Chapter Text
“We are four clicks away from Shu Station,” Mina Ashido says, pressing her hand to her ear, calling over the comms link as she spins in her chair, one finger playing with the curls in her pink hair. “We should go two clicks before turning to back this bad girl up.”
There’s a moment's pause before the comm clicks, loudly. “Copy that ,” Tenya Iida says, voice stiff as always, flat and commanding . “And Ashido, please use appropriate language when on the job.”
“No can do, First Mate,” Mina sing songs, grinning wide even though he can’t see it.
Iida doesn’t respond, too used to this argument. Instead, there’s another click, another pause and then his voice echoes around the ship for all to hear, loud and booming. “ All hands on deck. Deckhands, we are backing up into the station in two clicks. Storage workers, prepare the cargo to be unloaded. Travelers, please see your stewards and stewardess for any questions you might have when we land. But for now, have your passports ready to be stamped at the loading dock.”
Up and down the hallways of the All Might , UA’s finest transportation ship, Mina can hear her fellow crewmates shouting out “Aye aye- Captain.”
She waits, holding in her breath, a hand over her mouth. And then..another click. “ Please stop making me repeat myself. I am not the Captain.”
“Aye aye, Captain.”
Mina bursts out laughing. It was just the sort of silly banter she needed. The trip to Zibos had been a long and hard one. Between the asteroid field that surrounds Zibos’ planet, the Traveler that had no idea they were pregnant and laid eggs in the communal bathroom, and the Dock Manager on Shu Station having refused their permission to dock at first, everyone had been on edge.
But. They made it. They dodged any massive asteroids, thanks to a combination of some truly excellent teamwork. The local doctor in town is on standby, ready to scoop up the Traveler and their wheelbarrow full of eggs. And they got to watch the impressive show of Yaoyorozu and Katsuki displaying why they get to work on the bridge as they work together to sweet talk/threaten the Dock Manager into doing his damn job.
And now, after they land and they get everyone off, their next scheduled stop is to Aephus, a two week flight that they can put on easy mode.
Literally, Captain Midoriya could put the ship on autopilot and they would make it without any problems.
She stretches and decides to make her rounds early. If she’s lucky, she might get permission to go shopping for a bit when they land in before they have to leave.
After logging the day’s coordinates and sending a copy to Commissioner Aizawa, she cleans her work station, before going to bother other people. She waves to Shoji, who is doing his own logs, letting him know her intentions.
In the hallway, she runs into a harried looking Hagakure, clutching multiple holopads to her chest, gray uniform wrinkled, a few unknown stains on her sleeves.
“I’m demanding a raise,” she hisses as she passes by. “I did not sign up for this shit.”
“The Dolelese Traveler again?” Mina asks, matching her steps with the stewardess.
Hagakure gives her a look. “Of course it is. They’re freaking out over the eggs, convinced something is going to happen to them before we touch down at the dock. I’ve tried to reassure them that we’re doing everything we can to keep them safe. Tokoyami has tried to walk them through the incubator system we’re using. Fuck, even Shinsou has tried to actually be nice to them.”
Mina winces. “Oh. Really bad then.”
“ Very bad . We’re going to bring up to the Captain that we should add to the contract that if a passenger ends up giving birth, we get overtime pay.”
“Do it. Get that money, girl. I don’t think Midoriya will object, you know he’s all about making sure you get the pay you deserve.”
“It’s not the Captain I’m worried about. It’s his First Mate,” Hagakure says. “You know how Iida is. He’ll want to run it by the Commission and they’ll hmm and haw over it, hoping we forget about the request.”
Ashido nods. “I love the man, but I wish he wasn’t so by the rules.” She clicks her tongue before brightening. “Hey, what if I talk to Katsuki about it? You know him, he’ll fight for it, if nothing else, just to piss off Iida.”
“You know that’s not such a bad idea. Yeah, would you-”
“Hagakure!”
The two women startle at the shout and watch as a man with wild purple hair speed walks towards them.
“Shinsou? Is everything ok?”
He gives a long sigh, closing his eyes. The bags under them seem more pronounced. “You know the answer to that. Mx Kirian would appreciate, ” he grits out through clenched teeth. “If we could please hurry up with those books. And to get more towels.”
“We’ve practically given them all our towels!”
“Well, they would like us to produce more from our ass,” Shinsou snaps. He sighs again, rubbing his forehead. “Sorry, sorry. I’m...stressed.”
Hagakure pats his shoulder. “We all are. It's understandable.”
“The good news,” Mina says brightly,” is that we’re close to docking, which means that we’re that much closer to getting rid of them. And then you can get your much needed beauty sleep for the next trip.”
Shinsou flips her off, but he’s smiling. “Fuck yeah, I need that.”
Mina blows them both a kiss. “Alright, I’m heading up top. I’ll see you both planet side.”
Mina struts down the hallways, nodding to the people who salute her as she passes. Tusyu has a blue spotted flower in her hand and Mina has to remind her that all flora has to stay in the specific storage area for those.
All she gets is Tusyu sticking a tongue out at her and Mina laughs.
She takes the Beam up to the higher level areas, placing her hand on the scanner.
Hello_Ashido_ Mina_. Please provide proof of life.
Mina sticks out her tongue, holding up a peace sign. “This is Ashido Mina, reporting for duty!”
There’s the sound, a small whirl and then a ding. Welcome, _Ashido_Mina_ Please hold on as we beam you up.
Mina can feel the tell-tale tingling of her cells being broken down and rearranged, up on the bridge, all in a matter of seconds.
“Hello, hello!” She shouts, throwing her hands up.
There’s a clatter and then... “Fucking shit, Mina .”
“Katsuki,” she calls back, laughing as a spiky blond hair pops up from behind one of the many computers that make their ship go. His glare is red hot but Mina just continues to smile and wave. She skips besides him and plants a wet kiss on his cheek. “How’s my favorite guy?”
Katsuki snorts, rubbing at his check. “Don’t bullshit me. Eijirou is your favorite.” He goes back to clicking at the computer and from the brief glance Mina gets, she knows he’s checking over the scans for the engines, checking to see if they need to make repairs before the next trip.
“Eijirou is everyone’s favorite.” She gives his shoulder a squeeze. “Hey, I need to talk to you about something later. Maybe over...dinner?” She wiggles her eyebrows.
Katsuki gives her a deadpan look. “You just fucking want me to make you food.”
“Of course!” She gives him a wink and another kiss on the cheek. “K, thanks!”
She leaves even as he starts to sputter.
Yaoyorozu smiles, hiding it behind the palm of her hand as she leans back in her chair. “You shouldn’t tease him like that.”
“And what fun would that be?” Mina says.
“I agree with Yaoyorozu,” Iida pops up, readjusting his glasses. His First Mate badges jingle with every jerky movement he makes. “As the second mate, he needs to keep his complete focus on his task.”
“Are you fucking say I can’t do two things at once?” Katsuki yells, standing up to square off against Iida.
Iida looks down his nose at Katsuki. “That is not what I meant and you know it.”
“Yeah? Then fucking tell me what you meant.”
An arm is thrown over Mina’s shoulder and Hanta leans down to whisper in her ear. “Good job, trouble maker.” The Security Guard brings her in close, giving her a big squeeze.
Mina swats at him, still watching as Iida and Katsuki shout back and forth. The rest of the brig starts to gather around to watch too. She sees Aoyama starting to make bets with others. “It’s not like I did it on purpose.”
Hanta raises an eyebrow.
“Ok, so I wanted to cause a little trouble.”
Hanta gives her a chaste kiss. “Trouble maker,” he repeats against her lips.
Mina gives him a smirk. “Absolutely. I’ll show you how much of a trouble maker I am later tonight.”
“No sexual innuendos on the Deck Floor,” Iida shouts.
“Don’t fucking tell them what to do,” Katsuki shouts back.
“Uh, guys? Maybe we should focus?” A new voice pops up.
Iida and Yaoyororzu immediately slide into their saluting stances, legs spread shoulder-length apart with hands behind their back.
Hanta does somewhat the same, just more relaxed about it. Most of the rest of the Bridge copy similar poses.
Katsuki and Mina don’t bother. Katsuki sticks his tongue out and pulls the skin under his eye down. Mina holds up her hands, grinning, to show how innocent she is in this whole thing. “Sorry, Captain.”
Captain Midoriya Izuku gives her a smile, always so reluctant to discipline those under him. Todoroki stands near him, more focused on plotting out routes on his holopad then what’s going on around him. “No worries, Ashido. But maybe you could come back to visit your partners after we dock?”
Ashido bows, knowing a dismissal when she hears one. She blows a kiss to Hanta and Katsuki and leaves to the storage area to annoy a new victim.
~
Shu Station is a vacation dock near one of the biggest cities, Zibos, on the planet Oicarro. Oicarro is basically a water planet, more than 2/3rds of it surrounded in the stuff, and close enough to the sun star Vret that the temperature is always perfect, nice and sunny and warm.
They dock, Shinsou and Hagakure practically pushing Kiran out the door with their barrel full of eggs, handing (shoving) them over to the medical staff they had contacted earlier.
Mina is dressed in her uniform, gray skirt all steamed press with her gray top tucked in tight. The only bit of her own flare that Iida would allow her to get away with is the leopard print scarf she had tied around her neck.
“Man, I wish we could stay here for a few days,” she says, looking out over the purple ocean waves that crash against the beach, washing up against the pink sand.
There’s a wail behind her from Kiran.
“I don’t,” Denki says, looking up from the tablet in his hands. “Not if that means we’re anywhere close to them.” He jerks his head to the side and the two watch Shinsou nearly pull his hair out, even as he reassures the Traveler that everything is fine .
She hides her smile behind her hands, not wanting to give Shinsou a reason to get revenge. “So, what’s on the list this time?”
“Well, Aeuphus ordered a few boxes of pitch tin. And a couple of people that are vacationing here had ordered a ticket home, so we’re taking them with us.”
“Anything we need to be on the lookout for?”
“Nope,” a new voice adds. It’s Eijirou, the redheaded Quross, showing off his very sharp teeth. He throws one of his arms around each of their shoulders, his other two going around their waist, bringing them in close. “The minerals are super stable. Nothing hazardous we have to prepare for, nothing we really have to strap down. It’s going to be a nice and smooth riiddeee.” He drawls out the last bit, giving them a wink.
“Hmmm, hopefully that means we get to take time off. We need it,” Denki says. He leans closer, brushing a kiss against Eijirou’s cheek and Mina’s lips. “And you know what that means?”
Mina hums, fluttering her eyelashes. “That we can take our own ride?”
Eijirou’s face turns as red as his hair. “W-we shouldn’t-”
“Eijirou, I was talking about being able to sleep in,” Denki sing-songs. He taps his fingers against Eijirou’s chest, giving him a smirk. “What were you thinking, big boy?”
Eijioru turns even more red.
“Oh don’t tease him too much,” Mina says.
“Thank you, Min-”
“We have plenty of time to do that later,” she winks at him.
Eijriou groans, putting his head in his hands. .
“Excuse me.”
All three turn to find a young girl standing behind them. Her hair is blue, wiggling on its own. She’s dressed in a simple, plain white dress and has her hands clasped in front of her.
The three straightened up, going into professional mode. Mina puts her best customer service smile on. “Hello, do you need help?”
The girl keeps her head low, looking up at them briefly from beneath her hair. “...My name is Sayomi. I’m supposed to take your ship to Aeuphus, I think?”
“Oh, yes, of course.” Mina turns to wave at Denki and Eijirou, who nod back. “I’ll take you where you need to go. Do you have everything for your trip?”
Sayomi meekly nods, her shoulders bunching up around her head. She holds up a bag and a suitcase. “I’m sorry for the inconvenience.”
Mina waves her off, smiling brightly as she starts to head towards the ship. “No inconvenience. It’s my job after all. My name is Ashido Mina and I’ll be your navigator. Do you have any questions about the trip?”
Sayomi mutely shakes her head. “I don’t believe so.” She clutches a hand to the front of her chest. “...well, maybe one.”
“Go for it, I promise I can answer almost anything. And if I can’t, I can point you towards someone who can.”
Sayomi bites her bottom lip. Mina patiently waits, used to having to deal with all sorts of Travelers. Finally, the young woman speaks up. “Well, see, I’ve been hearing...rumors.. that…” she leans closer, voice lowering. “Pirate raids have been increasing. I was just wondering if it’s going to be safe while we travel?”
This was a question that, while it does come up, it’s not very often. Pirates used to be a joke to the UA Space Federation (“What, you mean like Space Pirates? Sounds like a shitty syfy plot point,’ one Federation officer had gone on record to say). Most were traveled in small busted up ships that could barely run, or, if they were lucky, an abandoned UA Federation ship that they had been able to snatch.
The most those rusty old tanks could do was run down equally rusty ships that stick to inner planet travel. Mina, really, should be able to laugh and tell Sayomi that she has nothing to worry about.
Except, a few months ago, these pirates came up with their own Federation, of a sort. One with a Backer that funds them, giving them the ability to get better weapons and ships.
Mina doesn’t know who this Backer is. Only Captain Midoriya and his Left and Right hands were allowed on those types of meetings. But she at least knows the code name.
All For One .
Rumors around the Federation were that the Vice President, Yagi Toshinori, has beef with AFO, some kind of history that drives AFO to fund those who wish to bring the Federation down. Mina would pay to be a Vaun on the wall for the conversations the President and Vice have about him.
So the Pirates have started to become more and more of a threat, enough that Mina has to stop and bend down so Sayomi can look her in the face. “We don’t expect any trouble on this trip. Neither planets are hot spots for these pirates, nor is any of the material we’re transporting highly sought after. But rest assured, your safety is our top priority. We have a procedure in place for these types of situations. All of us have our license to use deadly force if it comes to that.”
That does not seem to reassure Sayomi, who actually starts to shake. “D-deadly force?”
Shit. “Not that I expect that will happen! No, no, this is going to be smooth sailing for us and for you. You can just sit back and relax and leave everything to us.”
Sayomi clutches tighter to her suitcase. “If you’re sure.”
Mina gives her the brightest smile and a thumbs up. “I promise you, nothing is going to happen.”
~
A few days later finds Mina on the dock again with everyone else, dressed in her uniform best, hands behind her back as she greets their Travelers. She gives a small nod to Sayomi as she walks by, shyly greeting everyone. Mina has already talked to Hagakure to pay special attention to her, to make sure that she’s as comfortable as she can be.
Their other Travelers are a couple, a Toga Himiko and Jin Bubaigawara. Toga was clearly an Earthling, but no one had any idea what Jin was, dressed in a skin tight black suit as he was. Even his face is covered with a mask. The staff already had a bet going on, silently handing money to Aoyama.
The couple both seem a bit eccentric and very into each other, loudly making out not only on the dock but in the hallways and all the way to their room. They also made sure to introduce themselves to each and every one of the staff, shaking hands and giving kisses on the cheek.
Jirou and Tokoyami give her a look and Mina just shrugs. It would be a bit hypocritical for her to say anything about people making out where others can clearly see them, considering the stuff the squad gets up to.
Once all the Travelers are secured, Captain Midoriya turns to his crew, clapping. “Alright. We leave in an hour. Let’s make sure we have everything tidy and secured by then.” He gives a wide smile and a thumbs up.
Katsuki rolls his eyes, jerking his thumb over his shoulder. “Ok, losers. I need all the Storgemen to follow me. I’m going to go through the storage haul and if I see anything out of place, I’m going to rip you a fucking new one.”
“Looking forward to it,” Eijirou shouts, giving a very excited salute.
“I’m not,” Oijirou says, deadpanned.
Katsuki scowls, teeth gritting. But he marches off and the Storgemen follow.
“Koda and Uraraka, please show me your labs so I can expect them before take off,” Iida says, looking down his nose at them. Ashido knows that’s just how Iida talks and looks, but she can also see the way Koda is nearly shaking in his boots, despite the First Mate doing this every time they set off.
“Of course,” Uraraka says, taking the lead.
“Ashido, Kaminari, Shoji, and Jirou please come with me,” Captain Midoriya says. He nods to Sato and Hanta. “Could you two do a perimeter check, make sure we have no stowaways?”
“Aye-aye captain.” The two security guards salute and walk off.
“The rest of you, make sure that the ship is ready to leave as soon as the hour mark is up.”
Ashido follows behind the Captain, who is going through his holographic files. “Do we have the trip charted out?” He asks, looking up at Mina.
“Yes,” Mina says. Shoji hands her a holopad, one of their circular modules, and Mina presses the button in the middle. A map of the galaxy they’re in pops up. Mina reaches up, resizing it till it shows where they currently are. “If you look here, we have about a two week journey. We should only need to stop for fuel once on Ledrao. Other than that, we’ll shoot around Vuclite, pass by Llora 69k and Almov. Once we see Cypso we’ll know we’re close.”
Midoriya nods. He turns to Denki. “And that wire issue we were having?”
“Fixed,” he says. “As far as I can tell, a few of the wires came loose, which was causing the robot failure.”
“Do we know why they came loose?”
Jirou shakes her head. “Sorry, Captain.” She holds up her own ball, pressing to show him pictures of the plugs. “We double checked surrounding areas, looking for anything that might have pulled on them. It looks like...they were just ripped out.”
“I think it was Mx Kiran,” Denki says, contempt clear in his voice. “They were flailing all over the place when they started to give birth, they very well could have grabbed and pulled them.”
Midoriya hums, rubbing his chin. His face is pinched, eyes looking far away. “Maybe.”
“Are you ok, Captain?” Mina asks.
“I just have a bad feeling for some reason.”
“Why?” Jirou asks. “This is going to be the easiest delivery we’ve done in months.”
“I know, I know.” His words peter out. He shakes his head. “It’s just a feeling. Probably too many weeks of being put on edge.”
Mina shares a glance with Shoji, while Denki shrugs at Jirou’s questioning look. Mina clears her throat. “Captain...is there something you know that we don’t?”
Midoriya looks at her, then away. “Nothing that needs to be discussed.”
“No offense sir,” Jirou says, “But that makes me think you are hiding something important from us.”
Midoriys sighs, shoulders slumping and Mina blinks in surprise. Midoriya has always looked young, like a twelve year old that had been given the keys to his parents’ ship. But here he looks old, like if Mina looks close enough, she can see gray hairs creeping amongst the green.
And then he turns to face them, crossing his hands behind his back, staring them down and he looks like the Captain that has flown them through hell and high water. “I do wish to tell you this information, I promise you that. But this is an order that comes higher than any of us, higher than even Aizawa. This is a direct order from Yagi himself, maybe even from President Nezu, that I need to keep secret. When... if I get the go ahead to tell you, I promise, I will. Immediately. Until then, it’s nothing to concern yourself about.”
Mina holds back the first comment that comes to mind. And the second. Instead, she mumbles “Yes, Captain” with the others.
Maybe she can wiggle the information out of Katsuki?
~
Mina stretches, spinning out of her chair. It’s been a week into this trip and while she had been excited for the easy ride at first, now it’s become boring. Even their guests have been incredibly boring. They hardly see the couple, Toga and JIn. Mina figures this is some kind of honeymoon or anniversary and the two want to stay locked up in their room.
The rare times they see them, the two act...funny. A little weird, though Mina doesn’t think it’s entirely bad.
Toga is inquisitive. Mina doesn’t think there’s a single person she hasn't bugged constantly. Apparently, she had wanted to work at UA, once upon a time ago, and was very curious about all the workings of a UA ship.
But she was super sweet about it too, with her big eyes and big smile. If Mina wasn’t in one of the best relationships of her life, she might have seriously considered showing Toga the way to her bed too.
Although, maybe not. She wouldn’t do that to JIn, who was a big sweetheart too. He was always making everyone on the ship laugh, talking his way up and down the ship, keeping them company if he sees they’re alone.
It’s a nice change of pace from the previous Traveler (she’s pretty sure the stewards have a picture of Mx Kiran up to throw darts at in their break room) and Mina can practically feel the ship relaxing.
But that was a week ago. And they still have a week to go till they reach their destination.
Mina spins in her chair again, sighing. She has about ten more minutes till she can go to lunch.
...orrrr-
“Hey, Shoji,” she says, popping her head over to look at where Shoji is reading the latest news from his home planet. “I’m headed to lunch early, ok? Keep up the good work.”
Shoji waves a hand at her and she knows he’s smiling behind his mask.
Mina stuffs her hands in her pockets and starts to head towards the storage area. She knows that most likely, the storage boys are playing a round of kick toe, and she wants in.
But on the way there, she’s stopped by Sayomi. The woman has only started to get comfortable, actually looking Mina in the eye and smiling. So when she waves Mina down, Mina makes it a point to stop and talk to her.
“I’m really sorry about this,” Sayomi says, shrugging and smiling. It makes Mina want to coo and bring her into a hug and shout about what a cutie she is.
She holds off though.
Barely.
“It’s alright, what can I help you with?” Mina says.
“The, uh, the relaxation pod, is it currently available?”
“Hold on, let me check.” Mina clicks on her ear piece. “Hagakure? It’s Ashido. Is the relaxation pod being used? Yeah, I can hold on for a second.” She gives Sayomi a smile, before her comm crackles to life again. “Yeah? Ok, great, I’m sending Sayomi your way. Thanks!”
She turns back to Sayomi. “So the relaxation pod is available. Hagakure says she’ll save it for you.”
“Thank you so much.” Sayomi pauses. “I was wondering…”
“Yeah?”
“Your earpiece, it’s so fast. No matter what question I ask, everyone seems to be available at all times.”
“Well it was made to make sure that communications on ships are fast and able to react to whatever is needed of them. In fact, it was made specifically for UA transporters for that exact reason.”
“But doesn’t that get confusing, having everyone talk in your ear all the time?”
“Oh, no,” Mina says with a light chuckle. She points to her ear at where the communicator has been installed, part of the ceremony for graduating from UA. “There are several channels for each department. I just have to click on a certain button and then ask for the person I want to talk to before it immediately switches to a private channel with them.”
“What about in emergency situations? Wouldn’t talking with everyone slow you down?”
“If there’s an emergency, then a certain alarm broadcasts over everyone’s comms.”
Sayomi blinks wide eyes at her. “Wow, that’s way better than what we have at home.”
Mina gives her a grin. “UA is working to get these implemented on every planet but…” she shrugs. “You know how politics are. And by the time everyone agrees, the tech will be obsolete.”
Sayomi nods, something solemn and sad in her eyes. “I understand that.” She forces a smile. “Thank you for answering my silly questions. I know you are busy-”
“It’s no worry at all,” Mina’s quick to say, waving off her concerns. “I’m always happy to help.”
Sayomi waves her goodbye and Mina watches her for as long as she can. Then heel turns, on her way to storage and her boys, whistling all the way.
~
Mina grins at Eijirou, who narrows his eyes back at her. “You’re not going to win this,” he says. One his hands flinch, crackling open and close. He hunches over and yet he still towers over her.
“Oh I am, honey. I am.” Mina puts as much of a purr as she can, leaning down to shake her tits at him.
“I’m always uncomfortable when you two flirt,” Oijirou says, where he leans against the wall, texting on holophone and pretending to ignore them.
“I’m not,” Denki says, leaning on one hand to bat his eyelashes at the two of them.
Oijirou gives him a look. “I know you aren’t.”
Denki blows him a kiss, before going back to losing against Jirou in Ten Star poker. Mina knows he’s losing because he’s a terrible fucking liar, who doesn’t have the ability to fool anyone .
Also, Jirou is a terrible cheat, though no one has been able to prove it yet.
Mina turns her attention back to Eijirou and their game. She curls the dense ball in her hand, pauses for just a moment, and then hurls it at the wall. It bounces from place to place and she thinks she has it this time, she thinks she’s going to get past Eijirou.
But then Eijirou snatches it out of midair with one of his hands, the other three shooting up in celebration. He gives Mina a toothy grin. “Told you so.”
She flips him off.
“Give it up,” Denki says. He looks at his hand, picking a few of the cards and throwing them to the table, the holograms flickering briefly. “You’re never going to win against him. His reflexes are too good. Not to mention the arm advantage.”
“I’ll give it up when you realize that you’re never going to win against Jirou.”
Denki sticks his tongue out at her and she flips him off too.
“One more,” she tells Eijirou.
Eijirou laughs, throwing the ball up and down. “Shouldn’t you be heading back to your post? I’m pretty sure your lunch break ended like...half an hour ago.”
Mina pouts. “Oh boo. You’re just afraid I’ll kick your ass.”
“Right, right. And not because I want to give poor Shoji a break.”
She flaps her hands at him. “Yeah, yeah. If Shoji really wanted a break, he would have contacted me by now.”
“Let the man get some rest. He works hard,” Jirou says, finally looking up from where she was collecting her money. “Works harder than you do anyway.”
Mina turns her pout towards her. “Is this pick on Mina Ashido day?”
“Yes,” they all answer in sync.
“You guys suck.” Mina clicks on her communicator. “Shoji, this is Ashido. I’m heading back from lunch.”
She waits for a sarcastic response, ready to defend her leisure time.
She gets nothing.
“I think he’s mad at me,” Mina tells the others. She ignores their snickering and tries again. “Hey, Shoji, I’m sorry for taking so long. But you know that you get a long break too, right? Take a nap, get some sleep, because fuck do we know you need it. I can see the eyebags underneath all your eyes.”
She waits a moment. Still no answer.
“Or go see Tokoyami. I’m sure he would be delighted to blow some steam off with you.” She says with a purr, ignoring the catcalls the others give.
Nothing.
Mina frowns. Usually she can get a rise out of Shoji with that, even when he does his best to ignore all her teasing.
She looks at the others, shaking her head. Denki wags his eyebrows at her. “He’s super pissed at you now. Better bring him back a piece of coffee mooncake on your way up as an apology.”
“Yeah…” Her stomach twists, like there’s a pit there. She forces a smile, giving them a thumbs up. “Let me go check up on him. Come bail me out later? I feel like I have a lot of groveling to do.”
Eijirou winks at her. “We got you.”
Mina starts to head back to her station, trying to reassure herself. It’s a slow day, a slow week really, he probably got bored waiting for her to come back and went to break himself. It’s not like the Captain would punish them, not on a sailing trip like this.
She turns her communicator towards the steward section. “Hey, Tokoyami, quick question.”
There’s a pause and then a long sigh. “ I do not like your questions ,” comes his steady, low voice, already put out.
“It’s going to be super quick, I promise.” She worries at her bottom lip. “Is Shoji with you?”
“No, I assume he’s still at his station .” Another pause, this one more heavy. “ Why? ”
She blows out a breath. “He isn’t answering his comm.”
“ Shoji is a man of few words. Perhaps he did not feel the need to respond?”
“Maybe.”
A longer pause now. “Ashido, what’s wrong?”
“It could be nothing. I just have this...feeling. I’m heading back up to navigation now. I’m sure it’s nothing-”
The ship jerks and Mina stumbles, having to clutch onto the wall to make sure she doesn’t fall to the ground. “What the-”
And then the lights go out.
It’s pitch black, an empty sort of black that makes her shiver, fear numbing her fingers. And then the emergency lights come on, throwing everything into a shade of red. Mina takes a deep breath, and then another.
She clicks on her communicator, turning towards the Captain’s channel. “Captain? Captain Midoriya? Come in.”
She flinches when all she gets is static. That...that isn’t supposed to happen. The communications were top of the line, the best UA could create. Nothing should be able to interfere with them.
She tries again. “Captain Midoriya, report.” She switches channels. “Yaoyorozu?”
Nothing.
She switches channels. “Iida?”
Nothing.
She switches channels, hands shaking. “Pick up, pick up, pick up,” she whispers, before she presses the button. She closes her eyes. “Katsuki, tell me you’re there.”
Nothing .
Her legs wobble, and she has to lean her head against the wall. Distantly, she can hear someone breathing harshly, and with a blink, she realizes it’s her. She clutches at her chest, her heart pounding, trying to escape, to run down the hallway and rip it’s way into the Captain’s quarters.
“Come on, Ashido, come on,” she whispers and nearly jerks, her own voice scaring her. It sounds loud in the dark and she shrinks, down, down, down, sliding to the ground, head in her hands. She’s shaking, she knows she is.
What the fuck are you doing? She takes a deep breath. What the fuck is she doing? She can’t freak out yet. She shakes her head, smacks her cheeks for a bit, and then stands up, fist in the air.
“Ok,” she says out loud, because she needs to hear it herself. “Ok, we can do this.”
First step, finding out what this is.
Setting her shoulders back, she heads towards the navigation station. Hopefully the back up generators will stay up long enough for her to figure out where they are and what hit them, exactly, to have caused this.
Because it could not be man made. She refuses to believe it. There is nothing that can cause an UA ship to go down, short of cannons you would find on war ships. She’s sure of that. And Commissioner Aizawa and General Toshinori would have told them to be on the lookout if there was anything like that heading their way.
She has to hold onto that. She has to believe this is something she can fight back against, that she can help fix.
She does not want to get stuck out in space. No thank you.
And maybe, hopefully, she can figure out where Shoji went.
The thing is; Shoji would not abandon his spot. Even if he was angry at her, he would have let her know something was up, especially if something came up on the radar. The fact that she couldn’t get ahold of him, right before the ship went down? It makes her stomach twist.
She hopes she’s wrong but just the idea that something had happened to Shoji makes her steps quicken.
Halfway there, she swallows. Because...she had been walking the hallway... without a problem. No one had tried to stop her to ask what’s going on. No one has run past, trying to deliver reports. No one is walking out of their quarters, curiosity getting the better of them.
There’s no one but her. Alone in the dark, shadowed in red.
Their ship doesn’t have many disasters. They’re a newer crew, on a new ship, who have only been in space for three years. They mostly run cargo and Traveler shipments. She knows there’s been talk of bringing them up with the big boys, maybe doing diplomatic situations. Maybe going into war zones.
But for now, they are just cargo running.
That doesn’t mean they don’t know what to do in emergency situations. They run drills all the time. And sure, drills are nothing like the real thing, but they all know what to do if something even remotely like this were to happen.
And yet. Nothing. She hasn’t been contacted, which makes sense if their comns are down, but she should have run into Jirou. Denki. Even Shinsou or Hagakure or Tokoyami. All who run the ship down here, who should be running around like her to figure out what went wrong or to reassure the Travelers.
The hallways are empty. Nothing but the red glow of the emergency lights.
She feels her hands tingling and the urge to crawl into a ball again. But she viciously shoves that down.
Instead, she runs to the navigation station. She presses her hand to the scanner. Instead of the normal instant beep and swish of doors opening, she waits ten seconds before the door finally beeps.
The door creeps open, creaking with a crack. Mina has to squeeze through. The ship must be preserving electricity for important stuff.
The navigation room is...empty. She bites her bottom lip. Not good, everything is pointing to something very not good going on.
Her shoulders hunch up. She goes to the computers. “Please,” she begs. “Let this work.”
Someone out there is answering, because the log report screen immediately pops up. She could kiss it. She could make out with it. She will leave her partners for it right now.
Sighing out in relief, she pulled out the logs for the last hour and the map of where they are now. It takes a couple seconds, enough to have her impatiently tapping her finger against the table. It seems to go slower, just to spite her.
The logs come up first, going from the earliest to the latest. Shoji keeps dedicated notes and now she’s going to kiss him . Most of them don’t say anything weird. He had loged about how fast they’re traveling, any changes in the course that could delay them, anything the sensors could detect that they need to look for.
But other than that, there’s not much, because of course they aren’t. Space was wide and open for them. They had no reason to believe they would come across anything they would need to look out for. It’s why she had been so comfortable leaving her station for long hours.
Her bottom lip trembles.
And then. The logs stop. Or well, Shoji’s logs do. The ship’s system has an automatic log, that will note stuff by itself. It’s only the bare minimum and easy to tell what’s logged by a computer and what’s logged by an actual person.
Shoji’s logs stopped about an hour ago.
About thirty minutes ago, the ship logged unusual activity.
Mina swallows. With a shaky finger, she clicks on the log.
There’s not much. The ship couldn’t tell what the unusual activity is, only that it was warning the humans directing it to check it out as soon as possible. They had been heading directly into it.
Mina sits back and sets her head between her legs. She fucked up. She fucked up so bad. She shouldn’t have left her station. She should have taken a normal lunch and come back as quickly as she could. Maybe she could have been here with Shoji, to stop whatever happened to him.
If...if something bad happened, she….
She shakes her head. No, she can’t think about that.
The computer chirps, stopping her spiraling thoughts. She blinks away unshed tears and looks up.
At first, she can’t really tell what she is looking at. It’s an image of their ship sure, but that’s about it. There’s no report that an asteroid had hit them, they hadn’t been pulled into the gravitational planet of a passing planet. Nor were there any ships around. It simply looked like their ship had come to a complete stop on her own.
Mina rubs her head. Ok. Ok, think. This either means that it’s internal damage within the ship or that it’s not something detectable by the human eye. She sets the computer onto pulling up readings and sits back to wait.
They had electrical troubles, something with the wires. What did Denki say? That some of the wires had been pulled. Maybe that’s it, then!
...though they got that issue fixed and Denki wouldn’t have let them set off if the wiring issue was this bad.
Her fingers keep fidgeting, her leg shaking. Her mind keeps going back to Shoji. To the empty hallways.
To the hollow feeling in her stomach.
She takes a deep breath. Prioritize. First, she needs to figure out what they’re dealing with. The computer is still struggling with the readings. It could be explained away with the ship saving electricity.
Or it’s something worse.
She considers the map again, double checking. There was nothing near them. Despite what planet-dwellers think, space was mostly empty. It was only thanks to technology that they could get from planet to planet as quickly as they can and even then, it could take days depending on the planet.
But why there was nothing physical near them...she squints. They definitely ran into something.
She bites her bottom lip. Her eyes glance to the distress signal. She fidgets. Protocol states that she needs the Captain’s orders to press the distress signal. UA would rather ships deal with anything themselves before calling for help. The All Might has never had to use it.
But...the Captain can’t be reached.
Mina closes her eyes and presses it. She’ll deal with the consequences later. Her gut is screaming at her that something is terribly wrong. Better to get help as soon as they can, even if they do end up fixing it themselves.
She just...needs someone to know that they’re out here. Needs someone outside of the ship to know where they are.
It does ease the knot in her stomach, just a little. Makes it bearable to look at the readings when they finally pull up. She narrows her eyes at them. Up till the present, the ship had been working fine. Not even a little bit was off. Their ship had been running in tip-top shape, pittering along to their destination.
And then it had just stopped .
So. It had to be something other than an internal problem then. She narrows her eyes at the screen. It looks like right around the time the ship came to a halt, the engines took a hit. But...they didn’t dip in power. They increased .
Mina keys in for the computer to rerun the readings, waiting. When she gets the result, she reruns them again. But every time, they come up the same.
It looks like the engines’ power increased to a dangerously high amount, in the matter of nanoseconds, which caused them to overheat and stop working completely. When Mina checks, it looks like the same thing had happened all over the ship. To the computer system, to the light system, even to the sewer system.
The ship had just been hit by something that overheated it’s systems, which would be why the ship jerked before stopping. Mina takes a deep breath. Ok. Ok, this is fine then. An engine problem can be fixed.
She adds finding Denki and Jirou to her list of stuff to do next. If she can let them know what’s going on, then they’re at least one step closer to getting things back to normal. Great. That’s doable.
She looks around the room. Fidgets again. The thing is, though. If they had been hit by just an outside source that had overpowered their systems, then where is Shoji?
He should have been the first to notice, to pull up the scans. But according to the computer, Mina was the only one to ask for access to the logs.
There’s something else going on. She can feel it. Shoji wouldn’t abandon his post, not without letting someone know first. His logs stopped an hour ago. Tokoyami hadn’t heard from him and Mina knows, practically as a fact , that if Shoji was going to leave, he would head straight towards him.
Something had to happen to him.
Carefully, Mina gets up, looking around the room, eyes scanning for anything out of place. Her side of the room was messy, but that wasn’t unusual. Iida loved to point out that everywhere she went, she left a mess. Knick-knacks decorating the place, a jacket she left on the floor and forgot, a few tablets scattered across the desk. She tries to rack her brain, tries to figure out if there’s a difference between her mess and someone else rummaging through stuff, but nothing looks like it was out of place.
And it’s not like Shoji is a neat freak like Iida. Sure, he has everything looking like it’s organized (Mina will maintain that she can find everything perfectly, her side is just as organized, even if it doesn’t look like it), but he just knows how to hide it better.
One of his pill bottles are knocked over, there’s a port knocked out of place, some kind of sauce drips from the edge of his station-
Mina stills.
Slowly, she walks closer to his desk. She swallows. Her fingers are back to feeling numb. She reaches for the scanner at her belt, fumbling with it, before holding it over the sauce-please be sauce, please be from something he ate, please please please -
Blood. The scanner identifies it as blood.
Mina falls to her knees. She’s hyperventilating, she can tell, distantly, like she’s looking at someone else. She’s breathing too hard and too fast and she’s shaking, oh fuck, she’s going to throw up .
Scrambling on hands and knees, she barely makes it to the waste disposal chute, slamming her hand on the button to open it. She empties everything in her stomach, tears running down her face, a sob bubbling up in her throat along with everything else.
Once she’s done, she pulls back. Her stomach still clenches, but there’s nothing left. Her face is sweaty, and she shivers, suddenly cold.
Wiping at her nose, she ignores the snot and tears, and focuses on her breathing. She needs to calm down. She needs to.
Maybe she’s overacting. It’s a distinct possibility, she has to tell herself, anything to stop the panic tearing up her insides. Maybe Shoji had accidentally hurt himself. The blood spot had been small, it could have been an accident. Maybe he had run off to take care of it and that’s why he couldn’t tell her he was leaving?
...except, even if he had forgotten to notify her, Koda would have called her, to let her know she has to go back to her station. That is, if Shoji even made it to medical.
She’s breathing harder again. Closing her eyes, she takes a few deep breaths. Ok, ok. Compartmentalize. Make a list. What can she do next?
The most important thing is to talk to the Captain. To inform him about Shoji and the ship and the distress signal. She also needs to talk to Denki or Jirou. If she can talk to them before she gets to the Captain, to pile all their knowledge together to give Midoriya a better picture of what’s going on, then that would be amazing.
Ashido takes a deep breath and, this time, it comes out steady. She stands up and ignores the way her legs wobble. She goes back to computer, more determined now. She cracks her knuckles and get to work.
There are a few ideas. She’ll have to run them by the electricians, but Mina isn’t completely blind.
The ship overloaded. Nothing in the ship seemed to be wrong, so unless someone just completely destroyed something important, it can’t be a mechanical problem.
They could have hit a magnetic field? Or an electrical storm. They weren’t by a planet, but maybe passing a previous planet gave them mineral poisoning.
She sets the computer up to run those scans. Then she readies herself to get going.
Looking around, she collects a mini-communicator. It’s an emergency connection to the ship. It doesn’t give her everything, but it’ll be enough to read the reports once something comes up.
Hesitantly, she also gathers her Blazter. It’s bright pink and green and Mina had only used it to kill bugs that manage to slip inside their ship. She hopes she won’t have to use it at all now. But if her gut is right, then there’s someone on board here who is willing to hurt others.
She won’t allow herself to go down.
She straps a first aid pack around her hip and grabs a tablet, to better keep track of the ship’s starting up process.
She takes another deep breath, steading herself. She reminds herself that she was trained for this. Well, not exactly this , but she’s a trained UA officer! A complete badass! She wouldn’t have graduated if UA didn’t think she couldn’t handle herself.
...she just hopes Shoji is ok.
Nodding, she reminds herself of the list. Find the Captain. Tell him what she knows. Get her next instructions. Find Denki or Jirou.
She has this.
~
The hallways are still very, very silent. The red emergency lights are still throwing everything into an evil shade and it has her seeing things, like people in the shadows. She presses her back against the wall, creeping closer to the bridge.
It gives her the creeps. Why hasn’t she run into anyone? Why hasn’t anyone tried to contact her? The communicator is still sending nothing but static, but Navigation should have been one of the first places Midoriya sent someone to as soon as the ship went down.
Nothing. Nobody.
But she can’t think of that for too long or her legs start to shake.
Slowly, she works her way up to the bridge. Even here, near the front of the ship, it’s quiet. There should be people moving back and forth, trying to figure out what’s wrong and reporting to the Captain, creating a line to the bridge transport that she would have to fight through.
There’s not a soul in sight. She hasn’t heard a peep out of anyone.
Taking a deep breath, she puts her hand on the bridge transporter scanner, waiting for the computer to recognize her.
She waits and waits and waits.
Taking her hand off, she tries again, pressing it and waits.
Still nothing.
Cursing under her breath, she pulls back. The ship must still be redirecting energy to the engines, leaving the transporter down for now.
The problem is that the bridge is the most protected area of the ship. There are a lot of secrets UA keeps there, not only with the Captain, but even just in the technology the ship uses. Which means that it takes a little more to get into.
The teleporter was their main defense. The crew knows, if they were to ever get attacked, the bridge has to be saved. Which is why it’s detachable. There is a certain alarm that lets everyone know that they need to haul their ass to the bridge and do it quickly if they want to make it off the ship with everyone else.
So the teleporter was there to make it easy for that detachment to happen. But if it ever went down, there is another way to get up there.
It’s just a pain in the ass.
Mina bites her bottom lip. Is it worth it? If the power is being rerouted to the engines then at any moment the ship could be back up and running. She could be caught in the back entrance and would have to have a very long and detailed talk with Midoriya, Iida, and Katsuki about why she got stuck in their vents. Which would probably lead into Midoriya giving her a disappointed look while Iida and Katsuki lecture her.
But...but she’s still got that wrong feeling in her stomach.
So, squaring her shoulders, she kneels next to the vent entrance, near the floor by the transporter. She pulls out her tool kit and carefully opens it, setting the vent plate down with a heavy thud . She makes a face at the inside. It’s dark. She gets the creeps from it.
Clicking on her flashlight, she looks for the ladder and sighs. This is going to take a while.
The vents were the weak points of the ship, designed that way. If they need to detach the bridge, the vents will easily break and bend. Though, that very nature means that it requires heavy upkeep by Denki and Jirou, the two most comfortable crawling their way through.
Denki jokes that the vents have become his second home.
To Mina though, the vents scare the crap out of her. They creak and groan and make all these other noises that the thick walls of the ship usually keep out. It sounds like they’re going to break apart at any second, drag her outside to die a horrible death, suffocating in space. It doesn’t help that they’re freezing to the touch, making climbing through them incredibly uncomfortable.
She hates, hates, hates them. But she will get into them and climb because she just knows there is something going on in the bridge.
So she takes a deep breath, puts her light between her teeth, and shimmies her way in. It’s a tight fit, making her grunt, but she manages. She grabs the ladder, refusing to look down, and shivers at the cold touch of metal.
She starts to make her way up. It’s tough work, making her grunt, and her arms ache halfway. She’s forced to take a break, stopping a few times to catch her breath.
Finally she makes it to where the vents let out on the bridge. She stops, breathing hard, before smiling. Fuck yeah, she did it.
And that’s when she hears the voices.
Mina stills, holding her breath. Because those voices sound like...Toga and Jin? But why would they be on the bridge? Was Midoriya giving them a tour before the ship went down and they got stuck in there?
She bites her bottom lip and then, carefully, she looks through the little vent slots.
She can’t see much of the bridge. Her area ends about where Iida’s and Yaoyororzu’s stations are and if she strains her neck, she might be able to see the beginning of Captain Midoriya’s station, but nothing more than that.
But she can hear just fine.
“I’ll give you one more chance to answer me.”
Mina swallows. That definitely sounds like Toga. But her voice...she’s never heard Toga, sweet Toga who loves candy and pink glitter, sound so dark before.
Sound so dangerous.
“Captain Midoriya,” Toga purrs and Mina can hear her walking around, and then the grunt of what sounds like Midoriya. Mina puts one hand to her mouth. “Tell me who sounded the distress signal and from where and we won’t have to hurt your crew anymore.”
“I told you,” and Mina has to hold in a whimper, because Midoriya sounds winded and in pain. How long have they been up here? How long has Toga been hurting him? “UA law states that a Captain-”
“Blah, blah, blah,” Toga says, a whiny note to her voice. “Who cares about UA law, right Jin?”
“Right,” Jin says, immediately followed by “I do.”
“Well, well, well,” Toga says and it sounds like she’s on the move again, footsteps growing fainter. “Since you don’t want to play with me, how about this cutie?”
Yaoyorozu’s sucks in a breath, letting out a soft wheeze. Mina starts to shake.
“Leave her the fuck alone.” That’s Katsuki. He doesn’t sound hurt but that doesn’t mean much and Mina mentally shouts at him to shut up, to not draw attention to himself. “Only fucking cowards resort to torture.”
There’s a heavy pause and Mina holds her breath, along with everyone else. Then, Toga’s footsteps start again, much more deliberate now. “Well that’s not very nice,” she says and Mina can hear the manic smile on her face. “I thought UA law also says that the Traveler is always to be treated with respect, right?”
“Right,” Jin says. “Hypocrites,” he says right after.
“Exactly. You’re all such hypocrites.” There’s a grunt from Katsuki before Toga speaks again. Mina hates that she leans closer to the vent to hear, but she has to. Has to know what is coming next.
It’s silent for a long time, then there are gasps from the others, and then...Katsuki screams .
It’s a horrible sound, something that makes tears spring to her eyes and her hands shake with the instinct to cover her ears, anything to block it out.
Katsuki does not scream. He yells and shouts and raises his voice to be heard over everyone else, but scream ? Scream in pain, like his nails are being plucked from his fingers? Not Katsuki.
Not her boy.
“Stop!”
