"Kneel."

His body began to move on its own, his own autonomy being brutally stripped away from him and being replaced with Hitoshi's will. A thick fog covered his mind, making even his own thoughts feel like they were just fleeting images at the edge of his vision keeping him locked in an endless maze of half-ideas.

There was a trap.

A double cross?

A leak?

Luck?

How did?

Why?

Since when?

Escape.

Escape?

Escape what?

Didn't matter.

Escape.

Break free.

Get out.

Freedom.

Anger.

Revenge.

Concepts swirled in the fog, clashing against each other and creating thoughts and ideas at random. Will alone wouldn't be enough to break out of this. Was this how he died? Brainwashed by his friend and watched as someone slit his neck?

Pain surged through his face, and he became very aware of the giant light blue palm that had been slammed into his face and the surge of electricity that had his hair standing on ends. Compared to the fog, the pain was a blessing. Raijin removed his palm from Izuku's face, and despite blood falling from his nose, Izuku smiled.

Even if Hitoshi could brainwash his body, his tattoos had a will of their own. And there was no way that Raijin would ever be content with such a lackluster ending.

Izuku locked eyes with Hitoshi and stood, the pure satisfaction of open defiance and the rage he felt at Hitoshi's betrayal made for a potent mix of emotions. Things made sense now. Hitoshi hadn't grown distant because of school stress, he had figured out Izuku's relationship with the Amagi and had simply played the role of friend for the time being.

"Impressive." Hitoshi said loudly, his hands gripping the railway so hard that Izuku could see the white of his knuckles. "Truly, you had a quirk worth being a hero. All you needed was someone to support you. I didn't have that."

The urge to shout at Hitoshi was strong. Hitoshi simply had a knack for getting people to react to them, but anything that was said to him could be used as a weapon to activate his quirk. The raw power of Hitoshi's quirk made it simple to imagine how he had managed to become the leader of the Tokyo Clan.

He wiped the blood from his nose and flicked it onto the ground.

Despite the situation. Despite the two large goons. Despite the dozen or so Tokyo Clan members all armed with high tech support items. Despite Hitoshi.

Izuku found himself smiling.

"Saruto! Nasuke!" Hitoshi's voice had a powerful, commanding aura even when he wasn't using his quirk.

The two large goons began to grow their quirks, enlarging their bodies and making their monstrous physiques even more gruesome and savage-looking. The one on the right had a massive shark-like head and grey skin, while the other looked like a giant werewolf with extremely elongated ears.

Hitoshi snapped his fingers. "Take care—"

Raijin burst from Izuku's shirt, tearing it off of him with a single explosive burst of raw power that shook the building as a whole. With a mighty punch, Raijin sent Tanaka flying into the wall that silenced the whole room. The great ape rolled its massive shoulders and electricity began to arc off of his back.

Not to be outdone, Hisashi leapt from Izuku's other arm and slammed down onto Sho, swiping his tongue across Sho's head and giving him the mother of all cow-licks.

Shade emerged calmly at his side, the dull look of unbridled fury that only a cat could muster directed right at Hitoshi.

"Get him!" Hitoshi shouted, and Nasuke and Saruto began to charge.

Raijin slapped the ground with the sound of thunder and met the shark-headed one's charge with the roar of a thunderstorm. Despite Raijin's relatively smaller size, the shark was not only stopped in his tracks, but was pushed back by Raijin's primal charge.

That just left the wolf.

Shade wrapped one of her tails around Izuku's leg, pulling him into that ethereal form that would allow him to effortlessly avoid the wolf's tooth-filled charge.

If it ever happened.

A Tanaka-shaped missile slammed into the wolf's side, stopping it completely.

"Not today Nasuke! You're mine!" Tanaka roared. A guttural laugh erupted from Tanaka as he pulled back a giant red fist that sent the wolf a step back. It was nearly impossible to tell where Tanaka's quirk ended and where his impressive physical physique began. Maybe the two were one and the same.

Izuku glanced over to Sho and saw him standing up from Hisashi's tackle, a disgusted look on his face as he glanced around.

"Tanaka!" Izuku shouted and kept his eyes off of Hitoshi. He didn't know how Hitoshi's quirk exactly worked, but there was a good chance that the person had to actually talk to Hitoshi, otherwise Tanaka would have instantly been under control again.

Or he was walking into Hitoshi's trap.

Again.

"Don't talk or they'll brainwash you!"

"But you just did?"

"Tanaka!"

"Fine! No talking!"

The shark, who Izuku could only guess was Saruto, bit into Raijin's arm, its multiple razor-sharp teeth tearing through Raijin's thick head and making Izuku flinch as the sensation was sent back to him. Though if he was honest, Ori's love bites hurt more. With a roar, Raijin began to slam his hand into the side of Saruto's head. Every blow sounded like thunder, and already Izuku could see Saruto begin to regret his choice of chomping on a lightning ape.

Tanaka's own fight felt like it should have been one-sided. With the sheer bulk and size that Nasuke had, he should have been able to completely overpower Tanaka, but he wasn't.

"Ha ha ha!" Tanaka roared with laughter as he grabbed onto Nasuke's wicked claws and twisted him into the air. His jacket had split down the back, unable to take Tanaka's exertion for more than a moment. "Ha Ha Ha!"

Why was he laughing?

It was kind of creepy.

"Why are you laughing?" Hitoshi spoke.

"HA HA HA!" Tanaka's laughter grew with each passing moment.

"Fucking smartass!" Hitoshi tossed his arm to the side and looked at his underlings. "What are you guys waiting for? Get the support items and put them to use!"

"Right boss!"

"What about Saruto and Nasuke?"

"Get out of there, you two!" Hitoshi shouted.

Izuku couldn't help but smile at the panic on his former friend's face. He was still new to this whole leading thing, and the pressure was probably getting to him. Not that Izuku had much room to speak. All things considered, he was just standing around watching Tanaka and Raijin fight.

He had no idea what those support items could actually do, and part of him didn't want to bother finding out.

Izuku turned to Sho and looked at the Detnerat employee that was still dazed. With a small nod, Sho grabbed the case and began to pull the employee out of the warehouse. It would be a bad idea for their contact to die, especially if both the loot and cash weren't around.

A charging sound brought Izuku's attention up towards one of the Tokyo Clan goons. The Support Item that he wielded looked like a high-tech gun with a large speaker on the end. It fired with a sound that consumed all the other sounds around it with a low hum.

Shade wrapped its tail around Izuku, once again drawing him into that astral realm just before the blast of sound hit him. Despite Shade's protection, the weapons attack still tore through Izuku. The sound alone was enough to make his ears scream and his stomach churn. Joints popped, vessels strained, and ears cracked. It hurt. A lot.

But the worst part was the nausea that followed.

His insides had been twisted, and he couldn't even feel which way was up and down anymore. It was almost enough for him to beg for Hitoshi's fog once again, if only to escape his own body.

If he had time to think, he would have realized that sound-based attacks would be able to get him even with Shade's ability to phase through objects since he could still hear and see while in that mode. Such a lame way to get taken out.

He stumbled, clutching his stomach and covering his mouth as fresh blood pour from his nose and possibly his ears as well. His vision blurred, and he heard that charging noise again.

"HA HA HA!" Tanaka's obnoxious as fuck laugh tore through the ear-piercing silence that had followed that blast. With a roar, Izuku found himself being thrown out of the warehouse by one of Tanaka's large red hands just as another blast hit.

Izuku hit the ground hard before Hisashi caught him and softened the blow just enough to stop him.

"Tanaka?" Izuku muttered, barely able to keep his mind together. Tanaka had taken a direct blast. But he still stood, blood poured from his ears and nose.

"HA HA HA!" Tanaka continued and turned to face the entire Tokyo Clan force. His shirt was in tatters after the first blast.

"Fire! Everyone! Fire everything!"

Izuku felt his heart drop as he heard that same charging sound once again rising in crescendo as multiple of those Support Items began to fire on Tanka. The first one hit Tanaka, and he stopped in his tracks.

Thunder without sound tore through the entire area as Tanaka was hit again and again by the support items. One blast had nearly killed Izuku. Two would have made him wish for death. A third? A third would have been instant death.

But Tanaka had taken a dozen or more of these blasts all firing in succession.

This was it.

This was how Tanaka died.

"HA HA HA!" Tanaka's laugh tore through the silence. The dust began to settle as the weapon fire slowed. Tanaka stood undaunted. Unmoved. Still alive. "HA HA HA!"

The tattered remains of Tanaka's clothes fell to the side, and Izuku saw full in the first time the tattoo Ori had given her brother to protect him. At that moment, he understood why Tanaka never took his shirt off around other people.

A gigantic oni skull covered Tanaka's back and even reached up around his massive shoulders. Its pure porcelain-white bone seemed unnatural against Tanaka's deep red skin. The details were immaculate; small cracks lined the skull, and the teeth were as red as the horns that jutted out from the skull. A long snake-like dragon slithered around and through the skull, going through its mouth and eyes and glaring at whoever dared to look at it. Dead flower petals surrounded the base of the skull.

Despite all of this, the art did not inspire awe, nor did it inspire beauty.

No, it inspired something so much more primal.

Fear.

This was Ori's attempt to protect her older brother. A grief-fueled tattoo that would make everyone too afraid to fight her brother.

"Izuku," Sho pulled him up by the arm. "You alright?"

"I'll live." Izuku muttered, still staring at Tanaka. He seemed to be larger than life right now. An almost golden aura seemed to surround him. "Is he?"

"He's Tanaka." Sho answered. "He'll complain about hurting tomorrow, but he won't lose. Now let me treat your wounds."

"But there's still—"

A few screams of terror joined Tanaka's laugh as the Tokyo Clan began to run. Only one at first, then it snowballed, and soon even the two large goons Nasuke and Saruto were running away from Tanaka at top speeds. Hitoshi was the last to run, as he took the time to glare at Izuku one last time.

The look said that cliche phrase that Hitoshi was too prideful to say: this wasn't over.

Izuku attempted to conjure a crow and have it follow Hitoshi, but only managed to greet the darkness.

XXXX

Izuku stared up at the stars and glared for a long time. There were a lot of things that he had learned yesterday, a lot of things that were going to affect what he did and didn't do in the future. His inability to put a crow on Hitoshi was annoying, but he had a feeling he'd find his friend again soon.

Ori was resting her head on his shoulder while Eva's head was on his lap. Both of them had shown up to comfort him.

But he didn't need comfort.

He needed answers.

Did Hitoshi feel betrayed that Izuku turned out to be a member of the Amagi? What was with that ambush? Did someone leak their deal?

There were so many things he didn't know.

He sighed for the tenth time in the last five minutes and closed his eyes.

What was he going to do?

"Well?" Hanabi asked as she approached him, her arms folded up in her usual kimono. "You just found out your friend is the leader of the Tokyo Clan, and apparently he's not willing to pull punches. What are you going to do about it?"

Izuku stared at her for a few seconds and then shrugged. "I really don't know. What do you think?"

"The only advice I can give is to do what you want and fuck everything else." Hanabi swatted his question to the side with all the ease in the world. She sat next to him with a sigh that made all of his worrying appear pointless. "What you're going through sucks. Most people will say that death is the worst thing that can happen to someone you care about, but those people have never had a knife in their back."

"So, what?" Ori asked, leaning up to join in the conversation. "I mean, are you just telling him to give up on Hitoshi?"

"Who knows, I'm old, bitter, and a bit crazy." Hanabi waved her hand and cracked a grin. "Believe me, I know many things about revenge. There's no greater peace of mind than an absolute victory, but only if you're prepared for it."

"So what do I do?" Izuku asked again. "I mean, should I go out and find him?"

"We have options." Hanabi winked. "Unlike us and the Shei Hasakai, the Tokyo Clan never really had a relationship with the police; they were too decentralized for that. Now that they have a leader, it would be easy for us to give them his name and let the police handle it."

"I…" Izuku pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a sigh. "I don't think that's a good idea."

"Why?" Ori asked. "Hitoshi didn't even bother trying to talk to you. He basically tried to murder you." She pulled out her needle and grinned at him, her red eye giving off a dangerous glow. "I want to give him a tattoo. On the eye."

"Well, it's just… I know me and Hitoshi can be friends, right? When we only knew each other as fellow students and not as Yakuza, we were fine. I don't see why we can't do something with that. Like. The Tokyo Clan has been aggressive with us; it feels like Tanaka spends more time fighting them off than anything."

Hanabi nodded. "Indeed, peace with them would be nice. And more possible now that there's someone actually in charge. But it sounds like this Hitoshi guy is upset with you, and with what you said of his quirk, it's going to be impossible to even talk to him."

Izuku groaned and closed his eyes again. "This sucks."

"Yep." Hanabi laughed and then nudged him in the side. "You wanna know what doesn't suck?"

"Me?" Ori asked. "Oh wait. No I do."

"Down girl." Hanabi glared.

"What?" Izuku asked, smiling at Ori's dirty joke. Eva just looked at him with a curious look. Her red hair was slowly getting longer.

"Skydiving." Hanabi laughed and nudged him in the arm again. "Wanna go? Figure you could use a vacation."

"Has anybody ever told you you're like the coolest grandma ever?"

"Yes, but you have a good decade of compliments to catch up on, so keep it up."

AN: Tanaka logic = Can't talk if I'm laughing.