AN: Thank you all for your ideas on the hero name, keep em comin', but don't be afraid to just add them in with reviews of the chapter as well! I'm keeping a list and I'll have one chosen by the time that it's needed! Also, this is the longest chapter I've written for this fic, so enjoy!
Izuku ran through the dark streets and alleyways of Hosu, chasing after where he could feel his crystal tracker was, knowing he had to stop Iida before he found what he was looking for. After a while of chasing, however, Izuku started to tire rapidly.
"Damn, I forgot about how tired staying out without sunlight makes me..." Izuku muttered, before mentally feeling around for one of the augments he had gotten after USJ. There, within his head, was a spherical open space, with the surface of it being entirely mirrored crystal surfaces, allowing light to flow in but not back out.
Izuku allowed the light to start trickling out from the gap, and felt reinvigorated as a dim glow set over his body.
"Okay. Now I need a better view to find him. Izuku crouched down, before leaping upwards with all the force he could muster in his legs. As he reached the apex of his jump, he pulled mentally on the small sphere inset into his back, with the power that let him reform his crystals back into his body.
The marble attempted to return to its original spot, within the cored-out space in his head, but as it was trapped, all it did was add upward force to Izuku's body, slowing his fall down tremendously. From his view hundreds of feet above the ground, Izuku honed in on where he could feel Iida was, and quickly but gently did a controlled fall directly towards him.
Chizome Akaguro, better known by the populace as the Hero Killer, Stain, was not having a great night. He had been prowling through the alleyways when he nearly ran into a young boy, likely a high schooler, who seemed to be doing the same. Chizome was about to tell him off for wandering the dark corners of the city at night, since there were dangerous people around at this time, namely him, when the boy yelled and attacked him!
At first Chizome was against attacking him, as he could tell the boy was likely training to be a hero, and killing one of the new blood would only hurt the chances of real heroes rising up in the future, right up until the high schooler explained that he was here for revenge for his brother. A hero, hunting for revenge? He was a fake like the rest. And like the rest, he'd be culled.
After stabbing the boy and paralyzing him with his quirk, Chizome lined up the finishing blow, when he sensed danger, and leapt five feet back into the alleyway. No sooner had he done so than a vicious axe kick came flying down from the sky, shattering the asphalt where he had once stood.
"And what exactly are you here for, child?" he demanded as he saw that the one who had fallen from the sky was just as young as the first to attack him. Ignoring him, they checked on the boy with glasses.
"Are you okay Iida? You really shouldn't have come out here like this, it was reckless." The boy... reprimanded him? He also seemed to be calling for an ambulance and the police as he did so, which meant Chizome was now on a time limit.
"And what makes you think that I'm just going to let you save this boy?" Chizome called out, slightly upset that he was being ignored.
The boy whirled around to face him, his dark crystal visage nearly impossible to see at this time of night. "I'll protect him from you, of course!" the boy stated, taking up a stance in front of the boy who had collapsed. Protecting others with his own body, huh? Interesting... he might actually be one of the true heroes he was searching for.
"Careful Midoriya! His quirk lets him paralyze you if he tastes your blood! If he does that it's over!" ...Damn brat spoiling what his power did to the newcomer. Luckily with his speed, knowing wouldn't exactly mat-
"Iida. You do remember the fact that I don't even HAVE blood, right?" Well, there goes that plan. Aim to disable it is.
Chizome leapt forward, sword raised for a vicious cleave towards the boy's arm, hoping to keep him from fighting back. The blade clanged uselessly against the black crystal arm, not even seeming to budge the boy.
He followed up with a flurry of attacks using his katana along with his assortment of knives, but none of them seemed to even scratch his opponent. What was he even made of?
Soon enough, however, the boy seemed to become more and more winded. A few seconds later, the black rushed inwards, starting from the extremities and absorbing back in towards his clothes, revealing a clear, glowing crystal with green highlights, an opaque green arm and... THERE! In his legs, the muscular system was plainly visible for him to see.
Chizome jumped upwards, pushing off the wall of the alleyway to land behind the boy, quickly spinning to swing his sword down towards the boys legs, only to find the boy facing straight towards him, his blade ringing against the boy's right arm. With a light smile, they lunged forwards, and as their palm pressed against his sternum, he was shot backwards like out of a cannon.
Barely catching himself to push off of the wall he was slung towards, he tried a different approach, and launched forwards towards the first boy. Sure enough, the crystalline child jumped in between the two, aiming to stop Chizome from making it to them.
He slid between the boy's legs, and sliced backwards without turning, grinning as he felt the blade slice right through where the Achilles' tendon would be. Coming up from the slide, he saw that the boy was still quickly approaching, despite the fact that his strike had, indeed, found its mark. As they came forward, they finally pulled the sword from their back out, the long black blade gleaming in the moonlight.
As their blades clashed, Chizome tried to slide his own down to hit their hand, as the boy's blade had no crossguard, only for the sword to bend, wrapping itself around Chizome's and restricting his movement. Unfortunately for the boy, he still wasn't stronger than the man he was fighting, and Chizome could easily press the child's guard with only one hand, while his opponent had to grip the handle with both.
Seeing this opening, Chizome twisted his body to the right, bringing his elbow down heavily upon the boy's left arm, which snapped off at the hit.
"IZUKU!!!"
Momo felt bad for putting a tracker on Izuku's shoulder to help her track where the boy was and make sure he didn't get into trouble. Right now though, she could tell that the tracker, and therefore Izuku, was on a train towards Hosu, where Stain was likely still hunting for heroes, so it was obviously a necessary precaution.
As soon as she left her own train, she followed the signal, running as fast as she reasonably could while still pacing herself. His location had barely moved in the past couple minutes, which she knew likely meant he was in trouble.
She managed to reach the alleyway her tracker lead her to just in time to watch Stain snap his left arm off.
"IZUKU!!!"
Izuku startled, obviously not expecting her to be there, allowing Stain to grab the arm he had snapped off and strap it to the back of his belt, where Izuku couldn't draw it back without bringing Stain directly into his guard. This didn't stop Izuku however, as he continued the assault with the one remaining arm.
"How admirable! Even after losing an arm, you still steel yourself to protect those around you! At last, I have found a true hero in the making. What is your hero name, boy? I must know the name of a true hero such as yourself."
"I don't have a hero name yet, I'm just... Midoriya," he said, before turning slightly and calling out, "Momo, do you trust me?"
"I mean... yes, why?"
Izuku leapt back, placing his sword in her hands. "I need you to hold him off for about twenty seconds. If anything goes wrong, I'll come back in and take over, but this is our best shot at beating him."
Momo was startled, but quickly took up the stance she remembered from when she did weapons training when she was younger and oh gosh Stain was already right in front of her. She quickly brought the sword back down, , slipping past his guard, but he leapt back, causing the blade to strike the asphalt, and... go right through it? As she brought the sword back to bear, she could see more obsidian had formed at the tip of the sword, where it had passed through the ground.
The blade felt heavier now, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing, she though, as she swung sideways towards Stain, and the man's sword created under the added strain of blocking the heavier blade. Following through, her swing took the sword straight through the side of a building, greatly increasing the material upon the blade, as it all converted into obsidian.
Rushing towards Stain, she finally noticed Iida, still on the ground in a heap.
"Iida, can you stand?" she yelled, and he seemed about to say no, but then started to get up, seemingly shocking even himself that he could move again. "Then HELP US!"
As she yelled, her heavy sword came down, snapping Stain's in half. Just as she was about to follow up, she heard Izuku call from behind, a low rumble building up from where he stood.
"Get out of the way!"
Unfortunately Stain heard him too, and made to leap, trying to keep Momo between him and Izuku.
"This is for my brother!!" Iida yelled, jumping forward and kicking Stain's legs out from under him, leaving him mid-fall right as the rumble from Izuku peaked.
Momo turned to watch as Izuku breathed lightning across the alleyway, directly into Stain's prone body, causing him to convulse on the ground before collapsing, unconscious.