"I don't like this," Izuku said as he tried to pull his hood further up.
"Lighten up, this is UA, if there's one place that you'll be safe from the HPSC, it's here," Zen said in a comforting tone.
"Plus, your girlfriend would kill you if you didn't show up for this," Kaen chuckled.
The Sports Festival was a dream for Izuku for the longest time. When he was a kid, he could never afford to go in person, but he always watched it on his TV.
Every year his mom would make a big show of decorating the house with UA's colors, and it would just be him and Inko, sitting on the couch and eating extremely unhealthy food.
Izuku frowned; those days were long gone now as both he and his mom were on the run. He's wanted by the police and heroes, can't use his real name anywhere anymore... It's all just a fantastic mess.
Teki elbowed him in the shoulder, "Hey, get your head out of the clouds."
"We should go take our seats," Umi said.
"Eh, the events don't start for another forty-five minutes, let's go get something to eat," Kesseki suggested.
The six of them walked up to a fried takoyaki stand and got a large box for them all to share. As they turned to walk away from the stand, Izuku bumped shoulders with someone.
The two locked eyes and Izuku instantly recognized who it was, pulling away and uttering a quick, "Sorry," he motioned for his gang to move faster.
"Something wrong, Kumai?" Death Arms asked.
"It's nothing. I just… thought I recognized that guy I bumped into," Kumai shrugged.
"Well, did you?" Mt. Lady asked as she handed him one of the takoyaki skewers she had just swindled.
"I don't know, but he gives me a very...annoying vibe," Kumai sighed.
Setsuna let out a long, drawn-out sigh as she waited in one of the locker rooms on the bottom floor of the stadium. She was up next for the tournament part of the Festival against some gen-ed dude named Shinsou Hitoshi.
Her quirk had helped her pretty well in the Festival so far, like when she grabbed her own legs with her detached hands and floated herself across the minefield in the first event, Or in the second one, where she was able to nab a bunch of headbands with her detached fingers.
This final event, though, was going to be tougher. At the end of the day, all she was doing here was throwing hands at people who could shoot explosions from their palms.
"Knock knock," a familiar voice said as he lightly tapped his fingers against the table.
"Izuku!" Setsuna shouted in surprise, with a hint of anger mixed in there.
"Hey 'Suna," Izuku smiled.
Setsuna allowed him to place a chaste kiss on her lips before shaking her head to get her mind right, "How the hell did you sneak past all the guards?"
Izuku shrugged, "I'm a vigilante; it's just kinda what I do: I sneak, and I lurk."
"More importantly, why are you here?" Setsuna asked.
"I came to see you. I missed you and didn't want to wait until after the Festival," Izuku admitted.
"You saw me last week," Setsuna chuckled. She wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned into him as Izuku began to lean back against the table behind them in turn.
"And?"
Setsuna leaned in for another kiss but stopped when she noticed a large purple mark on his forehead.
She ran her fingers over it gently and gave him a questioning look. Izuku just groaned in response and took out his phone.
"It's better if I just show you," he said as he pulled up a video titled: 'vigilante gets rocked'
Setsuna watched with wide eyes as a shaky video played of Izuku jumping off of a building in his Jigsaw outfit, missing the next building, hitting his head on the railing of its fire escape, and falling in a dumpster.
She had to clasp her hand over her mouth to prevent an outburst, but good God, did she want to laugh so much right now.
"Skilled vigilante, huh?" Setsuna managed to choke out before she could no longer hold it in and put more of her weight on Izuku as she burst out laughing.
She only stopped when the PA system chimed, and Shouta Aizawa's voice rang out over it, "Attention fighters, you only have ten minutes left to get ready, so make them count."
Izuku sighed, "I should get going then."
"You should," Setsuna leaned up and kissed him on the lips, "I'll see you after it's all over, now go back to your seat," she said, putting an emphasis on the word 'after'.
"So this will make me more powerful?"
Izuku slammed his back to the wall as he heard that before slowly peeking his head out to see who was talking. It was two men: one with fluffy, pale purple hair who wore a UA uniform and the other a man with dark skin and a scraggly black beard, dressed in dark clothing and a beige beanie.
"Hey, when Turk says he's gonna deliver, he delivers," the second man said, apparently named Turk, definitely an American if the accent was anything to go by.
Izuku quickly pulled out his phone and dialed Zen as he reached around to his back and under his hoodie to remove his revolver from its holster strapped to his chest.
"Hey man, your girlfriend's about to come on, where are you?"
"Cover your faces and book it to the entrance, I've got a trigger dealer headed that way," Izuku whispered.
"A trigger dealer? Here? I thought we'd finally get to relax for a day," Zen sighed.
Izuku hung up and pulled a medical mask and a pair of sunglasses from his hoodie pocket. He stepped out from behind the corner and fired way past both of their heads, just to get their attention.
"Oh come on man, why can't ol' Turk catch a break," Turk whined as he ran off in the other direction.
"If you know what's good for you, you'll toss that in the trash," Izuku said to the purple-haired boy before giving chase to Turk.
Two security guards tried to block his path, but they jumped out of the way the second he pointed his six-shooter at them. It wasn't long before Izuku finally broke out into daylight, a large crowd bustling around the entrance and obstructing his vision.
He only got back on Turk's trail when the dealer made the mistake of screaming profanities when he stubbed his toe on what Izuku presumed to be a rock.
Once again hot on Turk's trail, and once again interrupted two seconds later by someone noticing a masked man wielding a gun.
"Alright buddy, that's enough out of you," Death Arms said as he took a wide stance to catch Izuku.
The vigilante collapsed to the floor just a foot away from the hero and slid beneath his legs, raising the butt of his gun up to bash into the man's crotch as he did.
Death Arms crumpled onto the pavement and cradled his sack, through a strained voice he said, "That's gonna hurt in about five seconds... there it is."
Turk was just a couple dozen feet from the entrance and the others were nowhere in sight, and there was no way he was gonna fire his gun in this crowd of people.
Then, just before Turk reached the exit, a trash can lid beaned him in the left side of his face, causing him to fall to the group shouting profanities once more.
Izuku whirled his head around to look for who threw the lid but only saw a vaguely familiar gray beanie bobbing through the crowd. Izuku turned back around to see Kaen slam his hammer into the other side of Turk's head, knocking him fully unconscious.
"Jigsaw! What do we wanna do with him?" Zen asked.
"Stone, get him up. Eirene, call Dimitri, we're taking him back for interrogation," Izuku ordered.
Setsuna sighed as she sat down with the rest of the class. She had won her fight, but… not really, at least it didn't feel like a win to her.
Shinsou started the fight by making a snide comment about her appearance, which was weird to begin with, but when she retorted with her own snide comment, she just blacked out.
Next thing she knew, she woke up with one foot almost out of the ring. Shinsou gave her a confused look and made another jab. Setsuna hesitantly jabbed back, but this time kept her consciousness, which made Shinsou drop his cocky facade and widen his eyes.
Shinsou spat some more insults at her, and every time she insulted him back, he looked more and more worried. Eventually, Setsuna got fed up with all his talk and threw her fist forward, which collided with Shinsou's face and knocked him on his ass.
After that Shinsou quite frankly looked dead, he simply stood up, not even cradling his nose, which was spewing a waterfall of blood, and walked out of the ring.
"Suna, you ok?"
Setsuna snapped out of her flashback to see Pony leaning over the seat to her left, staring at her with her massive blue eyes.
"I'm fine, 'Tori, why do you ask?" Setsuna asked.
"You seem downwards," Pony said as she fell into the seat next to her.
"Downward? Oh, you mean I look upset, it's nothing, just something that Shinsou said to me is all," Setsuna answered.
Pony scooted closer.
Setsuna chuckled but then let her face fall, "Before he walked offstage, he said 'it's gone'. I'm just trying to figure out what he's talking about."
"Maybe quirk," Pony suggested.
"It couldn't be that, people don't just lose their quirks...right?" Setsuna wondered aloud.
Her phone suddenly buzzed with a text, it was Izuku, he texted her nothing but an address and a quick: 'Head here when you get the chance'.
Setsuna sighed again and pocketed her phone; something told her that whatever that address was, it probably wasn't gonna be a nice surprise.
Turk groaned as he slowly regained consciousness, looking up just in time to see a bucket be thrown at him.
"Ow, mother fucker! You're supposed to put water in the bucket!" Turk yelled. Then, another bucket fell on him, this time filled with ice-cold water.
"Well, if you were just gonna do that, then why have the first bucket?!"
Izuku didn't understand the man, he was speaking in English, so he opted to place his gun on Turk's thigh.
"Now listen carefully. My name is Jigsaw, the man behind me is Void, the girl to his left is Eirene, the burly man to his right is Inferno, and the two standing behind you are Joule and Stone."
Turk gave him a weird look, which is when Izuku realized that he didn't understand his Japanese enough.
"Joule, you said you grew up in America, yeah? You think you can be our translator?" Izuku asked.
"With pleasure," Teki said before relaying Izuku's message.
Turk scoffed, "Great, first a devil man beating my ass, then an indistructable brotha', then the goddamn Punisher. Thought I could get away if I moved to Japan but nope, now the fuckin' Pride Power Rangers after me."
"What'd he say?" Kesseki asked.
"He's just insulting us."
"Where did you get that Trigger?" Izuku asked.
"From a guy in an alley," Turk answered through Teki.
"And who gave it to that guy?"
"He says he doesn't know," Teki sighed.
"That's a lie. I know who you are, Turk, a criminal mastermind, well maybe not mastermind, but you don't get into a job without knowing every factor. You know where they made the Trigger, and I suggest you tell us unless you want a bullet in your leg," Dimitri said in English.
Turk looked like he was hesitant for a few seconds before he sighed and said something to Teki.
"He says the factory is under the tallest building in Musutafu, in the sewer system," she translated.
"Wow, that's cliché," Kesseki chuckled.
"Alright, I gave you what you wanted. NOW, WILL YOU GOOFY ASS POWER RANGERS LET ME GO!" Turk yelled.
"Oh, the criminal wants us to let him go, Void, Eirene, do you mind?" Teki asked.
Without another word, Zen and Umi punched Turk in the face, knocking him unconscious again.
"Inferno, dump him off somewhere safe. Tomorrow we go and shut this place down," Izuku said.
"Tomorrow, why not now?" Kaen asked as he untied Turk and tossed him over his shoulder.
"Because—" Izuku was cut off by the shop bell ringing, breaking out into a wide smile, "I've got a date tonight."
This chapter like, almost qualifies as a filler chapter because I really didn't want to write the Sports Festival again. Also I know that this chapter title is harbage but I couldn't come up with anything better, sorry. Discord links:
Epsi's Hoard: https/discord.gg/2Nw3AjvDK6
LoM: https/discord.gg/DXq8n6VE4G
That's it for now, Peace.