Izuku glowered down at his ice water, mulling over yesterday's failed attempt at the USJ. They had been so close; if only there had been less talking! Izuku could have been able to duel All Might before the teachers arrived. If only Katsuki hadn't decided to show his ugly face, something might have become of Kurogiri's quick thinking.
Dragging a hand down his face with a profound sigh, Izuku supposed some good had come of the event. He'd installed doubt into Kirishima's and Todoroki's mind; a small seed to be sure, but seed nonetheless.
Tadao looked over at his small friend from where he stood painting a landscape on the wall for practice, much to Giri's annoyance. "You good lil bro?"
"I've a headache from meeting Master." Izuku mumbled, rubbing his temples. He had indeed been called to his master's presence (to learn new techniques for his quirks, new strategies and new suggestions), and All For One had kept Izuku captivated for the better part of two hours. It was a humbling honor to kneel before All For One, scribbling his Master's teaching dutifully in his notebook and being chastised for answering in a less than ideal fashion. At the end, Izuku was allowed to present his few questions, prodding the mystery of All For One's quirk.
Izuku didn't love his Master, and knew he was not the recipient of any form of sympathy; All For One only needed a pawn. Izuku was simply drawn to power. Irresistible, like a hot shower after a day's hard work, or moths to an electric trap. Kacchan, All Might, Tadao, All For One, Izuku couldn't keep himself from being lured in by their confidence and strength. Power was indescribably beautiful to him, regardless of how lowly the wielder of that power treated him.
And this beauty was the reason he sat hunched at the bar counter, nursing a headache and foul mood.
Kurogiri slid two painkillers to his young charge's hand and stepped back to preparing dinner. "You know, Master and I have been debating, and we have discovered a small problem." Tadao and Izuku both looked to the bartender, eyebrows raised. "It involves you two. Your friendship in particular."
Eagle squinted at Kurogiri, wary. "What do you mean?" He spoke slowly, as if expecting a violent plot twist.
The man of mist set down their plates of dinner quietly, waiting a moment to chose how best to explain his problem. "You two are incredibly close, that much is obvious and is something truly meant to be treasured. However, this hampers your fighting as you two are too concerned for the other's well-being. We have been training you two almost entirely separately, so you don't know know each other's limits and strengths."
"I suppose you're right." Izuku nodded slowly, eyes drifting away from the bartender to the counter again. Since joining the league, and especially with having to deal with school at UA and spying for the league, Izuku felt he didn't know his best friend as well as he should anymore. He and Tadao shared a glance before he turned back to Kurogiri. "What do you have in mind?"
"Training you together, by having you fight and compete with each other." The two shared another glance. They had never fought very much before; they had trained before joining the league, but that mostly consisted of throwing and dodging punches, running exercises, and light parkour. "Combat with and without quirks, obstacle courses of the same, strategy games and tests, anything Master and I can think of. We will start tommorow." Kurogiri picked up the last plate of food, opening a portal into Shigaraki's room and depositing the plate there.
Tadao stood and stretched, having set down his paint and brush and popped his back into place. He strolled over to the counter and sat next to Izu, beginning to eat. "Well. Sounds like a mean plan. I'm on board." He turned as Izuku grumbled his agreement. "I'm going to go work on the Project after dinner and mark new mural areas along the way, wanna come? We haven't had a good spree in a while."
Bunny pushed himself upwards into a more refined sitting position, smiling at the prospect of some good fun for once.
- With Iida -
Iida sat down at his home desk, frowning lightly at a blank sheet of paper. Izuku's bland mood throughout the day at school had rubbed off on Iida, making an already tense day horribly sullen, like eating burnt toast on a day where pouring rain had cancelled your fun plans. But Iida was not depressed, no; he was thinking.
About yesterday's attack to be specific.
For some reason, the teenage villain, Bunny as he was called, stuck uncomfortably in Iida's mind. He hadn't seen much, but the criminal seemed familiar in a way that Iida couldn't place. Something he had seen before in the teen's insane personality. Then there was Izuku's behaviour; Iida could think of no rational reason for Izuku to be so upset. Distressed and unsettled by the events that had taken place perhaps, but not so angry.
Iida shook his head, adjusting the paper before him and beginning to write. He often found that scribbling down whatever was bothering his mind helped him think more clearly, allowing other work to be done, getting the problems out of his head, and also organizing his thoughts in perhaps a more rational form. He wrote studiously.
Midoriya: unexplainable mood, sullen attitude, depressed sort of anger, former friend of the villain 'Eagle'
Bunny: familiar?, insane, ruthless, despises All Might Sensei, quirk?, close friend and associate of same 'Eagle', incredibly intelligent, beaten, for now.
Sighing, about to fold the paper and set it aside, Iida remembered one detail about the villain that his classmates had told him. Bunny laughed, often maniacally, while covering his face with his hands. With a start, Iida realized Izuku did the exact same.
Iida hastily scribbled the thought down onto both lists, contemplating the two names in a new light. His trail of thought ventured down a dangerous path of comparing the two people associated. Supposing they were the same (though Iida wasn't 50% sure with his newfound suspicion), it would explain Midoriya's fowl mood and the feeling of knowing the villain. They were both great strategists, was or is in close ties with Eagle, laughed the same, even had the same body type. Both also seemed to carry some form of grudge for Bakugo, and neither was afraid of showing it.
However, there was the blatant fact that Midoriya was quirkless, and Bunny was quite powerful. He seemed to posses 3, perhaps 4 different quirks. Maybe they were related, but Iida couldn't see them as being the same person; Bunny was a ruthless, powerful villain and Izuku was a quirkless sweetheart.
Iida shook the idea out of his head, folding the paper and dropping it into his drawer. He slid his homework out of his school bag and set to work, trying to concentrate on English for a test in the morning.
- Back to Izu and Tads -
Wrapped in their respective gear, Bunny and Eagle made short work of crossing the city to 'the project'. They stopped a handful of times, marking out new areas for murals along their way. There was a comforting atmosphere to travel together again; like in the happy and simple days before they joined Shigaraki, getting sucked into the drama. Neither had realized how much they missed their simple alone time to revel in their friendship.
A thought crossed Izuku's mind. He frowned, pulled on Tadao's sleeve, and the two slowed down to a simple walk, hands in pockets. "What's up?"
"I've been thinking about your quirk, and I've noticed something." Izuku gestured as he spoke in a quiet, casual manner. "While your quirk is incredibly useful in combat, it is so useful only if you have paintings nearby, say on your person or on the wall or ground. All this art we keep putting up is essentially useless unless you happen to be fighting nearby; and you can only keep so many painteds alive at one time, so keeping up a small army in the basement is also out. Granted, 50 a relatively large number, but far from 'small army' levels and impractical all the same."
They were nearing an old abandoned parking building. Izuku and Tadao jumped in through the destroyed wall, sliding down a prepared rope that led straight to the bottom level through a series of holes in the floors. Landing heavily, their presence sent the few hiding low lives scattering away as they stepped forward in a casual confidence and a loud command for them to leave. The two were well known among these people, and the simple low lives didn't dare argue, dragging their tents and bags away.
"You can't keep exiting battle to replenish your stock Tad, you'll get in trouble." Izuku looked up to his friend in worry, shaking a can of dark brown paint. "And what about this? We won't exactly be able to ferry this back to base, nor do we have space to keep it there! You can't run over here and then meet us with it in battle, cuz you'd alert the authorities on the way here and give away any chance of surprise, and we need you to be on the front lines to begin with."
Izuku gestured to the floor as he spoke. On the cement was traced the skeletal outline of their Project; Tadao could have done this by himself if it weren't for the painting's sheer size, which was why Izuku was needed in order to make sure the dimensions were perfect. The length of the painting stretched nearly from wall to wall, and that was with its two sides folded in half, ending only a few meters short. The width occupied half of the distance between the other two walls, the monstrosity they were creating destined to cause chaos by it's mountainous body.
Tadao nodded, frowning slightly as he knelt down to begin his work. "You're right. We'll have to find some way around that. Put your big brain to work eh?" He gave Izuku a playful nudge, the two laughing happily. "You got the other colors yeah? This baby's gonna need a lot."
Izuku proudly displayed his bag full of assorted paint cans. The two busily set themselves to work, determined to use most, if not all, of the pain before they left. Izuku and Tadao focused mainly on filling out more of the base, saving details until after they were sure that the main form was finished. It was quite some time before any meaningful conversation resumed.
"Hey Izu, you excited for the Festival? That's only a few days away right?"
Izuku huffed, having forgotton about the event in all the drama. "Oh, yeah. Totally skipped my mind. I suppose I'm excited enough. My friend, Shinso, -I've told you about him yeah?- he's way more pumped than I am. He's hoping to do well enough to get into the hero course."
"You gonna try for the same?"
Snorting with incredulous laugher, Izuku shook his head. "Not a chance. I'm just going cuz I have to, and I'm going to do my best, not matter what."
Tadao smiled, spraying thick lines on the floor. "Wish I could go to watch you in person."
"You most certainly will not!" Izuku's head shot upwards, blood rushing.
"Izu- I'm not serious I know-"
"That's a stadium filled to the brim with heroes, and you're a recorded criminal!"
"I know, let me finish-"
"You wouldn't even get into the stadium, you'd get arrested in minutes-"
"I knoooooow!" Tadao set down his can with a groan, looking over to his young friend. His hand, stained brown with paint, landed on his jeans, adding a clear hand-print over the other paint stains. "I was merely saying I WISH I could be there. I know that I can't you dork."
"-oh."
Eagle laughed, shoulders shaking with his mirth as Izuku joined in awkwardly. "I'll be just fine with watching you compete on the crappy tv screen in my room at the bar. Now get back to work lil genious. I want to leave at a semi reasonable time tonight.
It was two in the morning when they left finally, Izuku pushing their tired bodies up to the street with Force. Tadao had Kurogiri warp the young teen to his house as he left for the bar. Izuku slipped into his house softly, making sure not to wake his mother. Sneaking into his room, he closed the door as gently as possible and sank into his bed with a groan. He didn't even bother to change out of his outfit; he was too tired and he'd already laid down, thereby losing all motive to get back onto his feet again. Izuku groaned into his pillow as the textbooks on his desk reminded him of the English test he had to take in the morning.
Perhaps staying out so late was a mistake.
A/N
Hello again my lovies! Wonderful to be back in this story again. And hey, festival in next finally, and who knows how many chapters that'll be! Seriously, I have no clue. I also have no idea how long the whole book will be, but we'll find out together, won't we!
And, for some reason, my drive to write has been rather low lately, so if it's taking me a long time inbetween new chapters, I apologize in advance. Now comments!
s082829, thank you for that! I went back and fixed that by having Tadao fight Aizawa by keeping himself hidden by his lioness so he could get close to Aizawa and back away again without letting the pro see him directly for 3 secs.
dinosaurpeyton0, I apologize for the overly long ans, I try to be as thorough as I can to help avoid confusion. That said, I will try to keep them more concise for you and (as with this chapter) work to make the actual content longer.
(But when there's commenters like CadB who write literal essays for me to read, it's kinda hard(speaking of))
CadB, thanks for the massive painting idea, I stole it :D. Also, koda cannot control the painteds, and our boi tad is about to figure out a new power. Not tellin ya tho. (It comes into play at the AFO OFA fight (If you figure it out before then you are awesome!(you're already, but hey)))
I do believe that is all. If I didn't address any questions you guys had, tell me cuz fanfic net is doing something weird. I have the comments listed, on the same chapter where I address same comment. Not sure how that happened, but if I didn't get you, tell me and I'll do it again. So long lovies!