single Item Girl. “Now that we know what to do...”
Single Item Girl beamed a smile at him as stored the dumpster and then she held open her arms.
Izuku laughed and scooped her up and they disappeared to go retrieve more dirt.
*
Tanya stalked through the gang hideout and Izuku had been right. After he smashed his way through the place without restraining his punches, the gang members didn't last long. She had interrogated two of them to find the gang's cache of weapons and technology in their hideout. She almost laughed at the storage room that was stacked from floor to ceiling with machine guns, pistols, rifles, crates of ammo, and boxes of grenades of all different kinds.
The government worked so hard for years to stop me from getting a single rifle and they should have been busting these assholes instead and stopping them from getting military grade firearms. Tanya thought with disgust. I wonder how many people they've killed with these guns while I struggled with modifying a toy air rifle?
Tanya pushed those thoughts aside and looked at the side of the room. There were crates and crates of various electronics. Cell phones, monitors, earpieces, cameras of all kinds, computers, internet routers, and a bunch of other stuff that didn't have a trace of tracking identification on them. No store brands, no customs labels, and no bar codes for scanning and logging the purchases.
If the hideouts are all like this, no wonder the cops and heroes don't bother trying to fight against them. The gangs are beating them hands down in their own surveillance game and with better equipment. Tanya thought and pocketed several choice items that would help over the next few days until she and Izuku could empty the place. She stepped out of the room as she gazed longingly at the racks of real rifles, ones on par or slightly better than the ones she had on her old world.
With only a little modification, she could feel that old empowering feeling once more. She closed the hidden door and used her acceleration quirk to vibrate the latch until it heated up. She stopped when it melted slightly and blew on it.
Tanya moved a few things around to cover the place back up, then decided that she needed to get rid of the bodies before anyone stumbled across them. She smiled as she came up with the perfect way and grabbed two of them and accelerated them and herself, then zoomed out of the building and down several streets to toss them into the closest building that was on fire.
Fifteen more trips emptied the gang's hideout and Tanya used a piece of very heavy debris to cover the front door and an old car to cover the side entrance. No one was going to get in there immediately, assuming that any other gang member would even try to invade another gang's main territory after yesterday.
It was just too damn bad that they were all released on bail, wasn't it? Tanya thought.
The police made hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes yesterday, because the gang members always skipped out on their posted bail. It was like no one even cared about the blatant manipulation of the system that was supposed to protect people.
Tanya checked over the building to make sure she covered any obvious entrance and then she saw him. It was the yakuza member that was rubbing his crimes in the faces of the heroes at Mr. Brave's agency. One sonic boom later, Tanya and the man were on top of one of the buildings that were on fire.
The man was knocked senseless from the impact on the roof and Tanya stripped him of all his weapons, embedded the swords into the roof, and snapped them off. She didn't know if he had a quirk or not, so she tied him up and also used a knife to pluck his eyes out. He didn't realize what happened, because she also healed him to stop the bleeding. Without his eyes.
“Hello, Mr. Yakuza.” Tanya said with a manic grin on her face. “You and I are due for a nice little talk.”
“Wha... wait, who are you? Why can't I see?” He asked.
“It's just a blindfold.” Tanya lied. “You've been at the hero agency every day and you even followed me on my route.”
The yakuza smiled. “You're the blonde we were told to watch for.”
“By who?” Tanya asked.
“Someone that pays really well.” He responded.
“He didn't pay you enough.” Tanya said and eased the knife into the man's shoulder.
The man hissed and didn't react. “You'll pay for that.”
“I don't think so.” Tanya said.
“Oh, but you will. As soon as you arrest me, I'll be back out and...”
“You are under the wrong impression about your circumstances.” Tanya said and eased the knife into his other shoulder to make him hiss. “You're not bleeding out. Interesting.”
The man huffed. “Blades don't damage me like that. They slide in and out without cutting me.”
Tanya laughed. “No wonder you taunt Mr. Brave every day.”
The man laughed, too. “He might be able to hurt me if he spit on me.”
“I doubt that. For someone with a name like that, he's a coward and accepts bribes from your organization to leave you alone in exchange for leaving him and his agency alone.” Tanya said and waited for confirmation, despite not really needing it.
“Who talked?” He asked, angrily.
“You just did.” Tanya said and he lost the angry look, then his face paled.
“N-no, I... no! No, I... I'm loyal and... aaahhhhHHHHH!”
Tanya jumped back into an attack stance as the tattoo on the man's forehead lit up and started to sizzle. She watched as the man screamed in agony and his forehead bubbled as the skin melted way. Blood poured out of his ears, nose and mouth, too.
When the sounds ended, along with his life, the word 'Betrayer' was left on the gleaming white bone of his skull.
Time seemed to slow down again and Tanya wasn't going to allow Being X to grab this powerful vessel. She charged her magic knife and slammed it through the body's heart. Two muffled screams came from the body, that was supposed to be dead, and Tanya pulled the knife out and sliced the head off. She kicked it off of the roof and used her quirk to accelerate it.
The head landed right in the middle of the mostly out of control fire that was destroying the empty buildings. Tanya looked down at the body and had a feeling that she shouldn't leave it there, so she cut it up and tossed the pieces in different directions, all into the consuming fire.
Her extra task done, Tanya took off flying and went back to where Izuku and Single Item Girl were having fun filling the dumpster. They had torn up half of the lot and were joking around. She felt a pang of something in her heart at seeing Izuku having a happy face with someone else and she stopped walking.
The thought was so unlike her, especially because she and Izuku had a lot of friends at school. Everyone being happy makes them more compliant, more accepting, and more willing to risk themselves to stay happy. It was a basic army tactic (in her mind) that happy troops fight better. They really did, even if the higher ups in the chain of command didn't care about it or acknowledged it.
Tanya closed her eyes and she tried to follow that thought, whatever it was, and it evaded her. The feeling was gone now, too. She shook her head at the obvious attempt by Being X to influence her again and she sighed.
I need to be even more vigilant now. Tanya thought and started walking again. “I couldn't find much to use right away.”
Izuku nodded at the code phrase. It told him they had to return later to the hideout when it was safe.
“We're doing great work!” Single Item Girl said and touched the dumpster. “Watch!”
Tanya made her eyes go wide at the sight of the dumpster filled with dirt disappearing and a bunch of completely clean rocks dropped to the ground.
“SEE! Ha hahaha!” Single Item Girl laughed and held out her arms. “Let's go! Our giant firebreak awaits!”
Izuku laughed and scooped her up in his arms. “Tanya, you should see it.”
Tanya nodded and she flew as Izuku ran with another girl in his arms. She didn't get that pang in her heart; but, she did feel jealousy. When they came to a stop, she landed right beside Izuku and stared at the huge mound of dirt that was nearly twenty feet high. It crossed the entire street and was protecting the trees from the encroaching fire.
“Isn't this wonderful?!?” Single Item Girl said and waved at the thing as Izuku tossed the latest load onto it near the end.
“We need another one three streets over at the small park!” One of the firemen said.
“We're on it!” Izuku said and handed the dumpster to Single Item Girl. “I need to talk to Tanya and see if she can scout another area.”
“I'll start going to the lot and meet you there!” Single Item Girl said happily and jogged away.
“What's wrong?” Izuku asked in a whisper as he stepped close and hugged her.
Tanya stiffened for a moment, then sighed. “Dammit, I think Being X is messing with me again.”
Izuku bent slightly and picked her up into a princess carry. “Tell me.”
Tanya looked at his face and sighed again. “This.” She motioned at his arms. “When I saw...”
Izuku smiled and hugged her. “If you really looked, I wasn't cradling her, only lifting. I carry her from there to here to deliver the dirt quickly. I'm not holding her like I hold you.”
Tanya blinked her eyes. “Izuku... I... I don't know why I...”
“I know. You didn't react at all when Mina hugged and kissed my cheek or when Tsu climbed up my chest and did the same.” Izuku said. “That last one was a surprise.”
Tanya smiled. “She looked to me first.”
“She did?” Izuku asked and smiled again. “That was smart of her.”
“It was.” Tanya said and reached up to cup the side of his face. “What's Single Item Girl's name?”
“No idea.” Izuku said, honestly. “She's not that person right now. She's the hero intern Single Item Girl.”
“She's also having a ball.” Tanya said.
Izuku chuckled and covered them in green lightning bolts. “She nearly freaked out when I made her store the dumpster of dirt the first time.”
Tanya nodded. “She didn't even notice that the industrial bucket you gave back to her to store, still had water in it.”
“We definitely have a lot to talk to her about tomorrow.” Izuku said and they disappeared from there and reappeared at the empty lot to see Single Item Girl take out the dumpster.
“Hi!” Single Item Girl said and waved. “With the three of us working, we'll be done that much faster!”
Tanya and Izuku exchanged knowing looks, nodded, and started filling the dumpster with dirt.
They had a small park to save.