Izuku climbed up the rope ladder that Nejire had flown up and kicked down off the back end of the cruise ship. He took mental notes on how she avoided the windows in case they had guards watching the outsides of the ship. Detective Kai had led them up through a nearby alleyway towards the boat so they wouldn't be spotted to begin with, so it was smart of them not to lose the element of surprise.
Reaching the top of the ladder, he blinked in surprise. The ship looked like a… regular cruise liner he'd seen All Might do interviews on, albeit one that had been through the ringer. Shattered expensive-looking liquor bottles and fancy chairs were torn and scattered, the fake palm trees napped and lying flat on the deck. He ran a hand through his hair and took a deep breath. The easy part was over. Everything from here on out was the hard part. He turned around and saw his squad plus the detective climb up themselves. He caught Uraraka's eyes, and they stared at each other for a long moment. He couldn't quite make out her expression, but… he wasn't sure he wanted to right now.
'Focus on the mission. Whatever she thinks of me, whatever I think of myself… it has to wait till after the mission.' His mind flashed through the vision of the betrayed looks of a few of the passengers on the bus, and what hurt worse was the understanding nods some of the others had given him when Nejire had given them directions to the storm shelter. He let out a sigh before someone snapped their fingers in his ear. Spinning around, he saw Nejire giving him what he assumed was her frustrated look. Though to him, she just looked cute and still half-smiling.
"Focus, Deku! We're probably going to need your quirk at a moment's notice. You, me, and Astra are our heavy hitters. The detective can only use his quirk in an emergency like with those people back on the bus. Anima has a support quirk, at least I think it is from what I've read! Earphone Jack has a powerful quirk but it might hurt the people we're trying to save, so I'm going to limit her to hand to hand combat since she can vibrate people with her heartbeat! Any questions on our combat formation and roles?!" Izuku blinked in surprise at her sudden serious tone. She floated around all of them looking them over up and down, reaching over Izuku's head. She pulled his hood up and kept floating around the group, her eyes zipping over the lot of them before nodding.
"Okay. I think we're ready to move, detective—" A knife flew into the middle of their group followed by a sickeningly sweet laugh. A flash of a pink silhouette resembling a woman blinked into existence before being replaced by a red-headed woman with a long, thin blade in her hand. She swung it in an arc towards the detective, who leapt backwards, easily dodging her deadly slice. Izuku leapt towards her, swinging his fist towards her and pushing his control of One For All to the limit. Even with his enhanced speed, he saw her grin and toss a knife into the air.
"You move well, Hero! The boss would probably love to meet, and kill, someone like you!" Izuku's fist made contact with her stomach… and he promptly flew right through where she'd been. Landing and twisting his body to look behind him, he saw her falling towards Jirou. Readying himself to kick off the ground towards her, he already figured out the basics of the woman's quirk based on the knife she was now holding. A spiral of yellow energy almost hit the red-headed woman before she threw the knife towards the deck's bar.
"Guys, she throws an object and she can warp to it!" Izuku looked at Nejire and the detective who both nodded. A pink burst hit the woman as she landed at the bar. Izuku looked at Uraraka as she made a fist and pumped the air.
"Oooh, nice try sweetheart. Trying to guess where I'm going to land huh?" Izuku shuddered as she sat on top of a collapsed palm tree. He got ready to launch himself at her when Nejire held a hand up in front of the group.
"I'll handle her. The rest of you head down below. If she knows we're here, then her allies might start moving their 'merchandise', or worse, execute them." Izuku swallowed as he realized she was right. They needed to get to the trafficked people as quickly as possible to ensure their safety. Who knew what these monsters would be willing to do to them?
"Shouldn't someone stay here and help you, Shockwave?!" Izuku turned and saw Jirou shouting. Koda was shaking as he watched the woman with the numerous bladed weapons spin a knife in one hand while yawning.
"Kid, are you an idiot? Multiple targets means she doesn't know who I'm going after. She might be able to shoot one of those spiral energy waves at me, and that kid in the wizard-looking outfit might be able to nearly touch me, but I'm great at fighting groups, especially inexperienced ones like yourselves." Izuku didn't want to admit it, but it was true. Warp-class quirks were generally great at making people hurt their allies in a fight. But then… why would she tell them that?
"Besides. You others are too slow to entertain me. I'd rather get stuck with the wizard or the cute one." Izuku blinked, thoroughly creeped out by the woman now. Nejire nodded and pointed towards an open hatch that the woman had most likely come out of… maybe. She may have just been waiting for them somewhere out of sight.
"Go! I'll catch up after I subdue her! Remember, this is a rescue mission! If you can get everyone out without a fight, do that!" Izuku took off towards the open hatch, expecting a surprise attack from the woman, but she seemed content to let them reach the hatch. She even winked at Izuku as he kicked the hatch open and let his teammates go through first. The detective jumped down first, followed by a shaking Koda. Jirou shot a look back at Nejire and the psycho woman before sighing and leaping down herself.
"Let's go, Deku! Shockwave's got this!" Izuku looked at Uraraka, determination seeming to radiate off of her. He felt just a tiny bit of the anxiety that had been building since he'd saved her leave him. She reached over and squeezed his shoulder before hopping into the unknown. He hesitated briefly looking at the woman once more who, frustratingly, motioned for him to jump. Shockwave nodded at him as she floated into the air and flew at the woman.
'Trust her to do her job while you do yours. That's what Heroes are supposed to do.' Izuku took in a deep breath before following Uraraka.
Leaping down into the dark hole, he touched down and tucked his knees into a roll before stopping on a knee. Standing up, he heard Nejire and the woman begin fighting above them. The light from the hole they'd just fallen down from barely illuminated a long corridor that looked somewhat like the cruise ships Izuku had seen in movies. Emergency lights dotted the floor and the walls, but they didn't provide much light. As his eyes adjusted, he saw his companions all kneeling near him. Kai looked ahead at the dark corridor, reaching into his coat with one hand.
"Let's move. She's a third year at UA, right? She'll be fine." Kai stood up and adjusted his hat, pulling out a box holding a revolver and flicking it open before nodding and drawing the gun out of it. Noticing Izuku staring at him, Kai smiled and slid both the box and the revolver back into his coat. Izuku stared at him for a moment, irritation quickly filling him as the man so casually wore a smile while he disregarded the danger Nejire was in. Though… he was kind of right. Nejire was a third year in a Hero course, so he believed in her ability to handle that blade-slinging woman. That didn't mean he should so casually say that 'she'll be fine'. She could very easily die; all of them could at this point.
"Okay. Lemme scout around with my quirk really quick." Izuku nodded at Jirou as she ran over to a wall before kneeling down and jamming a jack into it. She nodded a few times before tilting her head quizzically. Pulling her jack out of the wall and silently walking back to the group, she looked around the dark corridor before reporting.
"I only hear a few people moving around further down the hallway, and then it gets muffled beyond that. It's like the whole boat is insulated to prevent sound traveling." Izuku nodded at her; that made perfect sense, actually. If this 'cruise ship' was stopped by any kind of water-based authorities, then they'd be fooled by personnel disguised as partygoers on the top deck. He shook his head as the group started to walk down the hallway quietly.
He glanced at the detective again. His hands hung loosely at his sides as he walked, completely at ease and moving silently despite his apparent lack of concern over the situation. His stride conveyed a confidence that Izuku couldn't understand. They had next to no info thanks to the ship's apparent sound proofing.
"If we run into an enemy, I'll get up close and fight first. I think with my abilities, I have the best chance to avoid an injury and learn what the enemy quirks might be to give us the upper hand," Izuku whispered. An affirmative nod from everyone let him know they were in on the plan. He trusted everyone to know what they needed to do in a fight, especially Uraraka, since she had been able to fight three Nomu by herself.
"If we find an enemy any of us can deal with on our own or, hopefully, that one of us has an advantage against, then we can leave that person to deal with the enemy by themselves while the others push on ahead to try and find the kidnapped people." Uraraka whispered, pointing at Izuku and Jirou. He nodded at Jirou, who blinked and tackled him as a hail of gunfire flew down the hallway. Izuku held up his hand as a bullet nearly hit Uraraka, a translucent wall of force appearing in front of the group. A harsh laugh rang through the hallways as the royal-looking corridor lit up, revealing the ship in all its splendor.
"Surprises abound here! First a tsunami sends a majority of my crew into the sea! Then a brat somehow froze the lock on his quirk-suppressing cell and released my prize bird! Finally, a group of would be Heroes break onto my ship! What a day to be alive! I haven't felt this exhilarated since my first mission!" He continued to laugh as Izuku's translucent shield wall finally stopped wobbling from the gunfire. The man speaking, Izuku assumed as he was the only one in the corridor, was wearing a large brown cloak hiding most of his body. His arm was outstretched though, and Izuku could see a metallic surface hidden beneath torn cloth gloves.
"What's this? I thought at least one of you would have been riddled with holes from that! Wait, are you…? Oh my! The Heroes of Hosu have graced me with their presence. I thought I'd be fighting some run of the mill Heroes while my men and I awaited our evac, but here I see the boy who stopped the Hero Killer and the woman who killed three of those monsters! I might actually have a challenge on my hands this time!" The man bent his elbow and made a fist, squeezing it tightly before swinging his exposed arm wide, making his cloak flutter as he did so.
"Well. Unfortunately, while my men are busy dealing with the… escapees, you'll have to make do with my shadows. You already met Kurayami! She's probably dealing with that blue-haired girl as we speak. My other two shadows will deal with the rest of you while I go grab my prized bird!" The man turned with a flourish, his brown cloak billowing behind him as he walked. He looked over his shoulder as he reached a door, his visage hidden by the cloak's hood, though Izuku could make out the shimmer of silver hair as the light briefly pierced his hood's shadows. He let out one more short laugh before walking through the door. Izuku stood up as the corridor remained lit, his invitation taunting them to follow him through the open door.
"He must be confident if he's going to give us the number of enemies we have to face, though he might have fabricated that he only has two people that can fight us as we follow him. There could be an army behind that door." He felt a hand grab his shoulder and shake it roughly. He turned and saw Uraraka staring at him, a pinky lifted as always so she didn't float him.
"Deku. It doesn't matter whether he's telling the truth or not. We gotta push in as far as we can while our backup works their way here." Izuku nodded, shaking his head as she got him back on track. She was right, he needed to stop trying to analyze everything, especially when people's lives and freedom might be at stake.
They quickly walked through the corridor and reached the door. Deciding that subtlety was out of the question at this point, Izuku kicked the door off its hinges and leapt through, lightning coursing along his arm as he readied a spell strong enough to surge through a corridor before letting it fade.
"Well, there's no one in this corridor. At least not that I can see. Oh, what if they have someone like Invisible Girl? No, probably not, at least they probably wouldn't let someone like that fight on the front lines." Izuku started walking forward, his eyes darting around the corridor as they made their way through the ship unimpeded. Unease started to set in as they silently passed through the entire corridor full of rooms with their doors kicked open, revealing messed up compartments with bed sheets and entire mattresses strewn about each room that they passed.
"Is that where they kept their prisoners? Maybe they rigged the door mechanisms so they could only be opened from the outside? That would probably work on people with quirks that enhanced their appearances, but on the people they sold for combat, that wouldn't be enough…" Izuku shook his head as he muttered to himself. He needed to stay focused, he could feel his guard slipping.
"Pretty analytical, kid! But you're thinking too much when you should have your guard up!" Izuku twisted and saw a black wall swing out towards him. Leaping backwards as One For All coursed throughout his body, he realized he wouldn't make it away from the approaching wall. Both Uraraka and the detective leaped to his aid, the detective pulling off his glove far too slowly to use his quirk while Uraraka held up a hand and made a rotating pink shield that protected the three of them as the black mass slammed into them and sent them tumbling backwards.
Izuku hopped to his feet and saw a shirtless pale man with black hair and crazy blue eyes staring at him. Readying a spell, he reared back when Jirou sent a soundwave at the man, sending him sprawling back into the room he'd just come out of.
"GO! Me and Anima have this. You two follow the detective!" Izuku looked around and saw the detective running ahead of them. He looked towards Uraraka for a moment, who nodded and stood up before following the detective. He turned back and saw Koda standing in front of Jirou. He was shaking a bit, but he held his fists up while she plugged both of her jacks into her amplifying boots.
"Retreat if his quirk counters yours, Jack! Don't forget that backup's on the way!" Izuku hated revealing that to Jirou's opponent, but if they had seen them approaching so stealthily, then they had to know about their backup. Turning around and quickly leaping after his two teammates, he looked over his shoulder as the black substance ripped through the wall and the crazy man started laughing.
"Oh you're fun, sound lady! Let's see you handle this!" Izuku looked away and ran through an open doorway, noticing the immediate change in decor as the decorative interior of the ship gave way to pipes and hard steel walkways. He blinked as he ran into Uraraka's back, her hand swinging around to catch him as he fell backwards.
"Can't see the detective. He must've run further on ahead. Let's move, Deku." Izuku followed her as she walked, tempted to bring up what had happened at the hole in the water. He forced the feeling back down as she held a hand up and a pink light lit up the darkness. They couldn't afford him to be dealing with his drama while they were pursuing a villain.
"Kind of weird that he took off after we ran into the first guy the trafficker warned us about. You'd think he'd at least wait till he knew if Jir—" She shook her head and let out a sigh. Turning a corner, Izuku followed her lead as she picked up her pace.
"—Jack needed help. That guy looked pretty insane, and sounded like it too." Izuku nodded. He hadn't wanted to leave the two of them to deal with that man. Koda's quirk wasn't useful inside of the ship itself, which made him more of a liability than an asset in a close quarters battle. Jirou could probably take him out… if she could find an opening to get close. The detective running off did concern Izuku, especially with how quickly he'd abandoned the battle.
"Well, I'm sure we'll catch up with him soon enough. Hopefully the detective doesn't run into the second guy that weirdo warned us about, but… I have a feeling he could probably handle whoever came his way." Izuku agreed with her. The detective's quirk—assuming it didn't just work on earthen materials, which, granted, was assuming a lot—seemed like it would be useful in combat. Still… Izuku had a feeling that the detective was much more capable than his charming smile led on.
"Are we going to keep going with our strategy from earlier? If we run into another villain, are we going to split up… or are we going to stick together, Deku?" Izuku shook his head while walking up next to Uraraka, his eyes scanning the metallic corridor. While Koda and Jirou sticking together made sense, since Koda himself wasn't the best at fighting, at least from what Izuku had seen of him, both Izuku and Uraraka were heavy hitters when it came to raw power.
"Compared to these villains, they outclass us in terms of combat experience, but with our mag—" He caught himself before he actually said the word and shook his head. Hitting himself lightly in the forehead before continuing.
"With our abilities, we can probably handle any single person by ourselves. At the very least, we can probably turtle up and put up some kind of barrier like you did against the man that made those black walls which hit us. Nice work, by the way. It took me forever to learn how to make a shield with elements, but you did it super quick!" She turned and gave him a warm smile, rolling her eyes playfully at his compliment before continuing forward.
"Thanks, Deku. I agree, though either of us should be able to handle or at least hold off any opponent that comes our way till our backup arrives. Eraserhead can deal with anyone we can't, and everyone else could cover our weaknesses when they get here… not that you have any blind spots, really." Izuku looked at her with a raised eyebrow. He definitely had plenty of blind spots. His close quarters combat really needed work; even with One For All and Minerva's help, he still wasn't great at fighting hand-to-hand. He held up a hand and let electricity, the magical kind, twist and flow around his arm before sighing.
"Astra, I…" He stopped talking as they saw a torn part of the detective's overcoat laying on the edge of a walkway over a room full of cages. Uraraka ran ahead of Izuku and knelt down to touch the coat. She ran her hands through it, pulling out the box that Kai had been fiddling with. Looking at Izuku, her eyes shot wide and she held up a hand, her pads glowing pink before hitting Izuku with a blast that flung Izuku onto his back. Sitting up, he heard a scuffle as Uraraka and a cloaked figure tumbled over the side of the walkway. Pushing himself up, he saw Uraraka's grappling hooks hooked onto the handrail of the walkway. She looked up at him then down at the case on top of a cage.
"Go on ahead, Deku! I'll catch up after I deal with this villain!" Izuku looked down at her and nodded. Worry gripped his heart, but he could hear the telltale sounds of fighting just a bit further ahead on the walkway. Activating One For All and getting ready to run ahead, he pulled his faceplate down and forced a smile onto his face before pulling his mask back up. Hopefully everyone could catch up and help him soon, because if someone was going toe to toe with the detective, Izuku was sure he would need all the backup he could get.
Tomura looked at the woman in front of him, observing her green hair, her cloudy green eyes, and her muscles that were barely hidden by the tightish t-shirt she was wearing. His eyes slid down her frame and took in the All Might picture on the front of the shirt and her black shorts that hung down to her knees, and finally landed on her red shoes. She looked like a female version of Izuku Midoriya. Well, excluding the mask on her face.
"What is this woman doing here, Kurogiri?" He'd tried to dust her the second he'd seen her, only to be stopped repeatedly by Kurogiri redirecting him around the room. He scratched his neck rapidly as his rage began to boil over once again. Who was this woman who dared to wear an image of All Might in front of him? Why hadn't she reacted to his obvious intent to kill her? Most importantly, why did she look like Izuku Midoriya?
"Tomura." Tomura looked at the TV that always read 'no signal' in the bar before walking up to it, looking over his shoulder at the woman.
"That is a gift for you. It's an… Alpha version of the doctor's latest experiments. She's the first to survive the process without dying. Her mental conditioning was proving difficult; she was very strong willed throughout the process, promising to kill the doctor and everyone in his laboratory before being sedated for her surgeries." Tomura stared at the woman, her gaze distant and unfocused, probably due to the tubes in the mask holding some kind of drug.
"Why does it look like a feminine Izuku Midoriya, master?" He heard his master laugh and breath heavily before letting out a cough. Tomura kept his composure as he patiently waited out the coughing fit.
"Well, it was the doctor's idea. Since you seemed so infatuated with the young man, he thought he would give you an improved version as a gift!" Tomura let out a sigh and walked back over to the woman. He didn't like doubting his master, but he didn't think he was interested in Izuku Midoriya because of his power set. Sure, it was overwhelming, but there was something else to it, Tomura was sure of it. He looked at the files he'd taken from Midoriya's high school and middle school.
"Master, I would never turn down a gift from you… though I might turn down a gift from the doctor. But, this woman is currently sedated, correct? How useful could she be to me in this state?" His master stayed silent for a moment, long enough for Tomura to realize that he had muted himself before answering.
"The doctor assures me she is combat ready. She is only sedated because of her strong willpower. His mental conditioning was… too effective, unfortunately." Tomura titled his head at the screen. How could mental conditioning be 'too effective'? He didn't have to wait long for his master to expand on what he meant.
"Using the information you obtained in your investigations, the doctor has been able to induce a familial sense to Izuku Midoriya, that is to say, a true familial sense. She thought she was quirkless until only recently before the UA entrance exams. The girl truly believes herself to be Izuku Midoriya's twin sister in every way… Including her adoration of heroics and that fool All Might. When we told her we wanted her to do, she instantly tried to break out of the facility to warn her 'brother' and All Might." Tomura looked back at the woman standing so silently and creepily behind him. His master let out a sigh that quickly returned Tomura's attention to the TV screen. An irritated groan could be heard faintly in the background, the doctor no doubt.
"Fortunately, she wasn't used to her multitude of quirks yet, and luckily she resembled Izuku Midoriya before our enhancements were used on her, only requiring new eyes to match him for you!" Tomura felt a tiniest bit of joy course through him as his master sounded excited to have created a copy of Midoriya for Tomura. He rubbed the back of his head as he walked around her.
"Couldn't the doctor have just wiped her mind and tried again? Or undone the mental conditioning? There has to be a better method to control her over having her… on whatever drugs you have her on master." He withheld a flinch as his master slammed his hand down on some kind of metal surface wherever he was. He let out an inward sigh as he listened to his master breath heavily behind the screen.
"Of course I tried that Tomura. Do you think I want one of MY weapons against that fool worshipping him like some kind of god?! OF COURSE NOT! But no matter what the doctor tried, it's like… the boys' tenacity stuck in her. Her memories refuse to be altered further, and when the doctor attempted to explain that he'd created those false memories, it was as if she stopped being able to process information until he stopped talking about her origins." Sensing a silence as his master breathed heavily on his end of the communication, Tomura closed his eyes and took in a slow breath. Perhaps it would be best to move on from this line of communication.
"What quirks does she have? I can't imagine you were able to pack a quirk identical to all of Izuku Midoriya's quirks into her, were you, master?" He heard the telltale silence again, telling him yet again that the doctor and his master were discussing something without him. He resisted the urge to reach up and scratch his neck, a bad habit of his that showed his irritation to everyone around him.
"Unfortunately no. We had to sacrifice several common quirks we would usually put into our Nomu to fit the ones resembling Midoriya's abilities into her. She has no regeneration, though our enhancements have toughened her significantly, and she has a heightened natural healing ability, though not one nearly strong enough to heal any significant or life threatening injury." Tomura nodded looking back at her as Kurogiri handed him a folder of this copy of Midoriya, a quiet relief filling him as he heard his master resume his normal tone. Flipping through and noting the varied elemental quirks she had, he blinked rapidly, surprised that his master had been willing to part with so many quirks to give him a gift like this.
"Her mask must remain on, Tomura. I cannot overemphasize this. Kurogiri will give her all the nutrients her body requires through a syringe. She is immeasurably dangerous, and it took me not an inconsiderable amount of time to convince the doctor to wake her up at all. If she were to ever break free from our control… well, the most likely course of action she would take would be to return to either her mother's side or to run to UA to find All Might." Tomura nodded looking back at the woman staring straight ahead. He already knew what his master wanted before he even said anything about it.
"You want Izuku Midoriya to fight his feminine copy, don't you, master? To see which one is better?" He heard his master laugh again, not followed this time by a coughing fit. If he listened closely, he could hear the doctor telling his master that was exactly what he needed to see.
"Her name is apparently Izumi, and yes Tomura. I'm sure you can figure out a way to make Izuku Midoriya fight his copy before a week passes. I'm confident in your ability to cause conflict, Tomura. She will follow your orders the same way as my Nomu during the USJ did. Good luck, I expect great things from you." The TV turned off and left Tomura alone with Kurogiri and this copy. He scratched his neck before sighing and grabbing a hoodie, taking off his hand and heading out.
"Kurogiri… Midoriya, follow me." He heard the telltale sign of Kurogiri warping next to him as well as the light footsteps of his new weapon falling in line behind him. He had a surefire way to get Izuku Midoriya to fight his 'twin' and show his master that a pale imitation was no match for the real thing. Though, he had an unusual amount of anxiety building in him. Perhaps this would drive a wedge further between him and Midoriya when they finally met. He shook his head. His master had his best interests at heart, Tomura knew it. He steeled himself for what was coming. The league's leader couldn't be weak-willed.