Scarecrows aren't supposed to be Heroes
Chapter Eight
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Naruto or My Hero Academia.
EDIT: This story is/has gone through some editing again. I haven't cut anything important, it was mostly grammar and punctuation. So you're fine to keep reading ahead.
All Might was here. Everything was all right, because All Might was here.
Denki almost snorted. 'What a naive thought process.'
Certainly, their chances had improved quite a bit with the hero's arrival, but considering the entire point of this debacle was to kill the man, it was safe to say they weren't completely off the hook.
The Nomu, Denki had noticed, was designed to emulate All Might's fighting style. It was why Denki had an easier time with it - he had a different fighting style and that clearly tripped the creature up.
In all honesty, Denki thought his chances against the creature were marginally better then the Number One Hero, if only because he had an element of surprise that the Hero lacked.
All Might was doing reasonably well, though, the man could match the beast's power well enough, whether he could go beyond it…well, that was the question.
'The Nomu takes orders from Shiragaki,' Denki mused, 'perhaps if he were to be incapacitated…' He smirked. 'Well, there's an idea.'
Shouta could only stare at the ongoing clash. He couldn't do anything. He was incompetent. He was worthless. He was pointless. He was, well, useless.
Kaminari wasn't. Kaminari had fought the creature. Kaminari had fought the Nomu longer than him and held his own. It made Shouta feel guilty. He was the Hero here, he was supposed to be protecting Kaminari. Not the other way around.
And then there was All Might. Shouta would be lying if he said he didn't think this was the hero's fault. Because it was. Partly. Obviously, All Might didn't want villains to attack. But he should have taken possibilities like this into account before wasting his time on minor crimes. The man had a duty as a teacher, after all.
"NOMU GET UP!"
Shouta frowned slightly at the villain yelling orders. The man was a real brat. A brat with power, but a brat nonetheless.
"NOMU STA-"
The villain fell abruptly, collapsed more like.
Shouta's eyes widened. A pool of blood was oozing around the man. And dead centre of the man's chest lay a small blade.
'What?'
Uraraka could only gape at the scene laid out in front of her.
All Might was fighting the weird creature villain, who had been following the orders of the hand-villain, who was...dead?
The beast was still fighting. Following its last orders, Deku had mumbled. But the hand-villain…
Someone had thrown a knife at him. It couldn't have been Tokoyami, Deku, or any of the other students with them. She would have seen it then. All Might was fighting the Nomu, Aizawa-sensei was incapacitated, so was Kaminari. But then ...who did it?
'And why?'
The trick with the not-really-a-kunai wasn't that hard, in Denki's opinion. It was something easily learned in genin years.
Judging by the confused looks on everyone's faces it had worked well. Denki had killed the villain without it being traced to him. The opportunity had been presented during the first fight but Denki couldn't risk it with Aizawa potentially finding out. Since the not-really-a-kunai had been the only and original one of its design, they wouldn't be able to trace it back to him. As long as he didn't show anyone this particular skill of his, no one would make the connection.
It was perfect, really.
As soon as the 'leader' was incapacitated, All Might's win against the Nomu was almost guaranteed. The thing had gotten confused without its leader's orders. It still fought, but not very well. All All Might needed was a punch, and it didn't even need to go past 100%.
"SMASH!"
The thing didn't even stand a chance.
All Might turned around as soon as the blast was delivered, scanning the area for the main perpetrators. He was faced with a pathetically laid out scene. Villains, no, thugs, were groaning on the floor. Spots of blood, dirt, rubble, were scattered across the Plaza, but the main instigators were nowhere in sight.
It was then the teachers arrived.
"Sorry everyone," the Principal announced, heading the staff as they stormed in, "I gathered all those who were available."
All Might smiled bitterly. "A bit late, aren't we?"
The Principal sighed, studying the scene around him. He glanced at All Might. "It seems you had it handled."
"All Might," Cementoss whispered, coming up behind him, "your time limit."
A block of concrete covered him, and Toshinori relaxed. "Thanks."
'It's over.'
From there, everything was chaotic. The powerful villains had already fled the scene, leaving them to deal with the grunts.
Nezu sighed, watching the police and ambulance comb throughout the building with tired eyes.
'We won, but in the end, who lost the most?'
Present Mic was screaming, presumably out of concern, at Eraserhead, who laid in a bloody heap on a stretcher. Midnight was gently lifting her own mangled mess of a student from the ground. Kaminari had settled himself on her shoulder, relaxing ever so slightly.
Nezu frowned slightly at the boy. He had heard the reports, a Gen-Ed student being held hostage by the villains. It was certainly interesting that the villains chose one of the strongest Gen-Ed students, since it was also reported that the villains had intimate knowledge on the 1-A students. It wasn't confirmed, but considering the careful placement of each student in accordance with the weaknesses of their Quirk, the implication was there.
The whole situation almost made it seem as if there was a traitor in their midst.
Nezu had considered the possibility that the knowledge may be confined to the Hero-Course, it could just be coincidence, but it was still...interesting that Kaminari of all students had been kidnapped.
Even more interesting was how Kaminari handled the situation. Brutal, efficient, deadly. That was what the student spectators had told him. Not in those words of course, but it was implied. The boy was not short in fighting experience, it seemed.
Most intriguing was the first blow against the Nomu. An attack that intended to kill, Midoriya had told him. In any other situation, Nezu would be forced to put a black mark on the boy's record. But the circumstances today were quite unique, and someone rather close to Kaminari had been put in a life-threatening position. So Nezu was willing to let it go.
He was still interested in the boy's next move.
"Principal! Why are you laughing, this is a serious situation!'
"That makes laughter even more important, my dear students, especially when you're thinking about the many ways to destroy villains."
" Where did that tea come from!"
Toshinori was resting in the hospital when the Principal came walking in. The mouse pulled him over to the side
"The villains knew," the Principal grimaced at him, "they knew about our student's Quirks, they knew about our teacher's Quirks. Any element of surprise the students had was lost, and there was an experienced villain placed in every section the students were in."
"Any critical injuries?" Toshinori asked, twiddling his hands nervously..
The mouse gave him a bitter smile. "No. No permanent damage was inflicted on the students. According to some of the students, the stronger ones didn't try very hard. They were just mocking them. A couple of them expressed quite a bit of discontent at the mere fact of being there."
"Forced villainy, maybe?" Toshinori wondered, hand coming to rest underneath his chin
The Principal frowned, clenching a paw, "Perhaps," he said, "but we don't know who injured their leader in the end. Maybe they aren't the only group at work here?"
"PRINCIPAL!"
A young hero came bursting through the doors of the hospital.
"T-The girl," he panted, "the girl, she's gone!"
The Principal froze. "Who," he asked, voice turning cold.
The hero, if anything, paled further. "Eri."
Denki, being the Shinobi he was, had been eavesdropping on all the conversations despite being drugged on a hospital bed.
'The girl? Eri?' Denki blanked, fists scrunching his bedsheets nervously and panic slowly creeping into the corners of his mind. 'No. .'
Denki to a deep breath, releasing the crumpled sheets. 'Ok,' he told himself, 'calm down. It makes sense. It makes perfect sense. Rappa, that guy is from the Eight Precepts of Death. So them and the League are probably working together. An agreement, maybe. And Overhaul used that deal to get into UA so he could get Eri. Which is not good, not good at all.'
There were two options here. Wait for the heroes to deal with it, or deal with it himself. Considering the wealth of information Denki had on the group, he was probably the better choice. 'And besides,' Denki thought, 'the Biju would probably be happy to help.'
Nezu had been put in a very poor position. On one hand, he needed to do damage control on the whole USJ crisis, on the other, he had to go save Eri.
There was always the option of pawning off the rescue task to another agency, but considering the incident happened in UA, UA was morally obliged to take care of it.
He also needed to tighten all security around the school. Clearly, they'd been getting complacent.
Nezu was in charge of the very difficult job of splitting UA's already weakened resources between three things.
And it was not nice.
"Don't move an inch of that bed young man," Recovery Girl sternly instructed, ponting her giant-walking-stick-needle-thing at him, "or you won't get any candy."
Denki sweatdropped, backing away from the sharpened ended. "Ah, ok."
She huffed at him, eyeing his totally-not-guilty face before sighing and leaving.
Denki waited a couple seconds after the door clicked shut, before bounding out of the bed. His eyes flickered to the security camera glaring at him. Denki smirked at it, casually strutting towards an empty power socket and thumbed its empty crevices. He let a trickle of electricity drift down his hand and into the circuit. The camera crackled slightly before collapsing. He grinned, 'for a top notch hospital, their electrical system is really quite basic.'
Denki sighed, cracking his neck and stretching his limbs with various other stretches, he frowned at the slight tingle of discomfort it brought. His injuries were worse than he thought, it seemed.
'The heroes haven't told me anything yet,' Denki mused, pulling his arm to the side, 'probably don't want me to get worried, but that also means they won't suspect me as much,' he sighed, grabbing his spare mask and shoving it in his pocket. 'I should probably get going then, wouldn't want them to waste too many heroes.' He crammed on a shoe, hobbling towards his bed with one foot and stuffing it with pillows.
Denki pushed open a window and leapt into it, leaning back and thumbing a power socket again before completely disappearing.
The camera flickered on once more, capturing a totally normal scene of a messy room and a patient in bed.
Kurama glared at Denki with a sour expression, tapping his paw impatiently as he gave a summary of what the boy had told him, "so the girl's been kidnapped, and you want us to help you save her."
Denki nodded, back leaned against a wall and shoulders tensed. "Pretty much," he paused. "So?" Impatience was bleeding into his voice.
The fox's expression resembled the image a squeezed lemon, clenched and creased. He sighed. "Why not?" Kurama relented, adding on sarcastically, "sounds fun."
"YES!" Shukaku exclaimed, practically jumping up in excitement, "I can finally kill people."
Kurama shot the raccoon a dirty look. "You realise this is an espionage type thing," he said dryly, "the point isn't to kill people, just to get the girl."
Shukaku scowled at Kurama. "No one cares, stupid fox."
OPERATION: RESCUE ERI
RANK: ...
SHUKAKU: D, this will be a piece of cake.
MATATABI:I'd say about C, it's quite important.
KAKASHI: It's actually an-
KURAMA: Pft. This doesn't even need a rank.
KAKASHI: No, not quite-
GYUUKI: C sounds about right.
SON GOKU: I agree with Shukaku.
SAIKEN: My votes with Kurama.
KAKASHI: *sigh* This mission, by Shinobi standards, would be A rank.
CHOMEI: Lame.
KOKOU: How disappointing.
MATATABI: I forgot how weak humans are.
KURAMA: Very anticlimactic.
KAKASHI: …*sigh* I give up.
RANK: A
OBJECTIVE: …
SHUKAKU: To kill everybody.
KAKASHI: Not quite what we're going for here.
SHUKAKU: Well that's my goal. You can do whatever shit you like.
KAKASHI: Never mind then.
OBJECTIVE: To rescue Eri (and kill people)
Pay:
KURAMA: We're getting paid for this?
KAKASHI: No, we are not. Who put that in there?
SAIKEN: I want monetary compensation.
KAKASHI: Then rob a bank on your way out. Why do you even want money?
SAIKEN: To satisfy my urges.
KAKASHI: ...moving on.
OPERATION: RESCUE ERI
RANK: A
OBJECTIVE: To rescue Eri with minimal contact.
KURAMA: Those who wish to blow them up, say Aye. Aye.
SHUKAKU: AYE!
MATATABI: Aye.
ISOBU: Ah, aye?
SON GOKU: Aye.
KOKOU: Aye.
SAIKEN: Aye.
CHOMEI: Lucky Aye.
GYUUKI: Aye.
KAKASHI: WHAT NO! We can't be that obvious.
KURAMA: You know you want to.
SHUKAKU: Yeees, give in to your desires.
KAKASHI: …
KURAMA: Kakashi?
MATATABI: Poor thing got tired of your bullshit and left.
KURAMAL: You agreed as well.
MATATABI: No comment.
Eri remembered this place, she remembered it well. It was where all the painful things took place.
A grey bed to sleep in.
A plastic chair to sit on.
Another plastic chair for Overhaul to sit on.
A bunch of machines that made weird noises.
It was all the same. Nothing changed. Nothing would change,
"Eri," Overhaul said gently, an unmistaken hiss coating his voice as he placed a hand on her shoulder.
She flinched at the touch, cowering away from the man.
She could feel the ominous fear of his presence grip onto her, as the man brought his face right up to her ear. "You've been a naughty girl," he whispered, the gentle clasp of a hand tightening to a painful clutch, "I had to go through a lot of trouble to get you back."
Eri shivered at the killing intent in his voice, the sheer hate radiated by the man keeping her firmly in place.
"But it's all right," he said coaxingly, grip easing and voice sickeningly sweet, "you're here now, so we can continue right from where we left off," his eyes creased upwards, lopsided crescents that showcased twisted joy. "In fact, we can start now."
Eri wanted to cry. She really did. But she couldn't cry.
Eri didn't want to make it worse.
'Nii-san, I'm sorry. You're going to be hurt. Again.'
"You know, for some Yakuza Headquarters, this place is surprisingly well-kept," Shukaku marvelled, observing the indeed rather well-kept building towering over them. It most certainly didn't look like the base of criminal organization, Denki had imagined it to be something not unlike the Biju Base.
Matatabi snorted, paws firmly crossed as she snarked, "everything is well-kept to you, not everyone lived in a place covered in dirt and sand."
"Oh yeah?" Shukaku retorted, "well I bet nobody lived in a-"
"Let's calm down shall we," Denki intervened, placing himself firmly in between the bickering pair.
Kurama snorted from behind them, he glanced at Denki mockingly. "Who knew you could play peacekeeper so well."
"Naruto and Sasuke gave me plenty of practice," Denki bantered back lightly.
Kurama cackled at that statement, paw coming to cover his mouth. "Pft. I'm pretty sure you didn't do shit to keep-"
"A-Anyway," Isobu stuttered, cutting into the argument before it could heat up, "shouldn't we get going now?"
"Right," Denki agreed, studying the building, "operation commence." He disappeared, leaping onto another building to observe the guards and cameras scattered across the site.
"Ooh, fancy."
"Shut up, racoon."
"I TAKE OFFENCE TO THAT!"
"To what? Being called a racoon?"
"UGHHH!"
Things were finally going Kai's way. He'd had a couple of hiccups with his plans thanks to that silly vigilante group, but he'd recovered his main chess piece thanks to the stupid league. How Eri ended up in UA was still a mystery, Kai's best guess was that some hero had picked her off the streets and dumped her at the school.
The League of Villains had even provided him with some excellent information for quite a cheap price, they truly were oblivious to Eri's real worth if they were willing to hand out such knowledge so carelessly, for just for a couple extra pawns as well. It only served to prove Kai's point that only he could use Eri to her full potential, clearly not even the oh-so-powerful League of Villains could see the jewel glaring right at them.
Now that Kai had all his pieces on the board, he could finally make a move. Best now before the heroes found any lead to him, but considering the incompetence of most of the local agencies, Kai doubted that would happen for a while.
"B-B...O...SS!" A man, one of the security guards, he recognised, came bursting into his office, collapsing before his desk. The man's face was sickly pale and marred with discolored blemishes.
"T-The...Biju," he croaked, voice cracking from strain, "the-y're...her-" The man crumpled to the floor, head lolling to the side to reveal a bloody bruise blooming across his throat. Blood oozed from his mouth.
Kai clenched the pen in his hand, snapping it in half. 'Damn it,' he cursed, getting up and kicking the corpse to the side, as the body twisted to the side he noticed an oddly precise formation of blood.
A smiley face with its tongue poking out, underneath it, spelled with blood were the Kanji, 'Surprise!'
The veins of Kai's forehead surfaced with unrestrained rage, his fists clenched white and his breathes, short and ragged. 'They'll pay,' he promised himself, turning away from the mocking image, unseen lips twisting into an ugly grin, 'they'll pay dearly.'
"These people are weak," Kurama yawned as he lazily flicked another yakuza with his tail. The body crashed into the wall with a sickening crunch, sagging down to join the cluster of corpses.
Denki sweat-dropped slightly, glancing around the bloodstained scene around him. The underground labyrinth appeared to be quite crowded with the ten of them. "Perhaps we should split up?" He suggested, the ten of them really weren't needed here.
"YES!" Shukaku yelled in agreement, bouncing on top of another yakuza as he did.
Denki frowned as bits of blood splattered onto him on impact, the poor man practically had his guts forced up his throat at every pounce. Denki shivered slightly, he could never get used to the brutal style of attack the Biju generally adopted.
Matatabi frowned, absentmindedly crushing a man's head with her claws, "I thought we were doing this espionage style?" She asked, flinging the decapitated head to the side.
Denki sighed, eyeing a massive hole further behind them in resignation. "That was before someone blew up their front door."
They all stared at Son Goku, who just huffed at them. "They were arrogant, foul-mouthed, little things who deserved every bit of it."
"I'm quite surprised that Shukau wasn't the one who gave into temptation," Koukou snorted, glancing at the raccoon, who was now tearing a man apart limb-by-limb with his sand in clear joy.
"We all have our moments restraint," Kurama muttered, nose wrinkling at the blood and bits being sprayed onto him, "this just happened to be one of Shukaku's few."
Said Biju only huffed. "Whatever," he scoffed, tossing the last of the limbs to the side, "I'm killing them whether you like it or not, now." He sniffed the air, wandering off to where it seemed to lead him. Denki was going to make a wild guess and assume it was where there was the most people.
He sighed, "I suppose we should all get going," Denki waved his hands in a shooing motion, "begone - and don't use too much Chakra."
The Biju gave their muttered, but probably not true, agreements before ambling off in random directions. Denki sighed, pressing a hand to his temple, 'whatever,' he appeased himself, 'they can take care of themselves,' he began to run forward.
'Eri, I'm coming.'
Everyone was panicking, they didn't say it, but Eri could tell. Their faces were all scrunched like lemons and their fists were all sickly white from too much clenching. It made Eri feel happy in a really guilty sort of way.
"GRAB HER!" Overhaul yelled, and Chronostasis scooped her up immediately. Overhaul snatched the man's collar and began to drag them towards some weird door, he kicked it open, revealing a pale narrow corridor. Overhaul turned to the other weird people, "buy time," he ordered. Letting go of Chronstasis's collar, he sped through the corridor, Chronostasis following shortly behind him.
If Eri didn't know any better, she would have almost thought that Overhaul looked scared.
Shukaku was having the most fun he'd ever had since coming into this dimension.
The mangled corpses, the crushed bodies, decapitated heads, that beautiful scent of blood. It was all bliss.
And those little humans trying to stop him. They were pathetic, he'd already pulverised them before they even finished screaming out their attack.
"T-THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!"
Oh. Another human was whining at him.
"Y-YOUR STAMINA," the man stuttered, paling further, "I STOLE IT! I TOOK THE DRUGS AND EVERYTHING!"
'Huh,' he thought, 'no wonder my chakra dipped a bit.' Sand began to circle around the man.
"NO! STOP! I BEG OF YOU, STO-"
*squelch*
Shukaku sniffed the air slightly, face pinching in disatisfaction. "The scarecrow one, Soramitsu, I believe his name was, had better-smelling blood than you," he scrunched his nose, expression souring, "how disappointing."
Shukaku hummed, ambling over the corpse he made. "Now," he asked himself, "where to go next?"
Denki sprinted through the remains of the once underground labyrinth, electricity pushing him further in every step.
He sighed at the ruins and corpses surrounding him at every turn, 'they really are no match for the Biju,' he spotted various tails like marks etched into the ground he was running on, 'even when they only have a fraction of their strength.'
Denki's ears perked up at the subtle sound of footsteps, probing him to move faster, as he did, he caught a glance of two figures running ahead of him.
Denki grinned. 'Found them.'
A kid. All this trouble because of one kid. Hari could hear himself groan ever so slightly, as he caught a glimpse of a boy trailing behind them. Crackles of gold enveloped the boy, apparently serving as a speed boost. The boy himself wore a plain T-shirt and a pair of pants, accompanied by a pouch slung across his waist. The only vaguely interesting thing about him was the mask that covered half his face.
Overhaul face scrunched tighter and tighter as the boy came closer. He glanced at Hari, "keep going," the man told him in a gravelly voice, coming to a halt, "I'll take care of the boy."
Hari nodded, tightening his grip around the girl in his hands, "good luck," he whispered, regretting it instantly. Overhaul didn't need luck.
Overhaul, as expected, didn't respond, instead he turned grim-faced towards his opponent.
Hari scowled as he ran ahead. Rationally speaking, he knew his boss wouldn't be beaten by a child, but he couldn't help but feel a sprout of dread emerge in his gut.
'No,' he shook his head vigorously, 'Overhaul will never lose.'
"Are you sure about that?"
Hari looked up in shook. A mutant man with fox-like ears and tails stood assuredly in front of him, his hands-no paws rested in pockets and head tilted to the side.
"H-How did-" Before Hari could finish the fox darted towards him, grabbing his neck and crushing it.
Hari collapsed, his breathing bloody and vision dilating. 'what...happened...I...sorry...Kai…couldn't...do...anythi...'
Denki slowed himself down as he approached the man. Overhaul, his mind supplied.
"Were you the one who took Eri?" The man asked, face twisted into a grimace as he slowly strutted towards him.
Denki didn't reply, but the man continued.
"I see," Overhaul sighed, "so this whole is because of you. Very well then," he held out a hand towards Denki, "I guess I'll have to eliminate you."
Overhaul lunged for him, hand still outstretched, a move Denki dodged with ease. The man pushed his hand onto the floor instead, dissembling it into spikes.
Denki eyed the new ground in fascination, 'so his Quirk requires touch.' Denki smiled slightly as he manoeuvred himself around the spiky chunks, bringing out two kunai from his pocket. Before Overhaul could lunge for him once more, Denki threw the two kunai at the man's arms.
*splat*
Only one of them hit.
Denki tsched. 'He has better reflexes than I thought.'
Overhaul paused for a split-second to heal the dismembered arm, Denki grabbed the opportunity to charge forward, a Chidori already built up in his arm.
Overhaul barely had time to widen his eyes.
*splat*
Denki removed his hand from Overhaul as the man collapsed to the floor, a gaping hole in his chest. He wiped his hand on his shorts, wincing at the bloody stench that remained. Denki grimaced. 'Time to find Eri.'
Eri had been with Chronostasis. Chronostasis had been taking her somewhere. But then a fox-man came and killed him.
Eri shivered at the blood staining her dress, then at the man staring at her, then back at the corpse still holding her.
'whats going on whats going on im scared im scared'
Her hands started to glow, panic welled up inside of her as she realized what was happening. 'oh god my quirk's gonna kill everyone stop it stop it stop it'
The fox-man frowned at her and, completely ignoring her Quirk, lifted her up on to his shoulders. Eri tried to shake herself off, staring at her glowing hands in despair.
"It won't work on me," the man gruffly assured, "grab on, we're going to find your Nii-san."
Eri relaxed slightly at the mention of her Nii-san, a small bloom of trust budding as she tentatively buried herself into the man's fur-like hair, relaxing even more when nothing happened.
"Ok."
"I would call this mission a success." Shukaku preened, puffing out his chest in pride.
His comment was followed by various boos from his siblings.
Eri, Denki, and the Biju were at the Biju Base, discussing their next move. Well, the Biju and Denki were, Eri was sleeping.
Matatabi snorted, holding out her claws out primly in front of her face, "you just killed people left and right, the only ones who actually did something relevant to the task were Kurama and Kakashi."
"You did the exact same thing I did!" Shukaku protested, pulling her paw away so he could glare at her.
She huffed, flicking him in the forehead. "At least I exercised a bit of control."
"No one cares cat," he sneered, trudging back to his seat on the floor, "go lick your tail or something."
"Excuse me," she said in an affronted voice, "I-"
Denki cleared his throat, standing up to gain their attention. "Anyway, now that that's over, how are we going to bring Eri back to UA?'
Kurama smirked at Denki from the sofa he was lounging in. "Don't worry, go back to the hospital, we'll take care of it."
The next morning, the hospital staff found Denki basking in the early morning sunlight on the roof.
Needless to say, they weren't too happy.
The heroes found Eri sleeping quite peacefully in bed, a ribbon tied to her forehead and a card attached to it
Dear UA,
While on our personal quest to destroy a Yakuza group by the name of 'Eight Precept of Death', we found this little girl. As a vigilante group, we do not generally take part in activities such as babysitting and have, therefore, gifted this child to you. If she is harmed in your care we will, however, most certainly take her back.
Yours truly,
The Biju
The heroes were, unsurprisingly, quite baffled.
