Chapter 12 Festivals and Flight
In some insignificant alleyway, a bright flash of light flared throughout. After the light subsided, a beaten and bloodied woman wearing black and white fell over. She looked around and limped over to the side and sat. Tearing off a bit of her cape, she starts to bandage her wounds. Okay, I have no idea where I am or what's going on, the woman thought to herself. I need to patch up and get info. I don't think I can trust hospitals. After all, since he sent me here, I can't trust anything.
"Come with me," Shoto commanded our resident broccoli headed jelly bean. Izuku curiously followed his classmate to an empty entrance.
"I know you have a connection with Black Lightning and All Might," Shoto started, causing Izuku to flinch slightly. "I don't care what it is, but I will beat you. I don't need pampering from some heroes to win. I will beat you with my own power."
"You may very well be stronger than me," Izuku started. "But I notice you've never used your fire before. Everyone else will be trying their best. Even if you beat most of them, you would be insulting them by not giving it your all."
"I refuse to accept that shi-"
"I don't care about your dad," Izuku said sternly, practically fed up with Shoto's crap. Even after Endeavor was arrested, Shoto never stopped brooding about his dad. He felt for the kid, but the only person Shoto was hindering was himself. "I look at you and see your power. If you use your power for something good, then you will be rejecting your father in that way."
With that, Izuku left, leaving the other boy speechless.
Kuro cracked his knuckles as he got ready for work. He knew nothing crazy would go on at the festival, so he decided to spend time doing more important things. He took advantage of the quirk of the third user of One For All, Illusion Clone. Illusion Clone is a quirk that let Kuro clone himself. The clone was autonomous and could walk and talk, but wasn't actually there. The quirk only made people think that the clone was there. If someone tried to touch the clone, their hand would go right through the clone. As far as he knew, the clone had just arrived at the festival.
Kuro put on his hero outfit and walked out the door. His destination, Hosu.
"Let's welcome Class 1A's player representative, Midoriya Izuku!" Lady Midnight announced. Izuku silently cursed his mentor for pulling some strings because having a speech would "help his public speaking skills". The young man knew Kuro only did it to watch him suffer. But jokes on him, Izuku was prepared.
"As all of you know, we were attacked by villains a couple weeks ago. It was a harrowing event indeed, but it was a wake-up call for a lot of us," Izuku started, staring at one of the billboards right above the audience. "We now know how dangerous villains can be, and we wanted to be ready. We spent the past couple weeks working as hard as we can to get stronger and now, we will prove that we're not afraid. We're ready to take on the world and fulfill our jobs as heroes. We will not go further beyond. We will not go Plus Ultra. We will go even further, and we will prevail."
Silence is what followed the boy's speech. A drop of sweat formed on Izuku's forehead. Was there something wrong with his speech? Did he say something to offend them? As the thoughts whirled through his head, a loud cheer from the crowd almost made Izuku jump. He smiled at the crowd before stepping down.
As Kuro was dashing through the city on his way to Hosu, the memories of the clone flashed through his mind. He smirked as he heard Izuku's speech in his ears. That kid was surely going places, and Kuro would be there to see it all.
"READY, SET, GO!" The loud blaring of Present Mic's voice spurred the students into action. Izuku, Kacchan, Shoto, and a few others dashed ahead of the students, all at each other's toes.
"IT SEEMS THAT ONE OF THE GENERAL ED STUDENTS HAS USED HIS QUIRK TO KNOCK OUT A LARGE MAJORITY OF THE STUDENTS!" Present Mic yelled, almost causing Izuku to look back. He had never heard of such a student with a quirk that powerful, much less one in the general ed class. If someone had a quirk that strong, they would have been put in the hero course. "IT TURNS OUT THIS STUDENT WAS JUST ACCEPTED INTO THE SCHOOL BY RECCOMENDATION JUST DAYS AGO! JUST WHAT MORE DOES THIS ENIGMA KNOWN AS MUSTARD HAVE IN STORE FOR US?!"
Izuku passed another student as he pondered the new student. He's heard the name Mustard from Toga a couple times. From what he knew, Mustard was a shy kid and would react similarly to Izuku when Toga would get close to him. He didn't know anything about his quirk, though. He continued to think to himself as he dashed forward.
"HOW WILL THE STUDENTS DEAL WITH THE FIRST OBSTACLE?!" Present Mic shouted as a fair number of Zero-Pointers appeared and locked on to the students. Izuku hopped his way to the top of one of the robots and kicked himself off, destroying the robot in the process. Wincing as Izuku realized that he had used more power than he had intended, he screamed in panic as he flew over the first and second obstacles and landed on his face.
The unknown woman took a seat in a local bar. She thankfully had her wallet on her, so she was able to pay for the Sherly Temple she had ordered. The bartender took the money and started to brew her drink. Strange, The woman thought. That bartender looks just like Enji.
She took a sip of the drink as she turned to look at the TV. She watched a boy fling himself across an obstacle course, the headline reading "UA Sports Festival live!" The woman stared at the screen. Yes, the sports festival was going on right around the time she had her fight, but she didn't recognize any of the students. Things just kept getting weirder and weirder for the lady.
"Excuse me, miss?" The woman looked up at the bartender who had gotten her attention. "You look like you need some medical attention. Would you like me to take you to the hospital?"
"No thanks, I'm fine," The woman replied. "I honestly don't want to go to the hospital right now. I don't want to cause any unnecessary… problems." For all the woman knew, this was a world created by him, and the hospitals would only prove to be bad for her.
"I see," The bartender looked at her with a surprising amount of understanding. "Well, I know someone who can patch you up on the down low, if you want. He may be a hero, but he's surprisingly empathetic towards… our kind."
"Our kind..?" The woman asked. Right as the bartender opened his mouth to speak, his phone went off.
"Sorry, I have to take this." The bartender put the phone to his ear. "What do you want this time? Wait… you made contact with who? You idiot! Alright, whatever. I'll be there in a couple minutes. You mind if I bring a plus one? You know what? I don't care. Looks like she's in a similar situation to me. No her name is not Magne. Where did you get that? She doesn't even look like Magne. Anyways, I'll be there. Shut up."
The woman looked in confusion as the bartender hung up the phone. "Hey, boss! Kuro's got himself into trouble. Gotta run!" Without prompting, he grabbed the woman and ran out of the bar, launching the two in the air, much to the protest of the woman. She tried to escape using her quirk, but the bartender kept a tight hold of her. "Sorry, pretty lady, but this is important. My friend needs a little help, and if he's in a good mood, I'm sure he'll patch you up without killing you."
Just in time! Kuro thought as a blade sunk into his arm. He had jumped in between Stain and Ingenium, right as Stain was going to strike. Since Kuro had really thick skin from all the times he's gotten cut and beaten during the war, he wouldn't take as much damage as the other hero. "Go, Ingenium! Get out of here!"
"But what about you?" Ingenium asked the number three hero.
"Don't worry about me! I'll be fine!" Kuro shouted at the man. "Now go!"
Ingenium nodded as he used the boosters on his arm to dash away. Kuro then looked the Hero Killer in the eye. "I won't let you kill anyone."
"Why?" Stain asked the man as he licked his blade, immobilizing Kuro. "All you heroes are fake. Treating heroism as a job. As a means for fame and fortune. None of you heroes are real. None of you are like All Might."
"That may be true," Kuro started, his plan already spinning into action. "But even if Ingenium is a fake hero, or even if I'm a fake hero, it is still my job to save lives. Perhaps one day, we can change. I understand how you feel, Stain. I understand how fucked up this society is and how the hero system isn't the best. I know that there needs to be change, but the lives of these 'fake heroes' are still lives, and as a hero, it is my job to keep their lives safe. There does need to be change, but this isn't the way to go about it. Killing heroes will just instill fear, and desperation and despair is the exact opposite of the hope All Might instills in us. I've been working hard to change the hero industry from the inside, without bloodshed. I could really use someone like you, Stain. Please. Join me."
Stain paused for a second. This man. He understood. He could see it in the eyes of this man that he was telling the truth, but he was still in the way. He needed to be eliminated. "You're a true hero, Black Lightning," Stain said respectfully. "If the circumstances were different, I would have allowed you to kill me, but you are in the way. As such, you must die."
As Stain raised his blade to finish off Touya's benifactor, a torrent of blue flames raged towards the Hero Killer, causing him to jump away. Touya and the woman landed behind stain, who turned to face the ex-villain.
"Dabi," the hero-killer sneered. "I don't understand why you're helping a fake like him."
"He's no fake," Touya replied. "He saved my life and gave it purpose when no one else would. He's a true hero."
Stain sneered as he stared daggers at the two. "I'll retreat for now, but if either of you get in my way again, I'll kill you." With that, the hero killer jumped away, quickly leaving his sight.
"Nice of you to show up," Kuro said as he unfroze, shaking his hands and rubbing his wrists. He then looked to the woman and a small hint of shock arose in his face, almost as if he recognized the woman. "And who's this..?"
"Well she's…" Touya blanked as he looked at the woman with confusion as she shot him a glare. "Actually, I don't know. I took her with me on impulse. What's your name again? I never asked."
The woman sighed as she massaged her temples. "My name is Shimura Nana. Now can I finally ask what the hell I'm doing here?"
Kuro's face turned a pale sheet of white that Touya had never seen on the man before. For the first time, it truly looked like the man didn't expect for this to happen. "Well, shit."