"In other news, reports of a gang of masked vigilantes attacking criminals in the dead of night are on the rise—"
A family of five sat around a dinner table, the father paying close attention to the TV just across the couch.
"— Furthermore, reports from these criminals have stated that the vigilantes do not fight with quirks, but rather guns and melee weapons, and it has sparked conspiracy theories that they are, infact, quirkless."
"Ok, there's no way she's following me, I'm thirty feet away from the dock and there weren't any other boats, I'm fine," a panicked gang leader quietly reassured himself.
He and his stash of Trigger were perfectly safe.
"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Umi smugly stated. She was soaking wet and her mask was a little crooked but she was scary all the same.
"You guys just never give up do you?" He asked.
"Nope." Umi thrust her trident out and stabbed into the man's arm, before grabbing the side of his head and slamming it onto the boat.
Umi snatched up his briefcase and tossed it into the water, watching it slowly sink, then pressed a button near the top of her trident and jumped into the water, being launched forward by a small propeller on the bottom of her weapon.
"Rest assured, we are doing everything we can to catch these vigilantes!" The president of the HPSC, Hiro Matsunaga, announced to the gaggle of clamouring reporters outside the HPSC headquarters..
"Mr. Matsunaga! Mr. Matsunaga, can you confirm that these vigilantes are in fact quirkless?" A blue skinned reporter asked.
God this whole situation was a mess, even Aizawa couldn't capture these quirkless nothings. Hiro really wanted a drink right now.
"No comment."
"Look dude do you have the goddamn Trigger or not?!"
"I only have the Trigger if you have the money!"
The buyer groaned as he turned around and moved some trash cans to reveal a leather suitcase, opening it up to reveal a few rows of cash stacks.
The two were about to trade, when a dart slammed into the dealer's neck, causing his briefcase of Trigger to fall from his fingers.
"Bedtime," the dealer murmured, before falling to the ground snoring.
The buyer looked around from the left to the right, he then tried to bend over and take the Trigger, but he also got a dart to the neck.
Zen chuckled as moved his sniper rifle from the edge of the building and placed it in his back. He then stood back up and left the roof.
Aizawa grunted as he chucked his glass at the wall, shattering it into a million pieces that he'd have to clean up later.
Not only had he lost these vigilantes twice, once even on his own fucking turf, but now he's gotta hear about them on every news station imaginable.
Nemuri just stared at the television with glossy eyes, focusing specifically on the artist's rendition of the mask the vigilantes wore.
Hizashi had no idea what to do: Aizawa was angry, which he had never seen in the span of their friendship; and Nemuri was just quiet and sad, again something he had never seen.
God he hopes this'll all be over soon.
Kesseki ran into a dead end, groaning as he heard the hero chasing him skid behind him.
"In the name of the law, I order you to come quietly, vigilante!" Ingenium yelled boldly.
"I have a name you know, it's Stone!" Kesseki shouted back, offering up his wrists, his shotgun was unloaded, and with how fast Ingenium was, there'd be no way he'd load it in time.
Hell the only reason he got this far was because he kept ducking into alleyways and making the hero slam into walls at thirty miles an hour.
"It doesn't matter what your name is. You're in our custody now," Ingenium said as he slapped the cuffs around Kesseki's wrists.
Kesseki smiled under his mask, "Am I?"
Kaen slammed his hammer into the back of Ingenium's helmet-clad head, knocking him out.
"Get bent bitch boy! Come on brother!"
"Inferno, cuffs."
"So, next topic: it seems like all of Japan has been buzzing with talk of quirkless vigilantes, is it true, who fucking knows. But personally I think it's pretty damn cool."
A woman slowly turned up the volume on her car's radio, she was stuck in traffic anyway.
"Let's move on to some calls shall we?"
"If those vigilantes really are quirkless then they need to learn their damn places an—"
The radio guy hung up, "O-Ok, let's end that real quick. Maybe we should try another caller."
"Dude, all of it's true. These guys saved my class from a villain attack just about a week ago, and they did it without quirks!"
"Kaminari, hang up that phone!"
The line went silent.
Teki slammed the Trigger dealer face first against the wall, gripping his wrists tightly and spreading his legs with her foot.
"I don't know whether to be scared or aroused," the dealer chuckled.
"Say something like that again and I'll blow your hands apart," Teki threatened.
"Definitely scared," the dealer choked out as he was pushed further into the wall.
"Tell me where your stash is," Teki ordered.
"It's in my car, now will you let me go?"
Teki obliged, but not before bashing him in the back of the head with her elbow, stealing his keys, and taking his car to a secure location to dispose of it.
"Uh, hold on, we have just been sent footage of one of these vigilantes in action."
Setsuna turned away from the dishes and poked her head into the living room where the news was playing. A picture in picture video on the left hand side of the screen showed Izuku fighting a four on one fight in an empty sidewalk.
Naturally Izuku won the fight, he held his weapons deftly in his hands, and turned around slightly, making eye contact with the camera man, causing her to let out a small scream and run the other way.
Setsuna smirked as she dropped her chin into her hand, now that she wasn't super pissed at him, she could really appreciate just how hot he looked while he fought.
Izuku screamed as he hacked a thief in the shoulder with his hatchet, forcing him to scream out a cloud of frost.
Izuku was then bashed into the wall next to him by the other thief, who had turned his fist into a massive hammer. The masked boy pulled his gun and blasted a hole into the man's hammer hand, causing him to scream out in pain as well.
Standing back up, Izuku spun around on one heel and knocked the thief out with a roundhouse kick. He took one of their phones and called the police, before tucking away his weapons and mask and leaving the alley.
"Let's go old man!" Izuku called as he hoped in the front seat of Dimitri's van, "I got what I came for."
Izuku hummed to himself as he finished loading his gun, his mask perched upon the top of his head.
"Why have we been targeting Trigger specifically?" Umi asked, "I mean it feels like almost all of the jobs we've done so far have been related to it."
"Well it's got a kind of comedic irony, the quirkless people destroying quirk enhancing drugs," Teki chuckled.
"While that's true, It's not the reason that we're targeting it. This shit is dangerous, we can't just let it run wild," Izuku answered.
"So I'm assuming whatever we're doing here is related to Trigger?" Kesseki asked.
"Yep," Izuku smirked as he pulled open the sliding door. The van was parked in a large, derelict street, lined with rows and rows of warehouses.
"Oh I remember this place," Dimitri fondly recalled.
"What happened here?" Kaen asked.
"This is where we did our first job! Memories, right Izuku?" Zen smiled.
"Yeah totally, I got shot through the shoulder and then in the back with a double barrel shotgun. Memories…" Izuku sarcastically said.
Zen rolled his eyes, "Alright whatever man, I had fun."
"When did I say I didn't?"
"So, I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that one of these warehouses has something to do with Trigger?" Teki asked.
"Correct, three warehouses down is a trigger factory. You, Izuku, and Kaen are gonna clear the building out, while the rest of us set up charges around the warehouse to bring it down," Dimitri explained as he pulled a crate of C4 out of the passenger seat.
"Well, Joule, Inferno, shall we go?" Izuku smiled as he flipped his mask down.
"Oh we absolutely shall, our fearless leader Jigsaw," Kaen said.
The three creeped over to the side door of the warehouse, stopping only to knock out two well-dressed guards. Once they opened up the door, they were assaulted with a foul, unidentifiable stench.
Izuku and the others moved through the warehouse silently, avoiding any guards they couldn't silently take out and silently taking out any guards that they couldn't avoid.
Until they came across a large assembly line, women and men stripped down to their underwear and silently working.
Kaen jumped out behind the boxes they hid behind and wrapped his hammer around the single guard's neck, choking him to unconsciousness then letting him slump against the ground.
Izuku stood up and walked over to the assembly line where he could look one of the workers in the eyes.
She was blind.
They were all blind, just blankly staring out into space, they worked with such precision though, it was almost like they could see what they were doing anyway.
"Here's an idea you morons, how about you stop telling me how to do my job!" A voice yelled.
Izuku quickly motioned for Kaen and Teki to follow him after him, moving over to another bunch of boxes to hide behind.
A man in a suit with slicked back blonde hair and a five o'clock shadow, stood facing a couple of black-haired guys who looked like thugs.
"Well stop telling us how to do ours and we'll stop telling you how to do your's," one of the thugs bit back.
The man in the suit rubbed his temples, "Your job is to produce Trigger for our operatives, and we won't shut down this whole thing. Or are you too stupid to remember that?"
"We're making your goddamn Trigger, but we can't get it to you with these assholes running around and destroying our product. Maybe if we had some of those HPSC operatives you love to brag about so much to protect us, we wouldn't have this problem!" the other thug shouted.
The man in the suit looked like he was about to rebuttal, but he was silenced by Teki shooting a few bullets at the roof, which also sent all the workers on the assembly line running.
"Wow, we have really learned some interesting stuff today," Kaen said as he slowly clapped.
"Who the hell are you?" The man in the suit asked.
"Oh, well I'm Jigsaw, that's Inferno, and she's Joule. We're here to fuck up your little drug trade," Izuku replied, before pulling his gun and firing off two shots. One of them hit the shoulder of a thug, and the other lodged its way into the kneecap of the second.
"A fuck, that was my second favorite knee!"
"I suggest you three come quietly," Izuku said as he pulled out a zip tie and wrapped it around the wrists of the man in the suit.
They flung open the front warehouse door and threw the three criminals to the ground, before going back in and dragging all the unconscious guards out of the building.
"Is the place ready to blow?" Izuku asked.
"Yep, all that's left is to pull the trigger," Dimitri nodded, handing Izuku the detonator.
Turning back to the two thugs, Izuku grinned before saying, "Better take a good look boys, cause all you've been working for is about to go up in smoke!"
His thumb pressed down the button.
Several explosions went off around the warehouse, bringing the building to it's knees in a glorious display.
Unfortunately, Izuku was too close to the explosion, and he was knocked back by the blast. He groaned as he pushed himself up on his knuckled and looked up, seeing his mask laying by the feet of the man in the suit.
"Oh, you've made a big mistake kid."
"Izuku! What's wrong?" Setsuna asked as she burst through the door of his apartment.
"I messed up big time."
The windows were locked and had furniture blocking it, and his couch had clearly been moved in front of his door just a few seconds ago.
Setsuna took his hands in hers, "What'd you do?"
"We did a job last night, and someone saw my face," Izuku panickedly explained, "I don't know who he was big he looked important, and I think he was from the HPSC."
"But there's no way they could find you right? You didn't put your real name down when you got this place did you?" Setsuna asked in an attempt to calm him down.
"It's not me I'm worried about, what if they send someone after my mom to get to me!" Izuku wondered aloud.
"Why would the HPSC do that?"
"Because they're working with the people that make Trigger, I heard it myself!" Izuku yelled.
Setsuna sighed, she didn't completely believe Izuku, but she knew that this was also a good opportunity to help him.
"Then what are you doing standing her, you need to go and make sure she's ok," Setsuna said urgently.
"I-I'm not ready to face her."
"Where's the confident Izuku that I knew, the one that tricked a bunch of villains and stopped their attack?"
Again, Setsuna didn't fully believe that something was going on with the HPSC, but Izuku needed to have a talk with his mother. He couldn't just keep avoiding her.
Izuku stared at her for a few seconds, before grabbing his mask, "I'll be back in a bit," he said before pressing a kiss to her lips.
Unexpected, but certainly not unappreciated.
"If Zen comes over, just tell him to fuck off. I'm not letting him ruin my kitchen again!"
"Kayama!" Inko greeted enthusiastically as she opened the door.
Nemuri gave a half-hearted wave back, she had been dreading this day since the USJ incident. She had no clue how Inko was gonna react to Izuku putting his life on the line everyday, but she knew it wasn't going to be good.
"Kayama, is something wrong?" Inko asked.
"Midoriya… I have something to tell you: It's about your son," Nemuri solemnly answered.
Inko's hands flew up to cover her mouth, "Oh god, is he ok?"
"Izuku's fine, but…" Nemuri stalled as she and Inko sat down around the table.
"Midoriya, he's—"
Nemuri was interrupted as the door was kicked open, and the two were surrounded by four men wearing gas masks and black combat uniforms, as well as a fifth who was also wearing the black combat outfit, but he also wore a dark red beret.
"Ms. Inko Midoriya. My name is Special Agent Hōshō, you are under arrest for the suspected harbouring of a wanted vigilante," the man in the beret said.
"Uh...Kayama, what's happening?"
"I don't know," Nemuri whispered.
"If you do not come quietly, I am afraid we'll have to use force!" Hōshō ordered.
Nemuri shot up from her seat and was about to let her quirk loose, when Hōshō dropped to the floor unconscious.
Izuku stood behind him, wearing his Jigsaw mask a silver revolver held in his hand, "Shut your fucking trap," he spat.
Izuku ran forward and grabbed a chair, before smashing it over the head of the agent closest to Inko, then fired off a bullet for each of the remaining agents, one in the shoulder, one through the thigh, and another through the stomach.
If that didn't knock them out, him going around and drilling his thumb into their bullet wounds certainly did.
"...Sorry about the chair madams," Izuku said, making his voice deep and gravely.
Nemuri stayed silent, she simply walked up and grabbed the back of his hood, pulling it down to allow his hair puff out.
"Damnit," Izuku whispered in his normal voice, turning around and moving his mask to the top of his head. He stood there waiting for his mother to yell at him, but it never came.
"IZUKU!" Inko cried as she ran forward and wrapped her arms around him, "Oh, I'm so happy you're safe!"
"You're... You're not mad?" Izuku asked.
"Oh I'm so unfathomably furious, but it's outweighed by how happy I am to see you," Inko sobbed into his hoodie.
The mother and son embraced each other until the latter pulled away, "You need to get out of here, you need to move to somewhere safe because they want to use you to get to me."
"They who?" Nemuri asked.
"The HPSC."
"That's ridiculous, what proof is there that—" Nemuri silenced herself when Izuku rolled over one of the unconsciousness agents and ripped a large piece of black tape off the back of his uniform, revealing the words HPSC in bright red.
"What the…"
"Trust me, I was just as surprised." Izuku said.
"O-Ok, I have a place. It's registered under a fake name, and the HPSC doesn't even know about it. Inko, go pack a bag," Nemuri ordered.
Inko nodded and ran off in the direction of her room, leaving Izuku with the woman who had been basically hunting him for the past months.
"I appreciate you being there for her y'know," Izuku told Nemuri after a few minutes of silence.
"Uh, what?"
"I've been wanting to come back here for god knows how long, I've seen you hanging out with her," Izuku explained.
"Of course you have. You and your friends are somehow no where and everywhere at the same time, if my search for you has taught me anything," Nemuri chuckled.
Izuku laughed with her, before stepping a little bit closer to her, "Just one thing though: if anything happens to her, or if you hurt her…" Izuku flashed his revolver, "Your quirk isn't gonna be enough to save you."
Inko came out with her bag and Izuku backed, "Alright, follow me, you'll take her wherever this place is when we get out of this building."
Izuku flipped his mask down and ran out the wrecked door, making sure the place was clear of any other HPSC agents.
Just when Nemuri thought everything was fine, she felt a wave of heat hit her back back. Whirling around, they saw an agent with a lot of his uniform burned away, and his arms turned into magma.
Nemuri wasn't too reassured by the fact that Izuku was clearly a big nervous
Just before they could get into it, the agent was it in the face by a broom handle, knocking face first into a fire extinguisher and knocking himself out.
Nemuri turned her head to the right and saw a boy with white hair tied into a manbun, piecred ears, and golden eyes.
"Thanks," Izuku said simply.
"Uh, you're welcome... You're that quirkless guy right? The one beating the shit out of people?" The young guy asked.
"That's what you do?" Inko whispered.
"He's exaggerating."
"Look I just wanted to say I think I know what you're trying to do, and I really appreciate it."
Nemuri could tell that Izuku was smiling behind his mask, "Quirkless?" He asked.
"Yeah."
Izuku chuckled, "Guess this is what popularity is."
He motioned his head for his mother and Nemuri to follow him, but before her got to far the boy called to him again.
"W-Wait! Do you think it's ever gonna get better for guys like us?"
Izuku stopped in his tracks once more, "Ah don't worry, I'm gonna make it better."
Hola, nothing to say here other than thanks for reading the chapter. Discord links:
Epsi's Hoard: https/discord.gg/zQ6rDfuuA9
LoM: https/discord.gg/4zKchTwyrN
That's it for now, Peace.