Chapter Text
The lithe girl darted through the dark alleys, confident in each step despite the cracked and uneven pavement. Her rat-like ears atop her dirty tangled hair twitched at every sound. A matching rat tail flicked around her ankles, staying close to her body. Her beady brown eyes stared out at the dim streets around her, each path painfully familiar and leading further into the narrow labyrinth of the city slums.
She skittered down a winding back alley, barely squeezing her thin frame into the gap. Her heart pounded against her ribs, blood rushing in her ears. The package sat heavy in her jacket pocket, weighed down less by its actual mass and more by the implications it brought.
Police. Heroes. Villains, though those were nothing new in the underbelly of the city. And if her vigilante associates heard of it, no amount of running and hiding would save her. And yet...
And yet none of that compared to the promise of cold hard cash. Half up front, half on delivery. In total she was promised enough to drag herself out of the slums, or at least get a reliable roof over her head. At least one solid meal a day, a reliably clean source of water... The sort of thing a sewer rat could barely dream of. One million yen, more if she ran frequent deliveries.
She broke out into the open streets of a much more upscale part of town. Her entire demeanor shifted; posture straightening into something more natural, shoulders relaxing from their hunch. Just another teen sneaking out late rather than the best mule in Japan.
The breeze shifted slightly, and she caught the barest scent of coffee beans and fresh linen. Eraserhead. Fuck.
Bolt or play it off? Does he see her? Does he recognize her?
His footsteps were light on the sidewalk behind her, but not light enough. A chill ran down her spine. He knew.
She bolted. His capture weapon reached for her. She jerked to the side, narrowly avoiding the scarf, and slipped into another alleyway. She scampered over the concrete as she rushed towards the dropoff point, doing her best to shake Eraserhead along the way.
She skidded to a stop at the listed address. A large man built like a brick wall turned around, glowering down at her with a face wreathed in fire.
"What," he snapped, and she shrank back. Be good, be nice, don't draw attention, obey. Cash. Where was her--
--Oh. The paramedics on site were hauling the partially burned bodies of her clients into ambulances. So no paycheck.
"Mouse," Eraserhead said, but she kept her suspicious glare on Endeavor. "I don't suppose you know anything about the local Trigger smuggling operation."
"You know this urchin?"
Her eyes narrowed. He didn't have to sound so surprised, honestly. It was insulting.
"Well, Mouse?" Eraserhead pressed, fixing her with his tired gaze.
She snarled at Endeavor and turned on her heel, leering at Eraserhead before she scurried off.
"Fuck," Eraser swore, immediately giving chase. "I can handle this myself, Endeavor!"
No fire. Good. Her nose twitched and her ears perked up, tracking the Hero's movement as she fled. He ran over the rooftops, coffee wafting down into the dim alleys below.
She turned a sharp corner, tail disappearing into the darkness.
"No, come back!" Eraserhead's capture weapon brushed along her tail, narrowly missing her.
Shit. She dropped to all fours and scrambled faster, all but invisible in the dark. Her gray clothes faded into the walls around her.
Fabric caught her around the midsection, and he dragged her out of the alley and into the air. He set her down on the rooftop, but kept the scarf around her in case she tried to bolt.
"I really don't appreciate chasing you down, Mouse," he grumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose. "You obviously know something. Nothing this big escapes your notice, and I'll bet you're in on it."
Her expression was flat, but one ear flicked up in interest. "How much for the bet?" she signed, hands free of restraints. "Five hundred says I'm not in on whatever operations went down."
"Nothing for free, huh." He reached into his coat pocket and held out ten hundred yen. "Skip the banter. What do you know?"
She eyed the handful of bills for a moment. Mind made up, her hand flashed out and stashed the money in her coat.
She rummaged through her pockets and pulled out the package of Trigger. "T-R-I-G-G-E-R," she spelled, and mimed firing a gun. "Guy paid me to deliver it to the place you barbequed."
He cautiously lifted the package and tucked it in his jacket. "Who?"
She shrugged.
"You seriously don't know?"
"Not my job to know," she replied simply. "Point A to point B, easy as that. Hell of a lot of cash for it too. Told to loiter by there for about five minutes and someone would gimme a code. Too late for a sting operation though."
"Any identification on the man? Anything at all?" He was really grasping at straws.
"Worth more than ten hundred for that, Eraser," she said, tail flicking from side to side. Amusement. He was easy to rile up, and he valued her information too much to turn her in. She paused, tilting her head to the side as she thought.
"Endeavor," she mimicked flames over her face, "was acting on his own, huh? Not a planned strike. You wanna know the supplier."
He nodded. "And you have an idea."
"I'll need the Trigger back and a share of your upcoming paycheck." She smiled. "I think it's only fair to return the product. Assuming, of course, he stuck around."
"Forgive me if I don't trust a word you say." Despite his objections, the scarf loosened around her torso. She forced her expression to stay blank. "Got a plan?"
She rolled her shoulders back and grinned. With one hand she signed a quick "yes" and she held the other out to shake. He wouldn't agree, she knew. Despite his underground status, he still fought to uphold the law, not exploit loopholes like she needed.
To do the operation she planned, it would have to go fast with more backup than Eraser had with him. Sure, Endeavor was nearby, but that would ruin any future jobs for her. This had to be subtle and completely off the books.
He shook her hand.