Today was not a good day for villains.
Very few days were anymore after the League of Villains fell. But today in particular was not a good day.
Why?
Because the hero, Bakugo Katsuki, Ground Zero. Was absolutely pissed.
KABOOM!
"AHHHHH!" A masked villain ran out of a bank as explosions rang out behind him. Screaming in absolute terror.
From the bank, Bakugo came flying out and glared at the fleeing villain who froze in terror. "Hey! Quit running you shitting villain!"
"AHHHHH!" The villain turned and proceeded to keep running. Try desperately to flee from the enraged explosion hero.
Bakugo was ready to quickly catch and dispatch the villain. However,
PEWM
The villain was suddenly hit with a blue laser from above in the chest. And immediately knocked out.
Bakugo's eyes widened in slight disbelief. Was that-
"Hey, Kacchan."
Bakugo looked up and saw Izuku in his Iron Man armor. Flying above him, looking down.
"...Nerd." Bakugo didn't want to call him Deku. But it didn't feel right to call him by his name either.
"We need to talk," Izuku told him.
A few minutes later.
After handing the villains over to the police, Izuku and Bakugo made their way over to a nearby rooftop, to have their long-awaited conversation. Izuku had taken his helmet off, so they could speak face to face.
"Looks like a round face didn't do too good of a job at keeping you away." Bakugo started the conversation.
"Please don't call her that," Izuku asked politely. Giving a heavy sigh as he realized just how much of his patients this would require. "And I already told her about this. It's been...a long time coming."
"...Tch. You're damn right." Bakugo responded.
Afterward, there was a bit of a pause. It having been many years since they last spoke, and both of them not really being masters of communication.
After a few moments passed, it was Izuku who spoke first.
"Just say what you want to say Kacchan," Izuku told him. "I don't want to leave this rooftop with there still being unfinished business between us."
Bakugo stayed silent for a minute, just leering at him, sizing him up, trying to determine how much of the man standing in front of him was the kid he bullied in middle school.
Eventually, he took a deep breath and then started talking.
"I'm sorry." Bakugo bowed his head in apology. "All that shit I did to you...I'm sorry."
Izuku gave Bakugo the same inspecting leer he gave him. As if trying to see if his apology was genuine.
"Alright. I accept your apology." Izuku figured if Bakugo had gone through all this trouble to talk to him, years of attempts, AND he bowed his head. He MUST be genuine.
"...It really was that easy huh?" Bakugo kinda knew that it might turn out like this. Izuku wasn't one to hold grudges. But it still felt extremely anti-climatic. The whole thing just kinda felt...too easy. "You're not even mad in the slightest aren't you?"
Izuku sighed and took a step back from Bakugo. "I...I've been thinking recently about...how I feel about you. And how that's changed over time. I think...I never really hated you for what you did. Sure after you told me to kill myself I kinda didn't really wanna see you again. But even then what felt was more fear and sadness than anger. When Ochaco kept trying to convince me to hate you, I did start to think of you more negatively. But it never really stuck. I just couldn't bring myself to hate you."
"You just can't bring yourself to hate anyone can you?" Bakugo asked him half-jokingly.
"That's not true. I still absolutely despise Overhaul. I literally had him shot to death." Izuku pointed out.
"So all someone has to do for you to hate them is kidnap you, force you to help out criminals, and kidnap and torture a little girl." Bakugo summarized.
Izuku's eyes went wide and looked at Bakugo with a mix of shock and slight anger. "I never told anyone about her being tortured."
Bakugo rolled his eyes. "Oh fucking, please. We both know you wouldn't have killed him if he did anything less. Honestly, I don't even want to know whatever the hell that bastard did to her. Because for you to go THAT far, it must have been something beyond fucked up."
Izuku looked at Bakugo with suspicion, leveling a warning glare at him.
"I know you're hiding something about her too. Something important. Probably the reason that Yakuza bastard wanted her in the first place." Bakugo revealed.
Izuku's glare hardened, and his repulsors started to give off a threatening hum. "That is none of your business."
Bakugo actually chuckled. "You really are new. Here's a tip. Getting pissed about this. Only tells me I'm right. Let me lay it all out. There's a girl, who is not anywhere on the records, that was being kept by the Yakuza, for reasons that are top secret. On top of that, no one knows what she looks like or what her quirk is, and you've been keeping her as far from everyone as possible. Just that first part would have been enough for people to figure that something out. You add that all together, and anyone with half a brain could figure out something with that kid."
Izuku's glare didn't lessen, but his repulsors powered down. As he thought about what Bakugo said, it could be true. In trying to hide details about Eri so much perhaps, he had actually attracted attention to her.
He would have to look into that.
"Psh. Anyway, you're right. It's none of my business and I don't really give a fuck. Just wanted to tell you this before some stupid asshole get's any funny ideas and does something regrettable." Bakugo told him.
"We aren't here to talk about my daughter. Why don't you just say what you want to say?" Izuku said with a firm tone.
"Fine. Stop this Iron Man bullshit. You're gonna get yourself killed." Bakugo said bluntly, but with the same firmness in his voice that Izuku had.
"Oh, not this again!" Izuku was starting to get tired of this. Over and over again people telling him to stop. "I literally just took down an A-rank villain!"
"One A rank villain!" Bakugo refuted. "And you know what. Fine. If you were just some pro, that would be enough. But you're not some pro. Your the fucking richest person on the face of the planet! You have a target the size of your fucking house on you! And now you made it the size of a fucking skyscraper! I know you said we weren't talking about your kid but for fuck's sake think of your goddamn family!"
"As you said, we're the richest people on the planet. There are more people who'd come to us for that than this." Izuku argued vehemently. "And if you've forgotten, I made that money by making some of the most advanced technology on the planet. That includes weapons and defenses, meaning I have some of the best security on the planet."
"U.A. said that shit all the time, and we both know how bullshit that turned out to be!" Bakugo shot back.
"U.A. just said that but their only real defense was the pro heroes they had on staff. Otherwise, their security was terrible." Izuku pointed out. "I actually have a multi-phase defense system with various precautions and safety measures! It's nothing like U.A.!"
"That's not the fucking point!" Bakugo shouted. "It doesn't matter how fucking how great your fucking defense is, if enough people with enough powerful quirks get together, then they'll fucking get you! And you can't fight for shit without that armor."
"So it's all back to quirks again." Izuku glared. "Listen. I don't care what you say! I'm NOT letting them use my tech to hurt people! And I'm done explaining this to people! Until I find every single villain using and selling my tech, I'm not stopping! So shut it!"
"Gahhhh! Fucking fine! You wanna kill yourself fine! I tried! I really fucking did!" Bakugo relented as he got up and got ready to leave.
"Alright! Stay away from me and my family! Literally, all you do is cause arguments and make people angry!" Izuku shouted at him angrily.
Without another word, Bakugo shot out a powerful explosion, launching him off the building and into the air.
Izuku watched him fly off for a few moments, before putting his helmet back on and flying away in the other direction.
Sometime later, at Bakugo's apartment.
"Fuck!" Bakugo shouted as he slammed open his door, before slamming closed behind him. "Goddamn it!"
I had one fucking chance! All I had to do was apologize for all the shit I did, and then explain to him that he needed to quit this Iron Man shit! And I end up shouting at him and pissing him off by talking about his family goodman it! Bakugo seethed.
While Bakugo had improved mentally over the years, most of that was just him becoming more self-aware. He did very little to fix his ill-temper. Which was unfortunate for many reasons.
Goddamn it! I'm such a fucking idiot! Bakugo thought to himself.
Meanwhile, back at Midoriya manor.
"Damn it I'm such an idiot!" Izuku vented to his wife while he paced around his bedroom. "I was supposed to be the calm one! Try and talk things out, so we could go our separate ways without any issues. And what do I do! I lose my cool, and nothing is resolved. GAH!"
Ochaco shook her head and sighed. "It's Bakugo. There's no reasoning with that guy. No matter what you say any conversation turns into either a screaming match or just him screaming at you. Of course, that bastard would apologize and turn around and talk about our daughter. He's just that much of an asshole."
"Ahhhh." Izuku flopped onto the bed. He didn't even have the energy to argue for Bakugo sake anymore. And honestly, he wasn't even sure he wanted to. He was still kinda pissed he brought up Eri and stuck his nose into something that wasn't his business.
"Still, he had a point about Eri." Ochaco felt like she wanted to vomit when she said that. "I hate saying it, but we don't really have the luxury of people leaving us alone and respecting our privacy. If we hide too many details about Eri then people are gonna start speculating, and given what they DO know, what they speculate could be troublesome for us. I'm thinking we could put out a cover story about why she was with the Yakuza. and maybe "leak" fake information about her quirk to the media. It's not like any of the Yakuza are gonna object, they're all dead."
"Ugh. Well, at least something good came out of this I guess." Izuku sighed. "...This wasn't satisfying...at all."
"Well, not everything in life is," Ochaco said as she laid beside her husband. "Not everything goes the way you think it would. I thought I would be a pro hero. But I learned to be happy with where I am...not that it was that hard. You have to focus on the positives. Look at it this way, you actually got him to say sorry. I don't think many people have ever managed that."
"Yeah...I guess." Izuku was still very dissatisfied with how this all played out.
Ochaco stroked his hair. "Come on, perk up. Eri's gonna be upset if you're all mopey when we head to Mighty World tomorrow."
That did make him feel a bit better hearing that. "Right, I almost forgot about that! Chizome is gonna be ready for tomorrow right."
"Actually he took the day off," Ochaco said. "He said he needed to do something personal...Wonder what it is."
Meanwhile, in the city.
In the darkness of an alleyway located deep in the city, two men were discussing something over a suitcase. Both were in trench coats and were obviously trying to be inconspicuous...however one of them had a huge horn coming out of his head.
"Nice doing business with ya." Said the non-horned man, as he quickly walked away after handing the horned man the suitcase.
Meanwhile, the horned man looked at the suitcase gleefully. "With this, no one is gonna be making fun of the Unicorn!"
"I wouldn't hold my breath." Said a gruff voice from somewhere untraceable.
Unicorn instantly became alert and started frantically looking around. "Who is that!? Show yourself!?"
"You're dead." Said the voice.
Unicorn's eyes widened as he realized where the voice was coming from.
He looked up and saw someone diving down at him with two swords, only a couple feet away from him and closing in fast.
Unicorn was barely able to react, jumping back while shooting a laser from his horn at his attacker.
The attacker blocked the attack with one of his swords, before landing on his feet.
Unicorn unleashed a flurry of lasers from his horn towards his attacker. "I know who you are! Stain the hero killer!"
Stain smirked as he dodged the laser blasts, jumping from wall to wall to avoid them. "Good, I've gotten tired of explaining to scum why they're dying."
The hero killer then threw a ball from one of his pouches at Unicorn, who shot it immediately.
Unfortunately for the horned man, when the ball exploded, a bunch of small blades burst out, cutting him as they flew by, some of them even embedding into his body.
"AGH!" Unicorn shouted out in pain, before glaring at Stain and continuing his attacks. "You son of a bitch!"
"Heh." Stain continued to dodge the blast, before holding up his hand, and a circle started glowing on the back of his armored fist.
Suddenly, the blades were pulled back towards Stain, by the magnetic force of his glove.
When the blades came to the glove, Stain licked them, getting the blood onto his tongue.
And just like that, the battle was over.
Unicorn suddenly felt his body freeze, as he was completely paralyzed. He dropped to the ground, the briefcase dropping as well. "What! W-What can't I move!?"
"Heh." Stain slowly approached Unicorn, putting away his second katana, but keeping the first one in his right hand.
"No! No! Getaway!" Unicorn shouted, his voice full of desperation and fear. It was the sound of a man begging for his life. Music to Stain's ears.
"You put up more of a fight than I expected from someone named Unicorn." Stain was now standing over Unicorn. "But you were always going to fall by my hand."
The hero killer looked past Unicorn at the briefcase.
Stain stabbed the katana into the ground, right next to Unicorn's head, before crouching down to pick up the briefcase. "Now what's this?"
His tone told Unicorn that Stain already knew the answer to this. And the smirk on his face as he opened it up confirmed it.
Inside the case was a helmet, made seemingly specifically for Unicorn, as it had a harness for his horn.
"A specialized helmet made to enhance the power of your lasers." Stain explained. "Made by stolen technology from Midoriya Industries. Now, why would a pro hero go through the trouble of buying stolen Midoriya tech on the black market, when he could just pay for it and receive it the normal way?"
"Fuck you!" Unicorn shouted at him.
"Oh right, Unicorn, aka Kuso Tare. Banned from receiving Midoriya Industries technology, after it came to light you were abusing your daughter." Stain smirked as he saw the rage on the face of his soon-to-be victim.
"Those accusations were false! They dropped the claims!" Unicorn argued.
"They dropped the claims because the hero public safety commission paid them off, and told them to keep it quiet." Stain retorted, placing the device on his belt, holding it there using a strong magnet. "And everyone knew it."
"Grrr," Unicorn growled at him.
"Hmm. Growling like a dog." Stain picked his blade back up and raised it over his head. "Fitting last word for someone like you."
Stain swung his sword downward, ready to kill.
BRRRRRRRRR
But Unicorn had other plans. He shot out a powerful beam from his horn, propelling his paralyzed body away from Stain just as the sword was about to cut his head off.
"Tch. Clever bastard." Stain turned around and saw the Unicorn had already zipped out of the alleyway. "Damn it, me and my speeches."
Quickly Stain dashed out of the alleyway, hoping that he hadn't screwed the pooch on this one.
"Help! Help! The hero killer is after me! He paralyzed me! Help!" Unicorn shouted to get people's attention. This was of course effective, as people started panicking and screaming.
Unfortunately for Unicorn, he could only go in one direction right now, so eventually he stopped moving forward once he bumped into a wall.
Stain ran up to the still paralyzed hero, intent on finishing this.
He jumped up, and as he was coming down on the hero with his blade aimed for his head-
KRRRRRRRRRR!
Suddenly Red Riot jumped in and blocked the sword with his hardened body. Saving Unicorn from an untimely end.
Damn it! Stain jumped back before Kirishima could try and counterattack. "Red Riot."
"Hero killer! About time we put you in Tartarus!" Kirishima's fists clashed together, showing off the hardness of his body.
"If you're gonna take me, then you should take that fake there too." Stain said, before taking the helmet and throwing it in front of Kirishima. "If not for the fact that he abused his daughter, then for purchasing stolen goods."
Kirishima looked at the helmet. "Wait a minute...is this-"
PSSHHHHH!
While the hardening hero was distracted, Stain threw down a smoke bomb, obscuring Kirishima's sight.
Red Riot immediately ran and picked up Unicorn, before running out of the smoke.
And when the smoke dispersed, Stain was gone.
Later on a rooftop.
"Fuck." Stain cursed.
This wasn't the first hero that managed to escape him. It was a rare occurrence, but it happened.
And it pissed him off every time.
No time to throw a tantrum. Stain told himself. I have other matters to attend to.
Like his boss going on a little vacation.
Normally he didn't like it when heroes went on vacation, but Izuku had earned it after working so tirelessly for all those months.
And it wasn't just for Izuku. It was for Eri too. That poor girl needed something like this.
So Chizome would make sure that anyone who tried to interrupt this family fun time, would have their head promptly severed from their necks.