"Nejire! Status report!"
"The Ape is still going in the same direction!" Nejire's bubbly voice traveled through their comms device easily, despite the turbulence from her high altitude. Ryukyu cursed her luck. Minutes before she was about to call it for the night, a giant white gorilla appeared and started to charge a straight line through multiple sectors, her own included. "It keeps vanishing into buildings and coming out the other side! But the lights keep popping when it touches them!"
"Right, has it hurt anyone?"
"A few people maybe, when it crushed a car by jumping, or maybe a few when the lights burst, but no, it seems like it's avoiding people."
Ryukyu reached the apex of her flight and turned towards the city. She could barely make out the gorilla as it charged straight through a building, the lights inside going out but no damage being done to the structure itself. Villains came in many different shapes and sizes. Naturally, there were genuine villains that were the bulk of what she dealt with, then there was the panicked confusion of someone activating their quirk for the first time, sometimes things just got heated and people let their anger get the better of them, and then there were the teenagers and kids that for whatever reason wanted to take their quirk on a joy ride.
This white gorilla matched none of the patterns she used to determine how to deal with a threat.
"Right, I'm on my way, see if you can stall it!"
"I tried talking to it, but it roared at me."
So anger was probably a factor.
Tucking her wings in, Ryukyu aimed her entire body towards the target's path and launched herself forward. Dragon Bomb, the name of her super move when she was a first year, was a simple concept: fly up high and use gravity to speed towards a target. Despite its simplicity and effectiveness, she rarely got to use the move.
The ground grew closer by the moment, and soon she could see the white ape clearly. The speed and dexterity of the beast were impressive, even without considering its abilities to simply phase through buildings like they were nothing. The lights going out and how the beast could easily travel across power lines hinted at its abilities being electricity-based.
"I hit it!" Nejire called from her comms. "But it shouted at me and kept running! I'm worried that if I use a full power blast it'll just phase through it."
"Good, keep trying to slow it down, I'll be there in a moment."
Nejire attacked it, but it didn't retaliate.
That didn't help her at all with what she should do about this.
If she approached it, the beast would probably just phase right through her. Unless it couldn't.
"Nejire! Have you seen it phase through any humans?"
"Yeah! Their hair goes up like when you rub a balloon on your hair!"
So there was no way she could stop it.
Stil, she had to try and talk this thing down.
She spread her wings and caught the air, flying right behind the beast. The speed she had built up from the dive was more than enough to match its astounding pace. Using all four of its limbs, the creature ran just like the charging gorilla she had seen in one of the nature documentaries she watched out of pure boredom, knuckles digging into the ground, great powerful arms pushing it forward while occasionally it grabbed onto some form of ledge or powerline to propel its considerable bulk.
People screamed as the beast charged right through them, many injuring themselves to get out of the way, but those that looked like they should have been trampled were just left with frizzed hair.
"Halt!" Ryukyu screeched, her head as close to the ape's as she dared to get. From this distance, she could see bits of blue electricity sparked between the individual hairs along the ape's massive body, giving it a light blue hue that seemed to define itself as a brush stroke outline, and she could see the pain and anger etched onto its face.
Was it crying?
"Stop! Or I'll be forced to—"
She had to dive up as the beast leapt through a building, its body acting like the structure simply didn't exist while the electronics inside went haywire.
"Stop!" Ryukyu shouted again and charged towards the beast. She placed a single clawed hand on the beast's shoulder. It felt like she was licking a nine volt, but she was still grabbing onto it. "If you don't stop, I will have to arrest you!"
It roared and slammed both hands down onto the ground, causing thunder to strike from the cloudless sky, and its speed doubled, forcing Ryukyu back while it charged right towards a large warehouse. Instead of phasing through the building, it destroyed the garage door.
"Fuck!"
"Language!"
"Not now, Nejire!"
Ryukyu circled around the building and then dove down towards the freshly-made entrance and found the beast gone.
Instead, she saw a man standing in the darkness. He was tall, and his skin was a swirling microcosm of colors that looked like living art. A bit of green hair stood from his head, and he was shirtless. She watched as he bent down and picked up a small shining object from the floor.
"Alright, you're calm now, so just—"
The scent.
The scent of blood.
It was so strong in this place.
"Ryukyu?" Nejire's voice asked from the comms. "Are you okay?"
As her eyes adjusted to the dim light inside, she saw the large swaths of blood that covered the floor. Some of it still glimmered around the clothes that had been left behind as though the people wearing them had simply exploded. Her eyes followed the walls and saw blood went all the way up to the rafters.
"Wha—"
She understood the man now.
He had been racing to prevent this.
Or by the tears in his eyes, was racing because of this.
"Ryukyu? Are you okay? I'm almost—"
"Nejire!" She placed her finger to her comms and kept her eye on the man. He was pulling out a phone. "Stay outside!"
It was selfish wanting to protect Nejire, but at same time, Ryukyu wished someone had been around to protect her from this. A scene like this could make even the most stalwart hero quit.
"What? Why?"
"Just listen to me!"
She looked towards the tattooed man, and something about him seemed familiar.
"C'mon Sae," she heard him mutter. "Pick the fuck up."
She took a few steps closer to him, more curious than cautious.
"Izuku?" she heard Sae's tired voice ask through the phone.
"Hey." Izuku pushed some tears out of his eyes, his voice cracking. "You're part of the investigation into the Shie Hassakai, right?"
He turned and looked around the warehouse.
"I want to help." Izuku said firmly, trying to swallow down whatever emotions were bubbling up inside of him. "Tomorrow. I want to meet them tomorrow."
Ryukyu stared at Izuku. He was trying so hard to keep it together.
He paused and looked at the object in his hand. The tattoos along his skin moved about in a frenzy; the ape she had seen charging in here was on his chest, throwing a fit and tearing up the jungle that bled out along his shoulders, while countless crows stormed about in a frenzy. "They killed my grandmother."
Oh. Ryukyu stared at the boy for a few moments and looked towards the blood on the ground.
That explained why he was in such a rush.
"Find them!" he shouted, and the crows on his body began to leave his skin, covering the area in darkness. "Find the ones who did this!"
The crows, little more than shadows, flew in a chaotic pattern before shooting off like a firework of darkness.
Izuku looked towards her and gave a short nod before he started to walk towards the exit.
"Wait." She placed a hand on his chest, drawing his attention. Tears fell freely from his eyes, but there was little more than rage on his face. "I understand you were in a rush to get here, but I need to take you in. You caused a lot of damage on the way here."
He stared at her wrist for a moment before he grabbed it, moving her arm to the side with ease. Physically he was stronger than her, but if she used her quirk, she'd be able to hold her ground until other heroes arrived. "The police know where I live, I'm not hiding." His glare hardened as he leaned in to glare at him. "You're Sae's sister, right?"
"Yeah."
Recollection hit when she finally realized who she was dealing with.
Living Tattoos.
Green hair.
The name Izuku.
The next in line of the Amagi.
No.
That wasn't accurate anymore.
He just said it, didn't he?
His grandmother was dead.
"We're going to want to ask you questions," she said firmly.
"What's there to ask? The Shie Hassakai killed my family. Now get out of my way, and let me mourn."
It was Nejire's gasp that forced her to act. She lowered her arm and ran towards her apprentice, pulling her into a tight hug and doing what she could to ease this horrific memory out of her mind.
As she hugged Nejire, Ryukyu kept her eyes locked onto Izuku's back as he walked shirtless out into the night.
XXXX
By the time he got back to his home, he had stopped crying. Not because he was over Hanabi's death, but because there were no more tears left. His eyes burned, and he wanted nothing more than to find something and beat the shit out of it. Specifically Kai, the acting boss of the Shie Hassakai.
A quirk-erasing bullet.
Plans to erase heroes and put the Yakuza on top.
Kai was a dangerous man, one that Izuku wanted to remove personally.
Wakan, Sho, Ita, Tanaka, Eva, and Ori all stood out front waiting for him. Only Sho and Wakan didn't have cheeks stained by tears, while Ori's make-up was running as she stared at him, hand covering her mouth.
"It's as we feared, then." Wakan looked at his hands, sadness, regret, and anger written on his face.
Izuku held out his hand and revealed the glass souvenir his grandmother had made during her trip. Somehow, it was still whole, despite looking more fragile than Hanabi. "She's gone."
"Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!" Tanaka howled and smashed his head into the wall. "I want to fucking punch something so fucking hard!"
Eva pointed at Tanaka and nodded. "What he said."
"I never thought she could die," Ita muttered, hand covering his mouth, his entire body shaking.
"Well boss," Sho stepped forward, and the tranquil fury on his face was something that put Izuku at peace. "What now?"
Right, he was the boss now.
"Tonight," Izuku paused and took in a deep breath as he looked at his friends and family. "Tonight we rest. Tomorrow, we party to honor her life. Then we'll get our revenge."
One by one, they all nodded.
"Ita and I will let the others know what happened." Wakan said firmly, "We'll honor your grandmother and acknowledge you as the next head tomorrow."
Izuku nodded, "Thank you, Wakan."
He turned towards Sho. Telling him to rest was pointless, given how his quirk was literally called restless. "I want a grave for her, think you can handle that?"
Sho nodded. "I can get that done in an hour."
"Good, spend the rest of your night marking every single Shie Hassakai contact in our territory."
"With pleasure."
Izuku looked towards Ori, and despite the love he felt for her, he couldn't bring himself to smile. His jaw was set into a firm, hard line. He gripped the glass phoenix tight in his hand. "Ori."
"Hmm?" She hummed softly and placed a hand on his bare shoulder.
"I know what my next tattoo is."
"Yeah."