Shinsou could only stare in horror from Iida's arms at the Nomu that had Midoriya caught in its talons, before he managed to process what was going on.
"Izu!" He screeched, and it took all of Iida's energy to hold him with his uninjured hand to prevent him from running off.
"For gods sake! Put me down!" Midoriya yelled, clenching his fist and activating the bracer on his arm. A long, sharpened blade expanded out of the side of the bracer, slicing through the Nomu's talons.
It howled in pain, loosening its grip on Midoriya, allowing him to free his other arm and activate the other bracer, and with a harsh swing, it sliced through the Nomu's flesh like butter, hitting the bone.
The Nomu released Midoriya, and he quickly retracted his blades, and flipped himself midair so he would fall on all fours .
"Izu! Watch out!" He heard Shinsou shriek.
He did not noticed the Nomu looping back, charging at him with its other talon outstretched.
Aizawa immediately leapt forward, activating his quirk, and the Nomu crashed into the ground, skidding from its momentum, screeching like a banshee.
Midoriya landed, and stood up, confused, before he noticed Aizawa.
"You okay, Izuku?" He asked, getting a "Yep!" in return.
The Nomu screeched, trashing about wildly, its talons slashing as it tried to get up, and Tensei and Yamada pulled everyone away before they could get claws sunk into them.
Akaguro grumbled as he got the Nomu's blood on his face, and hissed as a talon nicked his arm, cutting into the cable tie.
Lucky him. And the idiotic heroes had all the weapons tied up in a pile not to far from him.
He broke free from his bindings, and rushed forward, snagging a katana and two knives, and licked the blood off his face.
The Nomu gave a pained screech, before laying still on the ground, still hissing and screeching. Akaguro immediately leapt on it, and gave it a nasty slash, right through its chest.
"He got out!" Iida yelled, and everyone froze as Enji emerged from behind him, "Why are you all in a group!? The villain would have escaped.. Things got a little rough... but isn't that Stain?"
Akaguro turned around from on top of the Nomu's corpse, and hissed,"You fake!"
He let his aura flare out.
The moon was red. It sat ominously behind the Hero Killer, each step he took made everyone want to step back in fear. He didn't need his quirk, his force of will was strong enough to do that.
"I must make things right. Someone must be dyed in blood. I must take back what it means to be a hero. Come and try to get me, you fakes!"
"Hell no!" Midoriya hissed, lunging forward before Akaguro could get any closer to Enji, "My friend works under him. He's not the best hero, heck I have no idea how he's number two, but you can't kill him!"
Everyone collapsed, gasping from the release in pressure.
"He... wasn't affected?"
Akaguro jumped backwards, avoiding the slash from Midoriya's knife, and lunged forward, twisting under another slash and made his own attack, that Midoriya barely dodged.
He didn't expect a blade to fly past him, cutting his cheek. He looked at Midoriya, who was aiming his arm bracer at him, and he saw another blade emerge from the slightly opened up compartment, like it was reloading.
"Get out of the way. You're not a target." Akaguro hissed, trying to avoid his own urge to lick the blood trickling down his cheek.
"I get that you wanna change the hero society and stuff, but killing them does nothing!" Midoriya protested, as the compartment on the bracer, as another set of blades popped out from the sides. "Killing them just makes more heroes with the same mindset come out, who wanna hunt you for glory. It's just a repeating cycle of killing, and it gets nowhere - "
Akaguro lunged as he was talking, but Midoriya parried, before twisting on his heel and nearly slamming it into his face had Akaguro not blocked it.
Akaguro grinned, "Still the same old you! You still hate killing, don't ya?"
"No shit."
Midoriya charged, and aimed a kick at him, which was blocked again, and Akaguro tried to smash his spiked boots into Midoriya's face, but the boy swerved out of the way and attempted to shoot him with another blade, which was smacked away.
"Get out of the way, kid!" Enji yelled.
"You think Stain is going to let him disengage!?" Aizawa hissed, as he watched Midoriya retract his blades as he landed in a hand stand, swinging his legs and catching Akaguro off guard. He was watching Akaguro closely, as Akaguro managed to nick Midoriya with his knife, and brought it to his lips.
Nothing happened.
Aizawa's hair was flared up, eyes glowing red.
"Ah, at least I see a hero using his brains." Akaguro grinned, dodging a kick from Midoriya that was followed up by a slash.
I'm lucky... we're both tiring... and I don't have to worry about his quirk so much because of Aizawa... wait... his quirk...
Isn't he blood type B, like Native?
Midoriya caught sight of the blood trickling down Akaguro's face, getting closer and closer to his mouth.
They kept up the parry for some time, but they could all see that both fighter were starting to tire from the previous fight, and from keeping up the high intensity fight as they dodged, jumped, and lunged. Midoriya rushed at Akaguro, pulling a feint, but Akaguro saw through it and lashed out. Midoriya jumped back to dodge, landing on his hands, before he performed the same manoeuvre again, as Akaguro danced out of his reach.
Or would have, if he had heard the faint clicking and the sound of gears moving.
Two blades popped out from the sides of Midoriya's shoes, first moving outwards, before being shifted forwards and locking in place, and Midoriya managed to cut a nasty cut across Akaguro's cheek.
The two were engaged in a graceful dance, lethal, with blades and sparks flying about as they jumped and pirouetted, lashing out, jumping back, swerving back and forth to dodge. Their weapons clashed with deadly accuracy, sending sparks flying around. Akaguro leapt backwards, jumping off the roof of a car, and buried two knives in the ground where Midoriya was just standing a few seconds ago.
Akaguro pulled his knives out, panting as Midoriya rushed forwards again, blocking another set of slashes.
Akaguro hissed. He was going to lose. He could beat Midoriya, but then the other pros would come after him once he was weakened and tired. If he wanted to get out, he was going to have to deal with Midoriya first for sure, but it would take way too much energy, given the boy's skillset. His aura wouldn't stun the boy either, but it would definitely help against the heroes, if he still had the energy at that point.
He needed his blood, to use his quirk. To paralyse him long enough to escape.
Akaguro rushed forward again.
Midoriya caught the small grin on his face, and cheered internally. He had pushed Akaguro enough to think about focussing on using his quirk. Now... how to use that against him...
Everyone watched as they continued their dance, manoeuvring around each other, attacking and defending. Akaguro lunged, Midoriya parried, he counterattacked, they dodged. Midoriya blocked another hit from Akaguro, just as Akaguro slashed with his knife, cutting off some of his hair. He wasn't as fast as before, neither of them were, but this display of sheer power and will was impressive.
Knife against knife, blade against blade, kick for kick, Midoriya and Akaguro parried. Midoriya dodged a slash, and rolled backwards, leaping away before he could get stabbed, and landed on a car. He jumped down, aiming a bladed kick in Akaguro's direction, but Akaguro caught the blade with his katana. Midoriya twisted his leg, putting pressure on the blade in just the right angle, and the gears started turning, trying to retract the blade.
It clamped tightly onto the katana's blade, and Midoriya thanked god that he and Hatsume had decided to improve that part of his design. Akaguro had no idea what to do next. He was expecting Midoriya to push himself forward, or jump back, or attack.
Not clamp his blade.
Taking that opportunity, Midoriya grounded himself on the blade, and kicked Akaguro harshly on the cheek.
Akaguro could feel a tooth come loose.
Then the blood.
The blood gushed out of the hole that missing tooth had created, landing on his tongue.
Shit.
Akaguro fell to the ground, hand loosening and releasing the katana. Midoriya fiddled with his shoes, releasing the blade, and retracting the blades properly.
"You... ever were the smart one... weren't you..." Akaguro chocked.
"Sorry, Stendal." Midoriya sighed, as he fell on his butt, panting from the exertion. "Sensei, we've got eight minutes!"
Akaguro was promptly cuffed, and knocked unconscious by one of the pro's just to be safe, he was carted off to Tartarus as Aizawa moved in to check on Midoriya.
The internet was flaring up again, about Midoriya.
The fight, the later part, had been broadcasted by a news helicopter.
And now, everyone was trying, dying to figure out just who Midoriya was, and what was his quirk. Any thoughts that he was quirkless was thrown out the window. After all, a quirkless student couldn't possibly take down Stain, right!?
People kept speculating what Midoriya's quirk was. A strength enhancer? Stamina? A subtle paralysis quirk that took time to work? Agility? Quick reflexes? Or maybe the blades on his arms and feet were actually his quirk and he was pretending to use support items to throw them off?
Some thought that Midoriya was trained, even though he was in the General Education course. Maybe his fighting style was better againsy humans than robots. Some even wondered if his family were secret ninjas or something, and thus he was able to keep a low profile for so long.
They really were getting out of hand. But none of them were even coming close to the truth, so everyone let them be. They were doing all the misdirection for them.
And Nezu was cackling as the forums burst with activity, reading ten different hero forums at a time as he sipped on his tea.
"So... do we want to talk about this?" Tensei asked. He was sitting in his office. Iida was sitting beside him, along with Midoriya, Shinsou, Aizawa, Yamada, and Todoroki. Enji had scoffed, saying that Todoroki be ready for more training by the next day, to which Todoroki just shrugged.
"About what?" Midoriya asked, as Shinsou started chattering about how cool they were.
"I don't know. The fact that you're Akatani? Or that you're quirkless?" Tensei asked.
Aizawa got up defensively, "How did you -"
"Don't worry about it. Stain mentioned it during the fight." Midoriya said, "Do you have a problem with that?"
"No, actually. Not really. I'm honestly just surprised that the two people who seemed to be making the headlines these past few days are actually the same person." Tensei shrugged, "Also, it explains why you're so close to him."
Shinsou turned to face Tensei and waved, "Hi!"
"Shinsou Hitoshi, Izuku's little brother. That's Ingenium, or Iida Tensei." Aizawa introduced, as Iida looked down at the table guiltily.
"Hey, Iida, it's not you're fault." Midoriya tried saying, but Iida just sighed, "I was rash. Stain was right. I let my emotions get in the way. If you hadn't found us, if Shinsou hadn't called for help, if Todoroki hadn't come to your aid... I fear the worse would have happened."
"Don't worry about it." Tensei grinned, "It's a learning experience. Emotions are a fickle thing, and not everyone can have the same control over their emotions as those three." He pointed at Aizawa, Midoriya and Todoroki, "In fact, Shouta doesn't even have any emotions!"
"I swear to god, Tensei. If the kids weren't here I would murder you and no one would find the body." Aizawa hissed.
"No murder, Zawa. Murder is bad." Shisou stated.
"No fair! Why does Shou have a nick name?!" Yamada whined.
"Roki has a nickname too!"
"I want a nickname too!"
"Stop acting so childishly!" Aizawa snapped, "What are you? Ten?!"
"There's actually some stuff I wanna say, but we have a visitor. Hosu's chief of police, Kenji Tsuragamae." Tensei said, as a dog headed person entered the room.
Iida and Todoroki shot to their feet, as Midoriya tried to stand up and put Shinsou on the chair, and Kenji started talking, "You're the UA student who brought down Stain, right? And you two helped before the others came along?"
Midoriya nodded.
"And that is the kid... that you told... to call for help?"
Shinsou shyly moved to hide behind Midoriya, who nodded again.
"Regarding his arrest, he has burns and broken bones and is receiving treatment under strict guard. But they actually aren't that bad, considering he was brought down in the end by his own quirk and not by brute force. As UA students, I'm sure you know that when superpowers were still becoming the norm, the police attached high importance to leadership and standards to make sure quirks weren't used as weapons. An individual's used of force and power could easily kill others, actions that would normally be appropriate to denounce, to be accepted officially, is thanks to the early heroes who follow the rules of the profession, woof."
Midoriya rolled his eyes and sighed. Yeah. You can't use quirks without a licence, the same old song and dance.
"Look," He was trying to be polite. "As far as I could tell, Iida's interference bought time for Native and Ingenium, or they both would have been killed. If I didn't interfere, all of them would have been killed. If Todoroki didn't interfere, we wouldn't be having this conversation. And don't you think of putting any of this on Hitoshi, because he never used his quirk, and I told him to call for help."
You're saying we should follow the rules and let people get killed!?"
"No one knew the Hero Killer was gonna be there, taking down heroes in the Nomu chaos." His tone turned sarcastic, "Are you saying that we should just sit back and watch them die?" He growled, "Is that what you guys want? Letting a heroes die because of some dumb rules? Forcing people to choose between self defence or breaking the laws?"
He was silenced by a look by Aizawa, and Midoriya grumbled and stood down.
"Even against the Hero Killer, for uncertified individuals to cause injury with their quirks without specific instructions from their guardians or supervision is a clear violation of the rules. Midoriya Izuku, because you don't have a quirk, technically you don't fall under these rules, but as a student of UA, we agree that you should know better. However, you are lucky that Ingenium has stated that he gave you permission to use your quirks, and that Iida was under Ingenium's watch, and we can classify most of this as self defence. Otherwise, Endeavor and Ingenium would receive strict punishments, and the probable confiscation of your support items."
Iida looked at Tensei in shock. He had covered up for them?
Tensei winked at him and mouthed, "Later."
"Because you were given permission, and that Midoriya's second fight with the Hero Killer was partially broadcasted over the news, no further action is needed, woof. Everyone would know that you three, under Ingenium's watch, aided in the take down of Stain, and Midoriya's attacks resulted in his arrest. However, I believe your mentors would have something to say about you fighting the Hero Killer head on."
Tenseu sighed, "We'll take responsibility for being negligent in our duties, though I' m glad I'm still alive after encountering him twice. We'll deal with this, sir."
"As someone who helps to protect the peace, I can say thank you." Kenji thanked them.
"You could have just said that first, right?" Midoriya whined, "I thought I would get a heart attack!"
"Problem child." Aizawa hissed.
"Hey, Midoriya, are you and Shinsou Aizawa Sensei's secret love child?" Todoroki asked.
"Yep."
"What do you mean, yep?!" Aizawa demanded. "Far from it!"
"But you adopted us cause you love us... right? So technically we're your kids, aren't we? And we never told anyone you adopted us." Midoriya asked, utterly confused, and Shinsou was wearing the exact same expression on his face, "Isn't that what Todoroki means by secret love child?"
Todoroki, Yamada, Iida, Tensei and Aizawa stared at him in disbelief.
"No. Izuku... just... no."
"You were awesome! You really kicked his butt!" Uraraka grinned.
"You were so manly! I saw the fight with Tetsutetsu at our internship!" Kirishima cheered. "Not like Bakubro here."
"I was so scared when I saw you fighting Stain live!" Hagakure gushed, "I didn't know who would win! It was a cliffhanger!"
"The ending was anti-climatic though." Asui noted.
"FUCK YOU, SHITTY HAIR!" Bakugou roared. His hair was no long spikey, and it was somehow miraculously tamed by ... gel? Shinsou was giggling from the unnatural look Bakugou had, and Sero was still laughing at him, and in a fit of rage Bakugou's hair exploded right back into place like a puffy Pomeranian.
"I'm so glad you guys made it out safely! I was worried!" Yaoyorozu sighed in relief, carefully ruffling Shinsou's hair. She was sure that the three students could handle themselves, especially with the overprotective Aizawa there, but once she and Kendo had spotted Shinsou struggling in Iida's grasp on live television, and they had promptly started panicking.
Lunch time with 1-B was chaotic as usual. Everyone was trying to ask Midoriya about the fight, his support items, and he was chattering excitedly with Hatsume over the success of the support items and their improvements.
"Wait, you designed them?!" Kaminiari asked.
"Yep! When I was eleven! I tried to make it but the stuff at the trash heap wasn't good enough."
"You... tried to make support items... some that actually worked, out of trash!?" Tetsutetsu yelled, "That's so manly!"
"I know right!?" Kirishima grinned.
"Oh! Any improvements on your... problems?" Monoma politely asked.
Shinsou didn't want to see a therapist. Neither did Midoriya. Aizawa had ended up being their makeshift therapist, since most of their problems occurred when they were separated, and they trusted Aizawa the most.
"It's gotten better." Midoriya said, "We can go separated for two hours. But then we're both just really clingy after."
They had come to that realisation after Aizawa and Midoriya had stayed in Tensei's office, while Yamada had brought Shinsou out to check out the slides and swings at the playground. Both of them had started getting angsty at the two hour mark, and Midoriya had literally jumped out of his seat and ran out, much to Tensei's confusion.
"Compared to?"
"Uh... half an hour?"
After lunch Yagi had called them to Ground Beta to see how much they improved during their internships, in another joint lesson between the two hero courses, and to their surprise, Hatsume had tagged along.
"Alright, we have a new arrangement. Hatsume is partially in the hero course. She will take all her other lessons with the Support Department, regarding building support items and whatnot. For Heroics lessons and homeroom, she will join us." Aizawa droned on, before pushing Yagi forward to start.
Yagi announced that they were having a team battle. Each team had five people, and there would be eight teams in total. Each team had to have at least one students from each class, with Hatsume filling 1-A's missing slot and being counted as a student there, before giving them five minutes to form teams, with specific requirements. Todoroki, Midoriya, Tokoyami, Bakugou and Shiozaki could not be on the same team, and Hatsume absolutely could not be on the same team as Midoriya.
Midoriya had grabbed Monoma immediately, and Bakugou nabbed Kirishima. Yaoyorozu and Jiro had gone over to Todoroki's team, while Kuroiro, Shoda, Shoji and Koda went over to Tokoyami. Ojiro and Hagakure had joined up with Shiozaki and Kendo, and Kamikiri, Awase and Tetsutetsu were all recruited by Midoriya. Todoroki managed to convince Kaibara and Tokage, and Tsunotori skipped over to join Shiozaki's team.
Bakugou wrangled Hatsume, Rin and Fukidashi over, and the remaining students dissolved into groups, with the first group consisting of Yanaji, Uraraka, Komori, Sero and Sato, the second with Kodai, Bondo, Iida, Shishida and Asui, and the last with Honenuki, Tsuburaba, Kaminari, Aoyoma and Ashido.
"You are aware you're the only one from 1-A in this group, right?" Monoma noted.
"Does it matter? I'm new to the hero course anyway!" He grinned.
"When did you two get so close anyway?" Awase asked.
"Quirk problems!" Monoma grumbled, as Yagi told them who was fighting who.
They were up against Tsuburaba's group.
Shiozaki's team was taken out by Tokoyami's. Shoji had utterly overpowered Kendo, before taking down Ojiro. He had been knocked away by Tsunotori, as Tokoyami and Kuroiro stifled Shiozaki again in darkness. Hagakure and Tsunotori didn't have much of a problem with Koda, but once Shoda came into play, it was all over.
Bakugou and Todoroki clashed again, Yaoyorozu and Hatsume fighting with all the stuff they made, as Jiro blasted her heartbeat so loudly that Fukidashi's quirk was rendered ineffective because his attacks couldn't be heard. Rin managed to pin down Kaibara's quirk, and he spun out of control, crashing into Kirishima. Tokage made it out, but then she ended up fighting Rin. That battle was a stalemate, and Yagi called the match as a draw.
"You're not better than me, Half-and-Half!" Bakugou hissed.
The next fight was chaos. Sero fought Asui with their long reaching attacks, Shishida and Sato charged at each other, and Bondo was busy trying to pin down Komori's spores before they could grow. Yanaji and Uraraka were working together to make things float again, but Kodai was constantly enlarging items and Iida kicking it back at them in a very chaotic game of tennis. It was another draw.
"What support items do you have?" Kamikiri asked.
"This... and this... and - Oh! Idea!" Midoriya grinned as he pointed out his gauntlets and arm bracers. "Monoma, how many quirks can you copy at a time?"
"Three. My time limit is four minutes each. Why?"
"Good." Midoriya smiled, "Honenuki and Tsuburaba are smart, and they'll probably be the planners. They know your limits, and with Tetsutetsu, Kamikiri, and Awase's powerful quirks, and that i'm quirkless, it's likely for them to think you'll copy theirs, maybe leaving one slot open to copy on of theirs."
"And?"
"Pretend. Fool them. Make them know, make them think you can only copy three."
"But I can only copy three."
Midoriya grinned, putting his hands up, his gloves sparking with electricity.
"You are a mad genius."
"Thank you!"
Monoma had started off using all his friend's quirks. Tetsutetsu's quirk was a great lightning rod against Kaminari, and with two of them? Kaminari had no choice but to back off lest he short circuit. Honenuki's quirk was getting disrupted as Monoma and Awase kept welding things to the ground, making it harder and more time consuming for him to soften the ground to disrupt their footing. Aoyoma was shooting out lasers, and Monoma and Kamikiri were easily able to deflect them with their blades. Midoriya was badass, constantly poking and prodding Tsuburaba and Ashido, making them focus on him, before Monoma grinned, and electrocuted Ashido while she was distracted.
"Wait! I thought you could only - " Tsuburaba was cut off when Midoriya knocked him out.
"Damn. Bio-electric powered gloves? Not bad." Monoma grinned, taking out Aoyoma who was busy firing lasers at Tetsutetsu, but Honenuki used that opportunity to soften a wall. Tetsutetsu smashed through it with the help of Kamikiri, taking out Honenuki out, and Kaminari didn't stand a chance with two lightning rods.
Awase finished him off.
"Well… I personally think we'll be fighting the teachers." Midoriya said, "Villains aren't going to be mindless robots. That will be way too easy."
"That's fair. Probably in pairs or in groups then." Kendo nodded, "The older students said they fought robots though."
"We have Aizawa Sensei as a teacher. What do you expect?" Kaminari grinned, looking up from his math, and Shinsou pulled him back and scolded him for getting his multiplication wrong again.
"Fair point."
Meanwhile, Nezu was talking with Aizawa and Kan in his office.
"This is gonna be a mess. But how hard can it be?" Kan asked.
"Very hard. Hopefully I can actually sleep in class now, away from the chaos." Aizawa sighed.