The rumors painted the fabled fortune teller as a rabid infidel in her nineties, but the girl sitting in front of him is svelte, lush and young, her deep chocolate eyes drowning his soul like a sandpit.
The incense is already muddying his thoughts, but he focuses hard on the woman in front of him. The fortune teller is young, unlike the usual wizened crone you see trying to cheat mindless blokes in shady red light alleys. Her motions as she pours some rosewater tea are deft and sure. From the moment he saw the spear-pole on the wall, the scars on her bare stomach, and the EXILE tattoo on her shoulder, Bakugou knew he was dealing with a wild card.
But, then again, he was always a suitor of danger.
"So." The fortune teller's drawl is colored with a smile, and he shifts uncomfortably on the plush cushion beneath his knees as her round fingernails tap on the lacquered table between them. "What brings you to my prison? Seeking immortality? Immunity?"
Her smile widens at his stony silence. "Love problems, then?" She chirps, much to his horror. "I have potions that can erase sterility and incite passion in all species of living kind."
Kirishima snickers loudly beside him but is as grave as a politician the moment Bakugou swivels to glare at him.
"I'm not here for that shit." His voice is sharp when he looks back, and the fortune teller smiles, a flash of dangerous teeth. "Well, then, you're of the clientele that wants me to use my eyes to find your target, bounty hunter."
"You know us?" Kirishima blurts, and Bakugou barks at him. "Oi!"
The fortune teller giggles, her tight cunning relaxing to banter. "Everyone in this quadrant of the galaxy knows that insignia on your shoulder, Ground Zero. I don't need my Sight to figure that out."
For a banished fortune teller, she's quite good. "Then you should know why I'm here." Bakugou leans forward, slapping a silver-edged card on the table. "That's at least five thousand credits, lady. Now. Where is Midoriya Izuku?"
The fortune teller's eyes flash. Her hands, creeping for the money, freeze in their motions. "The great thief?" Her voice shivers the slightest bit, though if it was from fear, anger, or curiosity he couldn't tell. "You chase after a ghost."
"Ghost stories don't scare me, girl." He snaps his fingers and Kirishima hands him the tablet, the screen already glowing with the nerd's deer-in-the-headlights face. "If you had half the skills the rumors gave you, then you could be my greatest asset in finding this criminal and bringing him to justice."
The fortune teller takes the tablet from him and studies Midoriya's face. "It is him." Her murmur is so soft that Bakugou nearly misses it.
She looks up at him, incredulous. "You want me to locate a man who commands the greatest spacecraft in the galaxy?"
"He's a sniveling fraud aboard a stolen ship!" Bakugou bites out the words. Even after all this time the words taste bitter on his tongue. "He filched the best spacecraft in the goddamn world from All Might himself and dares to imitate the late hero's legacy. I need to bring him to justice."
She cocks her head to the side. The jewels entwined in her hair clatter harmoniously together. "You, bring him to justice? A bounty hunter who only sees the numbers over a wanted man's head?"
Bakugou grits his teeth. He can't tell her, he can't tell her that he shared a childhood with this nerd, went to academy together, learned to pilot together, earned their goddamned stars together. They were going to be Captains of the Galactic Fleet, sworn protectors of the galaxy for gods' sake! But Deku had to fuck it all up when he stole the fastest ship in the galaxy, One For All, away from the Admiral and made off with it in the dark of night.
It hurt him. It enraged him.
He'll change things. He'll bring that goddamned nerd back to the Galactic Fleet even if it means going dark himself.
His hairs prickle on the back of his neck and Bakugou realizes that the fortune teller is watching him. When he glares up at her, he notices with a start that her dark swampy eyes are wide with understanding. Fuck. She knows. The rumors are true.
His hands clench around the delicate beading covering the table. "Look, are you gonna help me or not? If not you're just wasting my time."
The fortune teller leans back, the incense wafting around them in swirling eddies, making Kirishima cough. "I will help you." She snatches the silver card from off the table and pockets it deep in her floaty sleeve. "But you'll need to take me aboard your ship as a navigator."
"What? You're an exile!" Bakugou barks. "Plus, I've already got a navigator, and he's damned good at it!"
"Aw, shucks, Boss!" Kirishima beams, and doesn't even bother to dial the grin down at Bakugou's ferocious expression.
"Your skills must be unparalleled to be aboard Ground Zero's ship, but even you don't have the Sight." The fortune teller says kindly. "You won't be able to sense every thought that goes through Midoriya's head, every coordinate that his men input onto his console. And if I can do that, then the Fleet won't find me breaking my exile."
She rises determinedly from her seat, and as her bare torso comes into view, he's shocked at how much of it is muscle. Isn't she supposed to be just a helpless old granny? "I'm coming with you."
Bakugou clicks his tongue. "The spacefields are no place for a little fortune teller. Can you defend yourself?"
The fortune teller smirks, and in one whirling motion, smooth as a wingbeat, she's got one end of the spear-pole from the wall braced on the table, flinging herself forward to leap clear over their heads and onto the verandah behind them.
She leans easily on the spear pole, grinning wide at Kirishima's slack-jawed expression and Bakugou's faint curse of astonishment.
"Of course, I can do more than aerobics." The fortune teller singsongs casually. "I can disarm any humanoid as long as they've got less than three arms, though I once fought a four-armed tentacle man from the Templar Region and only got minimally scarred in the process." She taps her forehead. "Seeing into the future, even for a few seconds, really helps with combat, I've learned."
"Dammmmmmn." Kirishima whistles, and Bakugou almost echoes his navigator's awed expression. Out loud, he only says gruffly, "Alright, fine. I'll let you on my ship and pay you, lady, if you can take me to Midoriya within seven cycles."
The fortune teller smiles. "On one condition, oh great Captain."
She sticks out her hand, utterly unafraid of the wrathful glower on his face. Though it's perfumed, he sees the toughened skin of callouses dotting her palm. "Don't call me lady. I'm Uraraka Ochako."