Disclaimer: Don't own My Hero Academia.
Author's Note: This is my first venture into the My Hero Academia fandom. After catching up on the series, I think it's safe to say that this is my favorite ongoing series at the moment. As such, since I need to polish up on my battle scenes, I might as well use the loveable characters here as practice.
You can say this takes place sometime after Chapter 98 of the Manga right before they go to the License Exam.
Hope you enjoy it!
Chapter 1 - An Offer You Can't Refuse
Izuku Midoriya was out on his nighttime jog around the outer walls of the dorm campus. Jogging was something he regularly started doing following meeting All-Might and, with Aizawa's permission, he was allowed to keep it up so long as he stayed within the boundaries of the campus. The time out and away from the dorms was a good opportunity for him to clear his mind of any issues he had swirling in there. Ever since All-Might's fight with All-For-One and letting him know that everything that came after was now all up to him, Izuku wasn't having the easiest time sleeping with that heavy weight clamping down on his psyche every time he had two seconds to himself.
He knew All-Might's powers wouldn't have long left, but he didn't think it'd be this soon. He hoped it would be longer. He wasn't ready, especially not after witnessing what was most likely a glimpse into his future. If he had to do that, then he needed to start working even harder than he already was.
Stopping for a second under a streetlight to catch his breath, he took a second to appreciate the clear night sky. The smell of the wind was a nice aroma to inhale; it gave him a feeling of relaxation he only felt when he was hanging out with his friends.
"It's a nice sight, isn't it?"
Izuku jumped at the sudden voice. He fumbled over his feet as he adjusted himself in the direction of the voice talking to him. Standing against the streetlight was a guy with ghost white hair, scale-like tan skin, and brown eyes silted upwards. He had a dark blue sweater and gray sweatpants on. Strangely, he had no shoes or socks on.
"I-I-yeah," he nodded quickly, flustered at being taken off guard. The stranger nodded at him. He bore a bemused smile at Izuku's embarrassment. Izuku, on edge after many recent events, shifted his body in the direction to the front entrance of the dormitory, ready to move. His student ID would allow him entrance with no alarms going off. He couldn't say the same for this guy. A stranger hanging out right on the outside of UA's new dormitory that was built to protect the students, coupled with the strong likelihood of All-Might's final hurrah giving villains funny ideas, Izuku wasn't taking any chances on this guy.
"You don't have to be jumpy, Midoriya." He said his name casually, as if they were old friends that knew each other as long as he knew Bakugo. Izuku tried to hide his shock at this guy knowing his name, but immediately knew he failed when the man gave him another bemused smile. "I'm a friend. We actually met once before."
Izuku's head went through his a timeframe of his life trying to find the right spot where he could've possibly met this guy. He had a very vivid outline of everything that happened from the day he learned he was Quirkless onwards; it had to have been beforehand... if this guy was being truthful anyway.
Not coming up with anything, Izuku just shook his head, "S-Sorry, sir. I don't remember you." He gave an embarrassed laugh, rubbing the back of his head as he inched closer to the entrance. Now, if he needed to run, Full Cowl and a good jump backwards would save him.
"I'm not surprised," the stranger returned his laugh. "You were... I wanna say two, maybe three..." He thought over, perking up his lips in aggravation as he tried to give Izuku the right number, hoping he'd jog his memory. He sighed in defeat, "Anyway, you were with your dad."
Izuku clamped up when his dad was mentioned. He hadn't seen him in thirteen years and haven't brought him up in ten. His mom gave him his answer about working abroad when he was six and his friends never asked. Hearing this random guy bring him up in a casual tone had Izuku forgetting his escape plan when the stranger stepped closer to him.
"Kinda weird, huh?" He said sympathetically, brushing a kind hand over Izuku's shoulder. "Having your estranged old man brought up by some guy you don't even remember."
"You knew him?" Izuku finally found his voice. His reasoned thought told him that it didn't matter. He didn't need to know anything about his dad, much less from some guy. He made it this far without him. But, that childlike curiosity and those buried questions that never found a chance to surface, made their way up to Izuku's head, taking him over completely.
"Knew? I do know him." He revealed, laughing at Izuku's use of past tense verbs. He was almost scolding him in a sense.
Izuku's mind shattered hearing that. His curiosity became too much. His eyes took on a new light to them, basking with a joyful and happy tone he hadn't had since meeting All-Might for the first time and being told he can become a hero.
"You do?"
"Yeah. That's actually why I came looking for you." The stranger said. He led Izuku over to a small stone wall that surrounded someone's home. They both sat on the ground in front of it, staring at UA's dormitory. Izuku watched as he kicked a rock back and forth between his two bare feet. "Before I say anything, any questions you have I'll be more than happy to answer to the best of my ability..." He kicked the rock away. "Fire away, Izuku."
Izuku's mouth opened; he had thirteen years worth of pent-up questions ready.
"Do you know where my dad is?"
"Yes."
"Is he alive?"
"Yes."
"Do you know why he never contacted me or Mom?"
"No."
"Do you know what he's been up to all these years?"
The stranger hesitated, "Yes."
Izuku caught the slow answer. "What is it?"
"That goes with what I'm gonna tell you and why I'm here." He explained. "Any more questions?"
Just one, "Can you bring me to him?" His voice cracked despite his small hopeful smile and he was sure that his eyes were gonna start getting wet. The hope now that he may actually get a chance to meet his dad after so long - it was a lot to process. His body was almost shaking with excitement.
The stranger ignored his question, "Listen, Izuku..." He stood up. "The reason why I'm here is quite simple..." Izuku noticed he stood in his path towards the entrance. "Your father is here in the city." Izuku clamped up. "He's working with me and wanted me to see you first to make sure you wouldn't run or attack him for not being there all these years."
"I won't!" Izuku stood up. "I wanna see him! Please, sir! Tell him!"
"It's not that simple, kid." The stranger sighed. "We have a lot of work going on right now and there's not a lot of time left for things to get done. Quite frankly, the only way you'll see your dad is if you come with me to where we are."
"Then let's go!" Izuku pleaded.
"I may haven't been clear when talking about your father. He works for me and has for the past thirteen years. He's a middle rank worker for my crew. He does what I tell him and I decide whether or not he gets a reward for his work. He's a good worker, but not that good. The only reason I'm even here is because of the stories surrounding you."
Izuku felt his anticipation shift over to unease at seeing him get antsy.
"I've seen your fights in the Sports Festival and have heard from sources that you're the one who took out Muscular." Izuku flinched at remembering that grueling fight. "Definitely impressive, but I still wanna see more." He stared off down the street. Izuku took a ready pose. "Don't even try to run,"
Izuku didn't oblige his warning, entering Full Cowl 5% and heading for the door. He was rewarded with a kick to the face that sent him back to the wall he was previously sitting by.
"It's rude to interrupt people when talking, Midoriya." He scolded. Izuku stayed slouching by the wall, fear lacing his eyes with sweat slowly falling down his cheek. "As I was saying - you do have a lot of potential for us and our group, but I need to see more. There's a special event taking place in two days time. It's called the Crimson Tournament."
Izuku gasped. He's heard of this before from many Pro Heroes who have interrupted the festivities, but changing locations and different sponsors kept it from being permanently shut down. It was a underground tournament where anything went; killing being a common factor in these things from both the fighters and the audiences.
"I want you to gather a team of six, including yourself, and meet back here at midnight in two days. Use your Class 1-A friends. I'm curious as to how the new generation of heroes will fare against these groups of lunatics."
"No," Izuku stood up, giving his best glare to the stranger in front of him. He would never subjugate his friends to danger for the father he hasn't seen in years. He wasn't that invested in seeing him. Plus, their records would be tainted forever and they could kiss being a Hero goodbye. "Thank you for telling me about my dad, but I think I'm satisfied with what you told me already." He walked past him to the entrance to the dorms, relaxing considerably after crossing the fence. He was home free.
"Shame..." He said as Izuku walked away. "Also really sad to hear about what happened with your mother..."
Izuku stopped mid-step, turning back to see the stranger was staring at him with a sympathetic glance. Izuku felt his heart begin to beat rapidly against his ribcage. His glare failed to stay on his face, instead dissolving into a fearful expression with teary eyes and fast breathing.
"What'd you do to my mom?" Izuku barely got the question out.
"I'll see you here in two days, Izuku. I'll escort your team to the tournament."
"You bastard..." Izuku gritted his teeth at being ignored. Seeing him walk away, Izuku flipped, activating Full Cowl again and charging him. "What'd you do!?"
The stranger side stepped Midoriya like if he was an amateur, pinning him between his bare foot and the cold ground. Izuku tried kicking his feet to gain some momentum to push himself up, but was pathetically kicking the air like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum. The frustration of it all made Izuku start to cry.
"It's not nice to call others name, Midoriya. My name is Honé. Best to remember it - we'll be spending time together if you're impressive enough."
"I'll never work with you, Dad's boss or not!"
Honé pressed his foot deeper into Izuku's skull, the young man gripping the ground in an effort to relieve some of the pain.
"Don't say things you don't mean." Honé warned. He let his foot go from Izuku's head. After his last two attempts to run and fight was met with being pushed around like a paralyzed person, Izuku didn't attempt to throw a hit. He didn't even move from his spot on the ground. "See you in two days, kid. If not, then maybe you should start considering yourself an orphan."
Izuku choked on his sobs.
"And I better not see anybody more than your six man team when I come back..."
Honé walked away, leaving Izuku to lay there in defeat. He got up twenty seconds later before rushing back to the dormitory, taking off in the direction of the teachers' quarters.
"Aizawa-sensei!"
"We couldn't find any signs of forced entry,"
Aizawa sat at the desk in the staff meeting room. Izuku sat across from him with Toshinori, he didn't want to be called All-Might anymore when he couldn't even be a Hero, consulting the young boy, who was crying up a storm after receiving news that this Honé wasn't bluffing. Nedzu sat at the head of the table with Midnight, Snipe, Cementoss, Present Mic, and Tsukauchi taking up a few of the other seats.
After Izuku came rushing to his room and informed him what had happened, Aizawa had immediately gone to informing the other teachers what Izuku had told him before asking the police to check on the Midoriya household. Now it was approaching midnight before they got any news back from the investigators.
Tsukauchi continued, "Nothing is missing, nothing is broken, everything is neatly in place, and there were no signs of a scuffle. Seems like your mom simply opened the door and left. Even the door was locked."
Izuku nodded slowly, sinking deeper into Toshinori's hold, who looked extremely guilty at being helpless. Aizawa picked up what that look meant.
"Don't blame yourself, All-Might." Old habits died hard. "This was gonna happen whether or not you still had access to your powers."
Toshinori nodded, "I know. But it doesn't make it any easier to hear."
Aizawa agreed. Even though he was still angry at his class' reckless behavior in going after Bakugo, he didn't like seeing any of them in pain, much less one that was as polite as Midoriya was. After this, Izuku wasn't going jogging without a supervisor, if at all.
"We couldn't find any information on this Honé person," Nedzu spoke up. "We cross checked his name with the description Izuku gave us and nothing matched the database of Heroes, Villains, or Civilians."
"We even checked Izuku's father's records for any clues." Tsukauchi said. Izuku didn't respond to his statement. "There's nothing there except information on his old insurance sales job, which Izuku was kind enough to confirm remembering his dad working as." Izuku nodded again in an unnecessary second confirmation.
"So simply put, we're stuck." Midnight groaned.
"Not stuck, just strained for time." Aizawa inputted. "With enough time, we'd be able to find Honé and Midoriya's mother, but that two day window is what's holding us back."
"We know when he'll be back," Present Mic reminded. "So, we have Snipe hide out on the roofs nearby and shoot him in the legs. Then we could capture him." Snipe nodded his agreement to that plan.
"And he specifically said if he sees anyone other than Midoriya and his team, he'd do something to his mother." Aizawa said. "That's too big of a risk for us to mess up and get his mother killed."
"So what do we do then, Aizawa?" Snipe asked.
"Present Mic is right in saying that we know when he'll be back," Aizawa stated. "Plus, we do know that this Crimson Tournament goes on for five days at least, right Tsukauchi?"
"That's what our old reports say." He nodded.
"That gives us one week, five more days than we have right now. We use that timeframe to search for Midoriya's mother. She has to be with Honé, and since Midoriya's father is with him, that gives us proof that he's in the city somewhere. We can search this whole city in one week easily with enough Heroes working the case."
"Yes, that is true." Nedzu agreed. "But that is only if Midoriya and five other students fight in the tournament." Aizawa said nothing.
"Aizawa, you can't be serious..." Toshinori stood up in bewilderment. Aizawa paid him no mind. "Risking the lives of six of our students?"
"I'm working with the cards I have, All-Might." He groaned. "I don't like this plan, far from it. I'd fight myself if he didn't specifically say Class 1-A, but we don't have that luxury of playing on our own terms."
"You know how dangerous this tournament gets!" He reminded. "One year, they eradicated the entire train station they were at and two blocks around it!"
"So, you wanna gamble everything on us finding Midoriya's mother in the two days from now until Honé comes back?" He asked frustrated.
"It's a long shot, but-"
"And what if we need three days, or four? How are you gonna explain that one to your apprentice when he sees his mother's corpse again, if he even gets that chance."
Izuku stiffened, letting out a small sob. Toshinori immediately sat back down to comfort him.
"Eraserhead..." Present Mic quietly said.
"I'm just telling it like it is..." Aizawa sighed. He glanced at Midoriya and the more he saw this boy crumble, the more he wished he was able to be part of the team. He'd fight every battle himself and not even let the others touch foot in the arena. By the looks of the others, they'd do the same - even the powerless All-Might.
They all sat in silence for a few minutes, unsure of what to say now.
"Won't the kids be in a lot of hot water if they compete in this thing?" Toshinori finally asked.
"If Midoriya would've ran off again, then yeah, but he came straight to us." Aizawa said. "I'll take full responsibility for anything that happens. If they want my License afterwards, then they can have it."
"That won't be necessary, Eraserhead." Nedzu waved him off. "And no, they won't be in trouble. What else can they do at a time like this? They didn't ask for this. It's just like Katsuki's kidnapping and having to fight off the League of Villains. It's a set of circumstances that we're working with."
Everyone nodded. They'd all take responsibility for this if they had to if anyone has a problem with it.
"I'll fight..."
Izuku stood up, his eyes glistening with both tears and a strong determination. His teachers stared at him in surprise.
"I'll fight this tournament on my own."
"No you won't," Aizawa stated firmly. "I know you don't want to put your friends in danger, Midoriya, but I noticed that you seem to like to shoulder everything so they don't get hurt. While that's a sign of a hero, it makes it seem like you don't trust them enough to help you."
Izuku shook his head rapidly, "That's not true!"
"Then let's pick out five people who will be of the most help to you."
"This is my problem, Sensei."
"You go off on your own, and, if by some miracle Honé even allows you to still compete, what do you want me to tell the class when your corpse shows up however long later? You didn't trust them enough to help you? Or you thought they were too weak to be of any help?"
"Aizawa..." Toshinori glared. "Stop..."
Izuku stood there baffled at his teacher's words. He was right. His anguish at his mother being taken by his father's boss was messing up his thinking. Aizawa-sensei's words were rough, but he was just looking out for him - for him and his mother. The more he thought about it, Izuku doubted Honé would've allowed him to compete alone. He laid his terms out and he specifically said to bring five others with him. If it were just him, then he'd have grabbed him right then and there.
But still, it couldn't be for Izuku's sake that he wanted others with him. Something was amiss; something he'd only get the answers for by fighting in the tournament and buying his teachers and Pro-Heroes more time to find his mother.
Nodding, Izuku sat back down, "I have a few candidates in mind for my team..."
Aizawa nodded relieved. Being this rough on Midoriya in what was possibly the most difficult time of his life was not doing wonders for his sanity.
"Who?" He asked in the kindest tone he could muster. He was about to assemble a team of his students to fight in the most dangerous of fights that was possible outside of city endangering events. He needed to be as calm as he could be.
It was gonna be a long week.
End of Chapter 1
There's a lot going to happen here, so I hope you all stay on board to witness everything unfold. Think of this as something akin to the Dark Tournament in Yu-Yu-Hakusho. What better way to practice my fight scenes than with a tournament?
Izuku's team will be revealed next chapter. I'm gonna have lots of fun with this team.
We'll also have a subplot of the remnants of Class 1-A helping out at the Tournament while the pros look for Honé. It's going to be a packed story and it's gonna be a blast.
Hope you review and tune in next time.
Next Chapter - Team Midoriya