The sound of someone's happy, fannish squealing drew his attention, and Izuku chuckled as he turned to look over at the people who seemed to be particularly interested in him.
"You're All Might's Little Koala, aren't you?" the girl asked, decked out as she was in an All Might t-shirt, holding what looked like a plush version of him; he'd been wondering when those kinds of things would start to come out, considering the way his relationships with Dad and Uncle Toshi – the Symbol of Hope, and the Symbol of Peace, respectively – had been revealed so completely not so very long ago. "You're really cute," she continued, smiling all the more widely. "Would you mind if I took a picture with you?"
"No, go ahead," he said, smiling as she threw her right arm around him, holding up her phone to snap a selfie of the pair of them.
It was important for Heroes – even Heroes who only had their Provisional Licenses – to be personable, since they weren't just working to curb crime by fighting Villains, they were also working to keep the spirits of the populace up so that no one was driven far enough into a corner that they felt their only choice was to become a Villain. It was something that Uncle Toshi said a lot, and Uncle Mirai had agreed; he was also fairly sure that he'd passed the same point of view onto Togata-sempai, and that was at least part of the reason that he was such a cheerful, happy person. It also seemed to come naturally to him, which was probably why Uncle Mirai had taken an interest in him in the first place.
As he left the girl behind, Izuku began to hear the sounds of running feet approaching from a shadowed alley on his left. Turning, Izuku found his arms suddenly full of a small girl. A small, shivering girl with long, white hair and a small horn on the right side of her forehead.
"Hey, whoa," he said, steadying the both of them. "Where did you come from?"
Red eyes, nearly the same color as Tenko-nii's, turned to look up at him in a way that Izuku couldn't help but think was plaintive. She looked scared, and as a Hero he was duty-bound to find out what was wrong and to protect the little girl from whatever was chasing her.
"Hey, hey, it's all right," he said, standing back up, holding the little girl in his arms as he called up Hayato's Quirk so that he could wrap his wings around her in the same way as he'd done when Tenko-nii had come back from the job that had resulted in him being buried alive, and had nearly gotten him killed before Uncle Toshi had found him, pulling Tenko-nii out from under all of that rubble trapping his hands. "It's all right, you're all right," he said, rubbing gentle circles on her back.
~MHA~
Gently stroking Niseko-chan's soft hair as he settled the pure, gentle child down on his bed, Chisaki wrapped his blanket around the boy's shoulders.
"Wait here for me, Niseko-chan," he said, stroking the boy's right cheek. "I'll bring Eri back to us, soon."
Turning to make his way out of his room, Chisaki continued on his way out into the streets once more, searching for the girl who was the lynchpin of his entire operation. As he emerged back into the tainted city, walking among all of the diseased outside the walls of the compound where he and the rest of the Hassaikai worked to cure the disease that had spread so far throughout the modern world, Chisaki narrowed his eyes as he caught sight of the girl he was pursuing. She was in the arms of one of those who had fully embraced their disease, wrapped in a pair of disgusting, leathery green wings.
Feeling his mouth twisting almost involuntarily into a snarl, Chisaki removed one of the gloves he wore to keep the filth of this modern, diseased society off of his hands.
"Give her back!"
~MHA~
The sound of a furious, almost rabid-seeming voice, shouting at him from the alleyway he'd been crossing in front of, caused Izuku to leap almost reflexively out of the way, pulling up an enhancer Quirk and sending himself to the other side of the street with a single, smooth leap. The feel of the little girl in his arms – he hadn't even had the chance to find out what her name was, before whoever this newcomer was had tried to attack him – shivering in clear terror as the man, clearly a Villain who'd been chasing her for some reason or other, came after them with a Quirk that seemed to allow him to disassemble and reshape his surroundings with a single touch drove Izuku to leap into the air.
Flapping his wings to keep himself out of range of the spikes that the Villain in the purple-feathered, dull-green coat and bright, red-and-gold plague doctor mask was sending his way, Izuku held the little girl close as he felt her squirming.
"It's all right," he said, a little breathless, as he held her against his chest in an effort to calm her down again. "You're all right, I won't drop you."
"You have to let me go!" the little girl said, sounding more terrified than he'd ever heard anyone sound before. "He'll kill you!"
"Better men than him have tried," he said, grinning in that way Dad would when he was trying to both comfort someone and taunt another person at the same time.
Sure, it wasn't exactly true, but there was an element of theatricality to any Pro Hero's job; both Dad and Uncle Toshi had told him that.
~MHA~
Keeping pace with Fatgum and Tamaki, Ejiro Kirishima found himself wondering just what kind of trouble he was actually going to find out here, or if this was going to be another routine patrol. Motion in the sky, just visible above the line of buildings, drew Kirishima's attention.
"You spot something, Red Riot?" Fatgum asked, turning to him with a curious expression.
"It looks like there's something going on behind those buildings," he said, pointing out the small flashes of motion he'd caught those brief glimpses of when he'd turned to look that way.
"We'll divert that way, then. Come on, Suneater," Fatgum said, after a moment spent watching the same patch of sky that'd caught Kirishima's attention that first time he'd seen it.
As the three of them all made their way down the street to the intersection, Kirishima began hearing the sounds of what seemed to be some kind of a fight. Hurrying as fast as he could, Kirishima found himself almost forced to stop short as he caught sight of the Villain attacking, and more than that the Hero being attacked…
"Midoriya!" Kirishima shouted, moving almost before he knew what he was doing, as the Villain slapped his bare hands against the ground, sending a wall of huge spikes erupting from the ground in a line towards Midoriya.
Punching through one of the larger spikes as the Villain directed more of them at him and Midoriya, Kirishima threw himself sideways as he caught sight of the Villain – a man with icy, golden eyes, wearing a beaked mask, and a dull green jacket with vibrant, purple feathers all around the collar – leaping at him with his bare hands outstretched.
"Red Riot! We'll handle the evacuation!" Fatgum called out, drawing his attention for the few moments when it seemed to be safe to pay attention to something besides the Villain attacking them. "You and Myriad hold him off until we can get backup!"
"Don't worry, Fat, we'll take care of things here!" he called back, as Fatgum and Tamaki turned to the crowds who'd started gathering around the edges of the street where he, Midoriya, and that Villain were all fighting.
"You have to give me back to him! He'll kill you if you don't!" the little girl that Midoriya had been holding shouted suddenly, and Kirishima turned to look up at Midoriya as he held the little girl closer, hugging her in an effort to both comfort her, and probably to keep her in his arms, too.
"Don't worry, we'll be all right," Midoriya said, holding the little girl closer, and Kirishima quickly turned his attention back to the Villain attacking them.
Before either of them could make another move, before even the Villain they were fighting could make another move, a black, swirling portal opened on the sidewalk. Kirishima only had a moment to wonder where or if he'd seen that kind of portal in the past, before the tall, white-coated form of Midoriya's dad – Sensei, the Symbol of Hope himself – stepped out onto the street where he, Midoriya, and the Villain had all been fighting.
Grinning as he turned back to face the Villain, Kirishima hardened his arms and punched down another line of spikes coming his way.
~MHA~
The sight of a Warp Gate opening on the sidewalk, just back from where he and Kirishima-san had all been fighting, drew Izuku's attention, and he smiled as he caught sight of Dad making his way through. Izuku had about half a moment to wonder if it was the fact that Dad had marked all of their family with Beacon awhile ago, or the copy he'd taken of Ragdoll's Quirk that'd brought him to their current battlefield, before the sight of a streetlight being wrenched from the sidewalk drew his attention. Chuckling as he set down next to Dad, the little girl that he'd worked so hard to keep safe now riding on his back, Izuku caught Dad's eye as the pair of them stood together for a moment.
"They're probably going to bill you for that, Dad."
"Yes, they likely will," Dad said, an amused smile passing over his face for a moment, before a twitch the fingers on his right hand sent the streetlight he'd torn up flying at the Villain in the birdlike mask and purple-feathered coat.
Narrowing his eyes as he saw the Villain reach out for the streetlight, Izuku found himself gasping almost involuntarily as the entire structure of the light pole came apart; apparently, the Villain they were facing didn't have a Quirk that only worked on concrete and pavement. It seemed as though this Villain's Quirk was able to disassemble and reform anything, which was clearly going to be a problem for them.
Well, for him and Kirishima-san, at least, considering how many Quirks that Dad had that he could use for either mid- or long-range attacks; Kirishima-san, because he could only really attack at short-range, and Izuku because he needed to look out for the little girl.
When Dad raised his right arm, the harsh scent of ozone invaded Izuku's nose, and he tensed as a lightning-bolt crashed down on the place where the Villain had been standing not a few seconds before. Sure, he had been fast enough to anticipate something when Dad had called down the lightning with his Skystrike Quirk, but there was only so long that he could hold out. Izuku didn't know of anyone else but him, Dad, and Uncle Toshi who had more than one Quirk, so there wasn't much chance that this guy could have some kind of an enhancement Quirk.
~MHA~
Narrowing his eyes as he called up his Zephyrus Quirk, combining it with a generic enhancement Quirk, Hisashi twisted his left hand in that particular way that he used to call up the tornados that this Quirk enabled him to create when it was combined with any number of enhancement Quirks. Kai Chisaki – who he hadn't truly been expecting to find in this place, since while Giran had informed him of the young man's adoption by the old head of the Shie Hassaikai, his old friend hadn't been able to gain any further information before the Rikiya-chan and his Meta Liberation Front had become troublesome enough that they needed active monitoring – was quick to destroy the ground underneath him in order to take shelter from the tornado that Hisashi had attempted to use to sweep him up.
It was slightly troublesome, but as Izuku seemed to have recovered the little girl that Kai-kun seemed to have taken such an interest in that he would pursue her out of whatever stronghold that he and his had been sheltering in when they had managed to escape from Toshi-kun and the force of Pro Heroes he had been leading, Hisashi suspected that Kai-kun would return to them, sooner than later.
~MHA~
Shuddering in sheer disgust as he fell into the maintenance tunnels running beneath the roadway – he'd memorized the layout of the surrounding area, so that there would be no chance of him dropping himself into filth if he needed to escape from an altercation – Chisaki slammed his right hand into a nearby wall as he felt the suction from the winds that another of those filthy Heroes he had encountered while he was pursuing Eri could command. Throwing himself through the resulting hole, Chisaki quickly made his way back down towards the tunnels that would enable him to return to Pops' old house. Once he had managed to make it into a nearby tunnel, Chisaki allowed himself to relax for a moment.
True, he was still going to need to bathe immediately after he made it back to Pops' old house, but he had at least managed to escape from those diseased Heroes; the fact that he'd been forced to leave Eri in their hands was infuriating, of course, but Chisaki forced it out of his mind as well as he could.
Kurono was quick to meet him, appearing as soon as he made his way back into the house where Pops had raised him since he was a child, but there was something in his manner that suggested Chisaki wasn't going to be pleased with whatever it was that he had come to report.
"Follow me to the bath, Kurono," he said, already turning to make his way toward the back of the house. "You can speak on the way."
"Of course, Kai," Kurono said, as the pair of them fell into step with each other.
Narrowing his eyes as he heard Kurono's report – heard that Niseko-chan had been the one to knock down the shelving unit on the floor, clearly in an effort to aid in Eri's escape, and just as clearly a result of the "hero syndrome" that had spread in the wake of Quirks – Chisaki sighed as he found himself reflecting on the state of the world as it was. Chisaki supposed that he should have expected something like this to be the case; even someone born free of one disease about in the world could hardly have escaped the far more virulent strain.
Clearly, he would need to be firmer with Niseko-chan, if he was ever going to cure the hero syndrome that the silver-eyed boy had obviously fallen prey to while he'd been alone among the diseased masses.
Making a stop in his room, Chisaki took Niseko-chan by the right wrist, guiding him to the bathing room. Considering what he was clearly going to need to do, to ensure that Niseko-chan came to understand and then to break away from the "hero syndrome" that had spread so completely throughout modern society, the bathing room would truly be the most useful place to have the discussion that he clearly needed to have with the silver-eyed boy.
None of Niseko-chan's actions could truly be blamed on the silver-eyed boy's own character; he'd clearly been forced to live among the diseased masses long enough to be infected with hero syndrome, himself.
Turning his attention to the silver-eyed boy, Overhaul removed his white gloves, tucking them safely into his pockets so that they wouldn't end up getting filth on them while he was disciplining Niseko for his transgression, Overhaul disassembled the boy's arms from the elbows down, watching as the boy stumbled back, staring in horror at the bleeding stumps left behind. Waiting for the boy to fall to the ground, to realize just what he had done that provoked Overhaul to such lengths, Chisaki stepped forward to reassemble Niseko-chan's arms.
Wrapping his own arms around Niseko-chan, Chisaki held him close.
"Don't worry, Niseko-chan, I don't blame you for what you did," he said, holding the pure, silver-eyed boy close, even as Niseko-chan struggled to make himself comfortable. "You've been exposed to the diseased masses for so long, it's no surprise that you developed Hero syndrome, as well."
As he gently rubbed Niseko-chan's back, the same way that Pops would do when he hadn't been feeling well, Chisaki made up his mind. If he truly aimed to cure the hero syndrome that Niseko-chan had been afflicted by, he was going to have to take more drastic measures than he had previously been willing to employ in the past. Slipping his right glove off, Chisaki narrowed his eyes as he concentrated his attention on the workings of Niseko-chan's body.
Severing each and every one of Niseko-chan's muscles from their attachment-points within his body, Chisaki cradled the pure, silver-eyed boy as he went limp.
"You'll be all right, Niseko-chan," he said, patting the boy's head, the same way he could remember Pops doing for him. "I'll take care of you."
~MHA~
After that Villain – Dad had said that his name was Kai Chisaki, but he went by the name of Overhaul – had vanished into the sewers, Izuku, Kirishima-san, Fatgum, and Dad had all made their way back to Uncle Mirai's agency to make their respective reports. Given the amount of damage that'd been caused to their surroundings, Izuku found himself with more paperwork to fill out than he'd honestly been expecting. Sure, most of the damage had been caused by Overhaul's reckless use of his own Quirk, but Izuku still ended up having to fill out a report detailing what he'd seen during the course of their running battle with the Villain.
He also heard Uncle Mirai putting out a call for other Pro Heroes to team up with them, but that was really only natural considering everything that had happened.
Fatgum, Amajiki-san, and Kirishima-san were right there, filling out paperwork with him and Dad, since the both of them had participated in the exact same battle, though admittedly former pair had been more focused on evacuation rather than on battling Overhaul the way Dad and Kirishima-san had. And him, though Izuku would be the first to admit that he'd been more focused on protecting the little girl that Overhaul had clearly been after, rather than fighting the man almost head-on.
Turning at the sound of someone else making their way into the room, Izuku found himself smiling almost reflexively.
"Uncle Toshi!" he called, waving from the table where he'd nearly finished filling out the last of his paperwork.
"They called you in for this case too, Toshi-kun?" Dad asked, smiling himself as Uncle Toshi made his own way over to the table where the five of them were, all in various states of finishing their paperwork.
"As soon as someone got it in their head to call me," Uncle Toshi said, smiling as he made his way over to hug Izuku where he was sitting. "That little girl doesn't seem to be doing so well."
"Yeah," he said, sighing as Uncle Toshi stood back up and the pair of them faced each other again. "She seems really guilty about leaving Niseko-chan behind."
"Yeah," he said, looking down at his lap for a long moment. "She said that Niseko saved her."
"She did," Uncle Toshi said, smiling as he reached out to ruffle his hair. "She said that he tipped over a shelf full of dishes, to keep the man Chisaki had watching her from chasing her when she ran away."
"Yeah, I hope he's all right," he said, turning back to the paperwork he was just about done with.
Once he'd finished filling out the last of the paperwork in front of him, Izuku found himself invited to the conference table, sitting down among not only Fatgum, Kirishima-san, and Dad, but other, more local Heroes. There was also Ryukyu, The Dragoon Hero, who had clearly taken on a pair of students of her own for work studies. Izuku could only be grateful that Tenko-nii wasn't here with them, since Ochako-san was one of the students.
Her and Tsuyu-san, along with Hadou-san, but Ochako-san was the one that Tenko-nii would have focused on the most.
The meeting started up once all of the Pro Heroes who'd been invited were all present, and Izuku allowed himself to relax slightly. Since they had Eri here, the only thing they really needed to do was find out the location where Chisaki had moved his main operation, and then they'd be all set to go. Uncle Mirai had already taken care of alerting the police about Chisaki's presence and Eri's escape, so they had not only a warrant but also a Police presence along with them to make arrests.
~MHA~
He'd finally managed to get young Eri settled down enough that she could get some actual rest, though she was still plainly worried about young Niseko and what might still be happening to him, Toshinori had left her to sleep while he made his way to the changing room so that he could join up with the rest of the Pro Heroes who'd been gathered to break into whatever stronghold that that Villain Chisaki had established for himself. So that they would not only be able to save young Niseko from whatever that Villain might have planned for him, but so that they would finally be able to bring the Villain who called himself Overhaul to justice at last.
Given the way young Eri had reacted – both to the mere mention of his name, as well as the fact that she'd essentially been forced to leave young Niseko in his hands – and the few things that she'd actually said, Toshinori found himself particularly eager to take on this latest task; he wasn't going to let that little boy suffer anymore than he likely already had.
Making his way into the assembly room, newly transformed into the empowered form that One For All granted to him, Toshinori met up with the other Pro Heroes who'd been gathered together in this place; including Stendhal, who naturally seemed to be just as eager as he was to get their present operation underway. When the order was given, All Might found himself running right alongside Stendhal, and when he looked over he could clearly see the tension lacing every muscle of the Freelance Hero's toned body; All Might could more than sympathize.