Chapter 2
Warehouse, Shizuoka
3 A.M.
"Ack!"
"What the fuck is happening?"
"Who the fuck is this guy?"
Cries of pain and anger came from within the warehouse. A single man grinned as he took off his blood-soaked gloves from his hands. Tossing away the gloves, he sauntered towards a trembling man that cowered away behind his desk.
Behind the man, on the floor covered in blood, corpses, and bodies littered the ground. Broken teeth littered the ground, and while some of the men groaned in pain, most were unresponsive entirely.
The man crouched down to the trembling man's level. This time, his canines seemed to grow in length as the air around the man thickens with killing intent. Grabbing the man's hair, he proceeds to drag the man out of the warehouse.
The broken glass cut into the man as he whimpered in pain from being dragged out by his hair.
The man, dragging the man outside, dumped him in front of a fancy-looking car. From the Silver Bentley, a woman stepped out of the vehicle. Wearing a simple dress, the woman had a red woolen scarf adorning her arms. Wearing a signet ring on her pinky along with two diamond earrings, the woman let her electric yellow hair flow from her head as she stepped out of the car.
However, what froze the man in his place was the cold look in the woman's eyes. Her frigid blue eyes bore into the man's form, making the man feel as if the woman was looking directly into the man's soul. On her face, a cruel smirk appeared as she took in the sight of the sniveling man.
Bending down, the woman let her dainty hand pat the side of the man's face. "Aww, Mister Takeda, it's so nice to meet you finally!"
Still frozen in fear, Takeda Yuji stared up at the form of the woman. Her voice, while heavily accented, was clear to Takeda. Suddenly, Takeda felt a sharp sting on his face as his head jerked away from the woman.
"Aww, Mister Takeda, when a beautiful woman such as me greets you, a proper gentleman should greet her back!" Her hand raised once again made Takeda flinch still as he blubbered out a reply.
"But, I don't know who you are…" Whimpering, Takeda just prayed that he wouldn't die that day.
Slightly stunned, the woman tapped her mouth as she considered the man's words. "Ah, that was rude of me, Mister Takeda." Her smirk grew predatory as she revealed her name. "My name is Anastasia Alexandrovna Volkova."
"H-h-hello Miss Volkova." Takeda stammered out as he looked at the ground in horror as he realized who was in front of him.
Smiling at the man who was trembling beneath her feet as he realized who was standing before him, Anna spoke. "Now now, Mister Takeda. I would appreciate it if you looked at me while we chatted for a while!" Her smile lessened as she saw the man refusing to meet her eyes.
!
Takeda grunted in pain as the man behind him grabbed his hair backward. The icy glint of the man's glasses entered into Takeda's eyes as he was forced to look into Anna Volkova's eyes.
"When the boss asks for you to do something, you don't just ignore her."
Fearfully looking into the eyes of Anna, all that Takeda could feel was the wave of fear as he looked into the woman's eyes.
" Спасибо, Иван, теперь можешь его отпустить. "(Thank you, Ivan, you can let him go now.) Letting go of Takeda's hair, Ivan backed off as he waited for his boss. Anna turned to face Takeda once more.
"Do you know why we are here, Mister Takeda?" Seeing Takeda shake his head, Anna explained. "We're here because," Her finger poked Takeda right in the center of his chest. "Your little gang groups seem to be burning down like flies. Literally! The last one just got burned down, like yesterday."
At this, Takeda grew confused. "W-w-wait. What does this have to do with anything?"
Anna burst into laughter as she clutched her belly. "Pffff. I mean it's pitiful! We came down here to Japan to see how the organized crime daily down here was doing, and we just found that the dwindling number of members due to what, a couple of heroes!"
While his body seized in terror, Takeda could help but internally rage at Anna's comment. "We barely are scraping by! With All Might being sighted recently, none of the gang members are chicken enough even to come into this business!" He stammered out.
Anna snorted. "О, Боже, you can't be this stupid! Why do you think the братва have sent me down to this quaint country? We do business with you guys for Trigger and in turn, we get the goods! But lately, the братва haven't been getting their shipments. Of course, we would send someone to check on you guys."
Anna turned around and started to walk back to the car. "I mean we were going to send a grunt, but I've been getting bored so, you know, I'm just here to sight-see! And, the additional taking over gang groups in the area. Just the small groups." She paused. "Not that anyone will miss you." She dismissively turners around and gets into her car.
" Иван, вынеси мусор. (Ivan, take out the trash.) We'll do the Yakuza a favor and remove failure from their ranks."
"W-wai-"
Crunch.
A sickening sound filled the alleyway as the body of Takeda Gomibako dropped to the ground. His cooling body was discovered days later when the complaint of rotting meat merited a visit by the cops.
With a green hoodie over his head, Izuku found himself inside a convenience store. With only a couple of yen left in his wallet, he bought a water bottle and some cheap sandwiches from the store. Quietly nodding to the bored-looking cashier, he paid for his meal and slipped out of the building.
The past two days were something of a dream for Izuku. He would quietly slip into alleyways in the daytime, hoping no one would bother him. Shizuoka Prefecture was notable for its clean environment, but Izuku would take moments to hide in nearby trash bags from both heroes and cops that would patrol the city.
Izuku could feel the thrum of metal through the core of his body as he kept walking. With no real idea of where he would be heading, Izuku wandered through the quiet city. He couldn't take any chances with the commuter trains as he knew there would be police and CCTV canvassing the city.
While he knew that the police most likely didn't know that he was the one to cause the fire and kill multiple people that night, Izuku didn't want to find out whether he would be charged or not. No, he shoved those feelings down his throat.
Such feelings would get him killed now.
Killed.
Kill.
Izuku drew a shaky breath. He had killed several people without remorse. Yeah one of them was in self-defense, The man was going to beat him to death, but the others in that building had no idea as Izuku sent a single nail through all of their heads.
M̸̢̮̐ŏ̴̳͉̱͛̋͝ͅr̵̡͋͋̐͛ȩ̵̳̻̯̽̋̈́.
M̸̢̮̐ŏ̴̳͉̱͛̋͝ͅr̵̡͋͋̐͛ȩ̵̳̻̯̽̋̈́.
M̸̗̟̪͊̌Ö̵̜̹R̸̢̩̣̩̒̋E̴̱̝̒͊̍̊
Gripping his head in agony, Izuku stumbled and steadied himself against the wall of the building he was hiding out in. More and more static began to fill his mind as he resided in the bloodthirsty urge to pick apart people's minds. Their thoughts. Their Quirks.
It wasn't until a honk of a car horn and a whistle that his head cleared for a bit, the static scattering from the sudden outside input.
Izuku took a look around now seeing a Silver Bentley car pull up next to him. The window rolled down, as he saw the face of a striking woman pop out. Everything about her seemed electrifying. Her hair was the shade of electric yellow, and her chilling blue eyes stared at him with amusement as he took note of them.
Judging by appearances probably has an electric type of something similar quirk. Hair color is not normal, most likely dyed or side mutation from quirk.
Glittering diamond earrings hung from her earlobes as she waved her hand in Izuku's general direction.
"Hey, boya!"
Izuku frowned underneath his hood. Was she talking to him? He pointed his finger at himself.
"Yeah, you!"
Okay, she was definitely asking for him now. Must have mistaken him for another person.
"I need to ask you something! Can you step into my car for a quick sec?" The woman cheerfully asked as she rested her head on the frame of the window.
Izuku felt confused. Who was this lady? She looks familiar. Where did he see her before? Tentatively he spoke up. "Why are you asking for me?"
The woman innocently tilted her head. This sent shivers down Izuku's spine. "I just need to talk to you!"
Hesitantly Izuku shook his head. "No thank you, I'm not in the mood for a conversation." He turned away from the car and proceeded to walk away from the creepy lady.
"Oh, I didn't say that you leave, Midoriya Izuku."
Now the cold dripping feeling of anxiety and fear came like a wave as Izuku almost stopped breathing. How did she know his name? How did she know his name?
Turning around slowly, Izuku noted that the woman's innocent grin turned downright predatory. Like he was a lamb to the slaughter. The other window of the car rolled down, as Izuku took note of the driver of the car. Wearing a blood-red tie paired with a grey vest along with a grey-white coat, the man's cold indifferent gaze seemed to cut through Izuku. His eyes, outlined by the frames of the glasses he was wearing seemed to reflect light as a single gloved hand reached down the side of the car and pulled out a gun.
"I'm only going to ask you nicely about this one-time Izuku Midoriya. Get in the car."
This time the woman's threatening voice spurred Izuku to hesitantly get into the car. Izuku could feel the metal of the gun, almost a cold soothing feeling. He could almost reach out and pluck the bullet from the chamber, but fear and doubt reigned in his mind.
What if I couldn't catch the bullet?
But I can.
The dark whispers in his mind quieted down as he got into the expensive car. The woman turned to her driver. "Well, let's get going Ivan."
Ivan. That was the man's name. Izuku filed that information away in his mind. Internally, he felt like screaming. It hasn't even been a full week, but it was seeming to Izuku that he was going to be kidnapped again. What was his luck!
The woman turned to look at Izuku. Her predatory grin didn't stop as she kept looking over the gaunt figure of the boy who trembled at her gaze. Licking her lips slightly, she hummed as she looked over the boy.
"Could use some work, but I think he'll make a fine candidate, don't you think, Ivan?"
The man didn't even look back from his driving before speaking up. "I'm sure you would find an excellent candidate, madam."
The woman clapped happily, almost as if she was told that she was getting a new toy. " Чудесный (Wonderful), we found a perfectly good candidate!" She started to pat Izuku's head. "Take off your hoodie, I want to see your face."
Izuku complied as he shakily took off the hoodie. His green lock was matted against his head as he stared helplessly at the figure who grimaced at his dirty figure.
"Might want to give him a wash before too." she clapped her hands once again. " Anyways, I wanted to talk with you, Izuku Midoriya." She leaned in as if she was telling Izuku a secret. "That was you at the warehouse fire that night wasn't it?"
Jerking his head sharply, Izuku flashed back to the night of the fire.
The splatters of blood. The singes of fire. Izuku could make out two figures who were watching him in the distance. A feeling of horror and bile rose from his stomach as Izuku heard police sirens in the distance.
His eyes wide with terror, he blurted out his question. "That was you that night?"
The woman looked delighted at the question. "Oh, so you did see us that night! Wow, that is something incredible! From your file, it said that you were quirkless, but you seem to have a really good vision!"
Izuku shivered. Did she read his file?
The woman rambled on. "I mean I was impressed when you came out of the burning warehouse all bloodied -" At this Izuku flinched. " - but when Ivan found that the base was a gang hideout, I was even more impressed. I mean looking at the report, what was it? Seventeen confirmed deaths, with 5 seemingly pending?" She giggled. "I mean, at first I thought it was the help of a quirk, but then when Ivan found your file, and it said it was quirkless, I just had to know." She grabbed Izuku's hands. "How did you do it?"
Unnerved by the barrage of questions and uncomfortable thinking back to the time he essentially murdered a bunch of people, Izuku simply stared at the woman.
"Ummm."
The woman's eyes seemed to grow larger as she leaned into Izuku's face, eagerly wanting to hear what he had to say.
"I honestly don't remember much of what happened, I-I-" Izuku paused. Flashes of blood stained his hands. The muffled screams of surprise and terror filled the other side of the door, as Izuku manipulated the nail to go through all the people in the building. "It all happened so fast."
A stoic face greeted him as he opened his eyes. The woman stared at him silently, her eyes raking in his figure as he stammered out his response. A slow grin filled her face as she seemed to check something off in her mind.
Leaning away from Izuku she turned towards her driver. "Ivan, get ready to drop the kid off. She glanced over to Izuku, "I've got an offer for him that he probably needs time to think about."
The sudden change in mannerisms surprised Izuku, prone to sudden changes in mood, probably also has a factor of thinking and analyzing much faster, and finally hearing the words come out of the woman's mouth, Izuku reacted.
"W-wait what do you mean that you're giving me an offer?"
The woman tilted her head. "Exactly what I meant. I'm going to give you an offer that you can't refuse." She smiled. "Hah, movie reference." She shook her head. Taking off her leather jacket, the woman revealed a red silk dress with her shoulders bare. On her left shoulder, a black and red tattoo of a black widow could be seen. The web that the spider seemed to be crawling up spanned the entirety of her shoulder and even spread into her back. The woman turned her back to face Izuku while she lifted her smooth electric yellow hair to give Izuku a clearer sight of the tattoo.
"This is my symbol. The черная вдова. The Black Widow. It's my sect within what you might call the Yakuza of Russia. My home country."
At that Izuku stared shocked and with a slight blush on his face. "R-Russian Yakuza?"
The woman turned around and waved her hand. "Yeah, but in Russia, it was either the mafia or known as the more traditional term братва (Bratva)."
Dazed, Izuku stared in confusion. "What do the Bratva want with me anyway?"
At this, the woman smiled. "I'll get to that in a minute." She turned to her driver. "Ivan, stealth mode the windows."
Her driver nodded before pressing a button which caused all the windows of the car to grow a dull black color. The woman looked around before confirming that no one would be able to see inside the car. "Back before quirks started appearing in the early 21st century, a lot of crime back then was organized. There were crime families upon crime families that controlled certain sects of the world back then, and it was these families that would control the crime in many parts of the world. The Americans had their gangsters, the Italians had their Mafia, the Japanese had their Yakuza, the Chinese had their Triad" She smiled. "And us Russians had the Bratva ."
The woman clapped her hands. "It actually wasn't that good for crime back then. Nations had way more security, militaries, and governmental organizations would hunt crime families down and put a near stop to almost all these types of crime. It wasn't until the uprising of quirks that gave the crime families a bit of breathing room."
Izuku muttered. "Right, it was because of the first sighting of quirks that governments all over the world and the formation of quirks began a worldwide movement."
The woman clapped her hands. "Bravo, Midoriya Izuku, you certainly do know a bit of history." She smiled and continued to explain. "During the first 40 years of the first appearances of quirks, was when the first rumors of the underground came around. The boogeyman of the underground. All for One came upon the stage of the moonlit world."
A ran down Izuku's spine when he heard the name. " All for One?"
"Yeah, apparently that was what he was going by." She twirled her hand. "He had the ability to manipulate quirks or something. The legends even in the Bratva aren't clear exactly. I'm not exactly sure what his ability was but it was revered to be god-like." She dropped her hand. "Anyways, it was then in the first 40 years in the criminal underworld, where quirks were first looked at as mutations. Freakish abilities that presented themselves to be diseases or something worse. People actively looked down on these people and called them sub-humans or even monsters."
Izuku clenched his hand. He knew what happened to this part of history. Due to his actions as a Hero Nerd, he ended up in a lot of history books and read through some of them. "Wasn't that the start of the first Meta War? The one that looked at the near-collapse of society and the multiple governments all around the world? I thought that war was just between the quirked and the non-quirked."
"How do you think the first war started? Who do you think raised that army? During that time, a lot of the mutations that formed were emitters, and in a lot of cases, people didn't show that they had abilities. All for One thrived during time apparently and was the main instigator for this war." She waved off Izuku again. "But enough of that boring history, and let's talk about what happened to the crime families. What do you think war creates for crime?"
"Wartime allowed for more money to go around. The families probably thrived under the wartime scenarios even becoming military sects amongst the governments and revolutionaries. You guys probably became mercenaries for hire."
The woman threw back a snort. "My god you are smart. Yes, you are correct. The first war caused the world to be thrown into chaos too. Families had more opportunities to create ties with the new governments that formed, people even relied on the families for protection." She pulled open a cooler that was next to her. Grabbing a wine glass and pouring herself some white wine, she continued. "Anyways this is when things get a bit complicated. You see, it's the time of war when people start losing hope. And when people start losing hope and danger comes around? A person usually steps up to 'do the right thing' and they become the first vigilantes. People who operated outside any jurisdiction and were determined to help others at the cost of their own life."
"Vigilantes? Not heroes?"
"No. Definitely not. These people operated how they wished and would do whatever it took for people to get the job done. This was when the margin for the modern Villain and Hero lines were very blurred. It was wartime and people didn't have the opportunity to operate on kindness. It was survival of the fittest and whoever got left behind died." She took a sip. "It was this time when these vigilantes with quirks would also pop up, fighting to protect people 'no matter the cost' and what not. They usually ran into crime families a lot and that is what drove us even more underground. Hiding from the ever-persistent vigilantes that would try to eliminate the mercenary groups to stop more carnage from happening." She snorted into her glass. "It's not like it did anything."
"What? How could their efforts not do anything?" Izuku questioned her.
"The woman lifted her eyebrow at Izuku. "Kid, do you know what the term escalation means?"
"Isn't that when something gets intensified?"
"Close, in the terms that we are talking about, Escalation refers to increasing conflict between two parties or more. In this case, it was vigilantes and the crime families."
"I don't get it." Izuku scrunched his eyes. "Why would-"
"Here, I'll explain in simpler terms. Say that at first gang members hold simple sticks around to where they commit crimes, small robberies, per se. Then the police carry guns and pistols around to protect themselves. This causes the criminals to take up bigger guns to fight. Same thing here. When the crime families began to operate under heavy military operations, the vigilantes began operating through the use of their quirks. It began to escalate." She smirked. "And now the criminal families have a crime empire following the lead of this shadowy figure in the darkness. And as crime began to grow, the governments had to do something. They tested vigilantes and only the one they thought was the best for society would be declared Heroes and the rest as Villains. It was kinda at this point where the crime families went underground while the 'villains' would overtake surface level crimes."
She paused. "And now that sorta clears up the early history of the quirk years of the underground so far."
Izuku still looked confused. "Okay, but what does this all have to do with me?"
"Look, kid, I don't think I have to spell it out for you. One of the main goals for the crime families is to essentially make money. And recently in the past few years, the business has been dying out. No one wants to be a part of crime families when they can just be Heroes or Villains. Even then, people falsely label crime families as villains. But with All for One disappearing a few years back, the whole underground is in a large clusterfuck."
Izuku looked up alarmed. " All for One was still alive to this day?"
The woman nodded. "Yeah, apparently rumors are going around that he has a longevity quirk or something."
"I thought you said that he has the ability to manipulate quirks?"
She shrugged. "I dunno about the rumors, kid. I wouldn't trust them very much in the underground." Draining the last of the wine in her glass she set aside the glass in the cup holder of the car. She looked at Izuku. "There is a huge power vacuum in the underground. Crime families are still at their core what they used to be over 200 years ago. They still clamber for more power over others and they want money. That's why we were here in this country that night."
Izuku rubbed his thumbs together. "What does this have to do with me though?"
The woman leaned forwards and rested her head on her hand. "That night we were there to take out the competition for drugs and gain some territory on Japanese land. But then we happened across you coming out of one of the warehouses that we were going to target that night." Her electric blue eyes thinned into dangerous slits.
She reminds me of a snake.
"Then all of a sudden the warehouse we were going to target erupts into flames and a single kid walks out covered in blood. It was interesting at first, but we needed to take out all the witnesses. So we were going to track you down and eliminate you for being a witness."
A definite shiver went up Izuku's back as his eyes darted around the car for any way to escape. I can use the magnetism quirk to stop this car and the two people and I can run out of the car and -
"But then when I got a look at your file and it turned out you were quirkless, holy shit that surprised me!"
Huh?
The woman grinned. "Then I got such an amazing idea!" She lifted her head from her hands as she proceeded to clap her hands together. "I mean, nowadays the crime syndicate of the Bratva has expanded all over the world, but we still mainly operate in Russia. And like any major corporation, we have generations of leaders and soldiers in the main ranks of the Bratva. And Ivan here has been getting quite old for his duties." Sticking her hand towards the driver, she gestured to the man.
The man nodded before speaking up. "I certainly am heading towards my retirement age."
The woman nodded. "See! He says so himself!"
Izuku looked in confusion once more. The man couldn't have been any older than 30 years old, and yet he was nearing his retirement age already?
"So I thought that you could be a possible candidate for Ivan's job!"
At that, Izuku really did a double-take. "W-wait, you want me, a 14-year-old kid, to take over a job position for your… bodyguard?"
At his statement, the woman nodded. "You need a place to live, right? We can provide shelter for you and-"
Izuku raised his hand. "I'm grateful, but I don't want to be in criminal activity-"
The woman tilted her head. "What do you mean? You already are in criminal activities! You did kill all those people in the warehouse, remember? I mean plus, truancy."
Sweat dripping down his throat, Izuku faltered. He had been the one to kill all those people, so what gave him the right to say that he wasn't interested in criminal activity? I certainly liked the feeling.
" And anyway, with the situation with your mom and everything-"
Izuku suddenly gained a sharp edge. "What do you mean about the situation with my mom?"
The woman raised her eyebrow. "Don't you know? With the guys that kidnapped you and everything, you're marked by local Yakuza. They'll come after your mom after they find out you burned down one of their warehouses."
Izuku spluttered. "B-but, they kidnapped me!"
The woman shrugged. "Yeah well that's what you get with the local Yakuza, they aren't very bright. They'll take any form of revenge they can get as soon as they find out where you live."
Izuku felt his world drop beneath his feet. "The heroes can help mom right?"
The woman scoffed. "The heroes nowadays? Nah, they have other things to do, popularity contests and whatnot." She muttered. "Those arrogant pricks."
Izuku understood the woman's standpoint. The heroes he saw so far weren't very encouraging, and so far seemed to be doing a worse and worse job handling their fame. He gripped his arms. "What are you offering me then?" His voice sounded dull and quiet.
The woman snapped her fingers. "I offer to come to join in the candidacy for working in Bratva. You have a lot of potential for what I'm looking for in a bodyguard, so it shouldn't be too hard to enroll you into the organization. Plus, with you being quirkless, you'll slip right past the system of this age's government."
It was true, quirkless people were being treated less and less than humans this age. But I have a quirk now, don't I? That man's quirk I studied and made it better.
"What will I be doing then?"
"You'll be acting as my bodyguard and work for Bratva. Ivan here will teach you the ropes to being a bodyguard for a leader and in return," the woman leaned up real close to Izuku. She clasped her hands around Izuku's. "We'll guarantee protection for your mom and also send her money. Money that you could earn on jobs that you might take."
"Jobs?"
Of course, jobs. You aren't just becoming a bodyguard if you take Ivan's position. You will deal with espionage on a national level, assassination, infiltration, extermination, and the occasional delivery now and then."
At every word the woman said, Izuku's face became whiter and whiter. "I-I would have to k-kill?"
The woman frowned. "This world you're now in, killing is going to be the only constant. It's still a warzone out there, but the people didn't realize. The government did a good job covering up a lot of the underground happenings that are going on right now, but there is definitely a war happening that even the heroes that you see don't even know about."
Izuku stayed silent.
"That's why I knew that you would need to take time for your decision." The woman clapped her hands.
"Huh?" The car came to a halt as it pulled up to a curb of a fancy-looking hotel. The outer area of the hotel was clearly only meant for expensive guests and rich billionaires to attend. The glistening fountain of water spouted water as many lights highlighted the grand-looking hotel.
"You can rest here for 3 days. We have everything covered, so you can make your decision in those three days. Just call me by this number," the woman pulled out a business card. "And we'll come to pick you up on your decision."
Getting out of the car, Izuku looked up at the magnificent-looking building and panicked. His appearance was that solely of a ratty homeless person, and he certainly stood out from the patrons that attended the hotel.
"Wait, I don't think-"
"We'll talk more about this later Midoriya! Think carefully about your decision!" The car door shut as the car drove out of the driveway of the hotel.
Izuku faltered as he watched the car drive out of the hotel entrance. "I didn't even get her name…"
Turning to face the enormous hotel building, Izuku gulped. A ring from his phone alerted him as he hastily picked it up. On the screen, a text message stood out from an unknown number.
All the costs and fees from anything you eat or drink will also be covered! (w)
He sighed. At least he had time before he could choose his decision.
The car rumbled as it rolled down the road. The silver Bentley gleaming against the night glow of the city, its inhabitants were quiet.
"Mam?" Ivan, the bodyguard, started. "Why are you taking interest in him in the first place?"
"Hmm." The woman started humming. "I guess it was on a whim."
"A whim?"
Anna smiled. "Let's just say I have a gut feeling about this one."
Aldera Middle School
Bakugo Katsuki was not okay. The more and more he pondered it, the angrier and angrier he got. Fuming silently in his seat, his eyes would slide over to the empty seat that inhabited behind him.
A spike of anger rushed over him as he took his eyes off the desk. For about two weeks now, the desk had been empty and there was no sign of Deku. Aunty Inko seemed to be fretting over the loss of her son, and he just grew angry at the sight of the empty desk.
Recently with the school board being notified of the kidnapping, had told students to watch out for any villains that might try to take them away, but almost none of the faculty members tried to get or find any help for the missing child.
Bakugo couldn't help but feel like Deku- no Izuku's disappearance was being glossed over. Of course, the loser was quirkless, a worthless piece of shit. Why would any of the adults try to even find him?
It was these thoughts that filled his head as he stared at the empty desk.
"Tsk."
Musutafu Hotel
The first-day Izuku stepped into his designated room, he was gobsmacked. Everything is so freaking shiny!
It seemed like the whole room glittered with riches. The carpet was white as clouds while seeming to be twice as fluffy as them, the beds were large enough to be fit for a king. They certainly were soft enough to be. Izuku felt like he was sinking into a warm marshmallow the first night.
The bathrooms to the rooms held a bathtub, large enough for him to go swimming, and a lot of the room service that the hotel provided was certainly top of the class. The balcony of the room displayed the proud city-line of Japan.
Izuku sighed as he stepped outside the balcony. Looking up at the clouds again gave him a soothing feeling, calming down his churning thoughts. And boy, he certainly had a lot to think about.
Looking down into his hands, he traced every line and calluses that came from years of grabbing his pen and pencil. All those years of taking hero notes, and for what.? He got his dreams crushed by the number one hero. Albeit, he could understand where All Might was coming from. Without power, how could he help anyone with him being as weak as he is now?
All Might had made a great point about the world. Without power, one could not help others nevertheless themselves. Izuku thought back to that night. The night of blue flames. Closing his eyes, he could see the crackling of the blue fire as it washed over the corpses of his victims. Blood instantly drying from the intense heat, the smoke in the air smelling of burnt pork. A small part of Izuku wanted to giggle. His favorite food smelled just like the charring corpses that were burning right in front of his eyes.
Shaking his head from his thoughts, he concentrated on the new part of himself that he felt like he discovered. Almost as if it were a puppy, Magnetism responded to his thoughts immediately. The lights in his room flickering, Izuku could feel the power that came with his newfound power. The power that he copied.
The air itself seemed charged as Izuku exerted a tiny amount of pressure with Magnetism. He could feel the bits of metal all drawing closer to him as he concentrated more on his power. The chandelier on the ceiling of his room began swaying and random objects in his room began moving towards him.
He understood how the objects moved. He could imitate the way the person who tortured him used his quirk. But he had better control. More power. A better understanding of Magnetism.
Letting go of Magnetism, Izuku groaned as he dropped his head onto his arms. Leaning on the railing of the balcony Izuku stayed there for a moment, feeling the wind brush through his head as the midnight wind caressed his hair.
The job that the mysterious woman was offering was appealing to him. On a certain level, Izuku felt like it was his only option. Objectively, looking at his situation, he was screwed. Oh, he was definitely screwed.
Just a few days ago, he was simply living his life as a regular middle school student albeit bullied, but he still had a chance of living a normal life. But after the encounter with the Yakuza and him killing over 20 people, Izuku knew that there was no going back. What did people say? In for a penny in for a pound? Did people even say that in his situation? Now he was on the run, with no way back home. The cops will definitely have questions and with how nervous I would be, they would quickly find out I was the culprit of the fire.
Now, almost like fate, a silver opportunity was presented to him. It almost sounded too good to be true. Certainly, it wasn't the most liked situation, Izuku could say that. He still wished he could go back home and just stay with his mom for the time being. But Izuku knew that as soon as he killed a person, there was no going back. And he certainly couldn't stay on the streets, not with his limited resources. He didn't think about the long-term stuff yet.
He was all alone.
At least he had some warning of what was going to happen with this woman. And his mom was probably in danger with a bunch of the Yakuza targeting his family now. This Bratva had the money and resources certainly to protect his mother.
Now the only question was whether he could trust them. Izuku liked to think that he wasn't naive about this situation. He knew that while the woman offered to protect his mom, the other way around could be done. They could be threatening his mother and keeping her hostage for the fact of getting to him.
Only they were simply extending a hand before getting to the threatening. Either way, Izuku was put in a position where he was forced to go with the Bratva. Although they made it pleasing to join, Izuku still held off from agreeing with the woman.
If he joined, this was it. He couldn't be a hero.
You'll never be a hero Deku!
I'm sorry Young boy. In my line of work, professionals easily get hurt, and without an advantage with a unique ability, I have to deter you from the work of heroes.
That's right. Already everyone had stomped on his dream. They all told him off that he couldn't be a hero. He couldn't help anyone. But he would be damned if he couldn't help his mom. What had the Bratva woman said? That they could offer protection and he could start supporting his mom.
Granted the jobs he would be doing would push him further and further into the unsavory side of things and -
He was rambling again. Izuku walked back to the bed and collapsed. The week had been tiring, and he was still nursing his own wounds from the torture session. Rubbing his self-applied bandages, Izuku nodded off in bed. Right now, he would take his time to start healing and sleep on the decision.
Musutafu Police Precinct
Tsukauchi stared blankly at the bulletin board in his office. Pictures of a burning warehouse, with a bunch of other missing person cases hanging on the wall, Tsukauchi leaned back and sighed. He wasn't going anywhere with his current investigation, and now the investigation for a simple child was turning up to be a cold case.
Nothing. He had nothing. The CCTV footage of the kid being kidnapped showed no leads as to the kidnappers, and any trace of the kid had vanished.
Honestly, If Tsukauchi was calling it, he had a hunch that the kid was in the warehouse that burned that night. The police department and the coroner's office weren't sure, they couldn't find any corpse that belonged to a 14-year-old boy.
Sipping coffee, he grunted as his work phone rang. Pressing the call button, Tsukauchi was greeted with the sound of a hysterical mother.
"Naomasa-san! This is Midoriya Inko! Please hurry, I think my son came back home!"
His eyes widening, Tsukauchi quickly pulled his coat over his body before assuring Mrs. Midoriya that he was going to be there as soon as possible. In his mind, questions started popping up. " Where had Midoriya Izuku gone for the past two weeks?"
Midoriya Residence
Looking around the room, Tsukauchi could say for certain, that either this person had tried to take what was important to Izuku Midoriya and even hand it over to him, or Izuku Midoriya had come over to take his stuff and disappear again.
Which raised one question. " Why had Midoriya Izuku run away?" Glancing over to the crying wreck that was his mother, he could see no domestic abuse happening in the household. This was something else.
At first glance, the room seemed clean, strange for an empty room that hadn't been inhabited for two weeks. It was only when Tsukauchi looked closely could he spot details missing in the room. Izuku Midoriya's personal belongings had vanished along with a couple of clothes of his.
Everything else was taken back into place, and if Tsukauchi hadn't come to scope out the place a week prior, he wouldn't have guessed that there was stuff missing. At this level of putting stuff back, it was someone who knew Izuku at an intimate level, or Izuku himself. And the chances of some super careful person putting everything back in place seemed at odds. Meaning that Izuku certainly has been back here before this week. Which begged the question.
Tsukauchi turned towards Inko who was sobbing quietly into her tissue. "Mrs. Midoriya, I have to ask, did you hear any weird noise or odd sounds coming from this bedroom?"
Inko shook her head in denial. "No, I didn't hear anything from this room this week."
Truth
"Do you have any idea why your son might have come back but didn't bother to alert you of anything?"
"No, he was always a good boy, letting me know that he was safe."
Truth
Tsukauchi nodded grimly as he surveyed the room once more, no sign of forced entry, and no possible way of anyone, other than Izuku, of putting stuff back into place as he would have. No sign of reasons why Izuku would run away.
Once again his investigation was going nowhere as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
Suddenly a sharp knock could be heard outside the apartment, which brought Tsukauchi's attention towards the sound. He turned towards Inko. "Are you expecting anyone tonight?"
Shaking her head in confusion, Inko warily went to the door. Tsukauchi grabbed onto her arm in alarm, something wasn't right. He put his finger up to his lips, shushing Inko from making any noise before checking through the peephole of the door to see who was outside.
Outside, a bunch of men wearing black and white dress clothing was holding bats and chains, each showing off tattoos on their chests and arms.
A cold feeling went down Tsukauchi's back as he rapidly backed away from the door, before grabbing his gun. "Midoriya-san, I need you to get back and take cover in the living room." Tsukauchi quickly checked the magazine of his gun before getting his phone out and sending a quick text.
Sensing the abrupt change of demeanor, Inko hurriedly dove into the Living room hiding behind the couch. She closed her eyes as she trembled in fear at the sudden increase of banging at her door.
The door exploded open as men began pouring into the apartment room. Tsukauchi bracing for a fight, held up his gun and pointed it at the men. "This is officer Naomasa of the Musutafu City Police Department. Put down your weapons and cease this activity."
A sneer from the leader of the yakuza alerted Tsukauchi that there was going to be an imminent fight approaching fast. He noted that he could protect Midoriya Inko, only if he held them off at the choke point which was the main hall from the door.
Gripping his gun, he warned the men again. "I said, drop your weapons and cease this behavior at once, I'm only going to give you the count of five!"
The leader leaned up against his bat. "Hey man, I don't know you, and you don't know me. But I can safely say that that gun has what. 12 rounds in it at most. And there are 15 of us waiting right here. So I can easily say that you sir don't have much of a chance of beating us off. So let me take this off your hands, and we'll deal with the woman and let you go. Alright?"
Tsukauchi shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I cannot let you do that."
The yakuza member shrugged. "Well, that's going to be a problem isn't it?" With a roar, the men charged forward, startling Tsukauchi, swinging their bats, they clipped his gun from his hand, throwing the weapon off to the side. Cursing, at his luck, Tsukachi quickly parried away some of the blows that were raining down on him. Lashing out with simple punches he had learned during defense classes in the force, he managed to clip a few of the men in the head, knocking them out.
Grunting, the men roared out in anger as they saw a few of their comrades drop like flies. Putting up his guard, Tsukauchi wary backed off from the multitude of enemies.
"Shit, I have to last long enough for Aizawa-san to get here." Grimacing, he dodged a hasty blow to his midsection. Kicking his leg out, he hit the gangster on the side of his legs, folding the joint inwards. With a cry of pain, the gangster crumpled as Tsukauchi slammed his fist into the man's temple.
Weaving through multiple bats, Tsukauchi slams into one of the guys pushing him into the wall. Knocking the wind out of him, he proceeds to knock the man out with a punch to the chin. Suddenly a hit to the back of his head, makes his vision spin. Grunting, he shakes off the grogginess and lifts his arms to block another hit, this time from a chain.
The chain wraps around his arm like a snake, most likely from one of the men's quirks, and pulls open his guard leaving him open to another hit. Seeing the bat head straight for his head, Tsukauchi could do nothing but close his eyes in panic.
Thwip!
The lack of pain and the confusing grunts made Tsukauchi open his eyes. In front of him, the bat that was heading for his head was tied up in Eraserhead's capture scarf, which was currently being used to beat the other gang members.
Cries of surprise mixed with confusion filled the air as the gang members attempted to activate their quirks.
"The hell - Ack!"
"Who has the nerve to?"
"W-why the hell isn't my quirk working?"
"Get that hobo!"
"Why the hell is he so fast?"
Soon, all the gang members were tied up unconscious at the feet of Aizawa. Several of them were sporting bruises and some were drooling while unconscious.
Hunched over, Aizawa ties them up, before holding his hand up to Tsuakuchi. "Yo."
"Now isn't the time to be saying 'Yo' you cheeky bastard!" Rolling his arms around, Tsukauchi coughed into his hand. "Thank you for the assist, Eraserhead-san ."
"It wasn't much, these thugs were really uncoordinated." Aizawa apathetically gagged several of the yakuza members.
A twitch of anger came up in Tsukauchi's face. "Uncoordinated thugs my ass!" Sighing, Tsukauchi patted down his rumpled coat and stepped back into the living room. There, Midoriya Inko was shaking in terror. Her hands were covering her mouth and her eyes were shut tight while leaking tears.
Gently kneeling by her side, Tsukauchi patted her arms, letting her know that everything was going to be fine and that she was safe. "Midoriya-san, we have dealt with the intruders, you're safe now."
Opening her eyes with surprise, she latched into Tsukauchi sobbing. "T-t-thank you! Thank you so much, I was so afraid!"
Patting her back, Tsukauchi looked at Aizawa who looked on with morbid amusement as he kicked the unconscious bodies of the thugs. Snapping his fingers, he caught the attention of Aizawa and motioned to come and comfort her.
Aizawa simply stood by unbothered and simply took out his cell phone not even bothering to help out the detective. Grumbling in his mind, Tsukauchi continued to pat Midoriya Inko until she stopped crying.
Tsukauchi stood outside Midoriya's house. The blinking lights of several police cars were lined up as they each held the yakuza members. Aizawa grunted as he watched the flashing colors of the police cars.
Tsukauchi sighed. The clusterfuck over the recent spike in kidnapping cases along with the attack on Mrs. Midoriya, certainly left Tsukauchi exhausted.
He turned to look at the window where Midoriya Izuku's room would have been. The dark empty room reminded Tsukauchi of the missing items that most likely Izuku himself had taken before running away. Maybe they could get a location on where Izuku was using the GPS chip on the missing phone.
Getting into his car, Tsukauchi drove off from the scene of the crime.
Izuku awoke into a dark room. Or rather dark space. Panic started to swell in his chest as he felt ropes tying his wrists behind his back. He could see anything, but he still could feel the gag around his mouth.
What was going on? Was he kidnapped? Listening to the jostling of the space, Izuku concluded that yes he was being kidnapped. He would have started laughing nervously if not for his position being tied up in what was most likely the back of a van.
Izuku tried to think of things that might have gotten him kidnapped. "Was it for money? No, they weren't that rich of a family. Was it because of his status as a quirkless person? Possibly, there were rumors of people being kidnapped but all of them had quirks so it couldn't be that group."
His rambling thoughts stopped as space he was in stopped moving. The deep rumble of the engine that Izuku finally registered was turned off as he could hear two people walking around the dark space.
Bright light flooded his eyes as he blinked away the shadows in his eyes. Two burly men reached into the van and grabbed him by the torso. Not even caring to check if he was unconscious or not, they tossed him into a room before locking the door behind them.
Holding his breath, Izuku watched as he heard the shuffling of feet on the other side of the door. Looking around the area the best he could, Izuku could only see vague shadows that danced in his vision corner. The light from underneath the door only illuminated so much of the room. In the corner, there seemed to be a dark figure in the shadows, just silently standing. The room smelled weird but was strangely familiar. In what seemed like an eternity, in reality, was only ten minutes, did the door finally open.
A man wearing a very punk hairstyle while having torn-up clothes walked into the room from the door. Holding a wooden chair, he propped up Izuku on the chair and started tying his limbs to the legs of the chair.
He tugged on the ropes to check for their integrity before heading back out the door. Izuku was left in the darkroom where the pit in his stomach seemed to grow and grow.
It would be a while when the doors finally opened. Now a different man stepped into the room. His clothing, while not expensive-looking, wasn't also cheap. Wearing what seemed to be a simple white shirt and black dress pants, the man flipped on the switch to the darkroom. Lights flooded in the small corner of the room as Izuku finally saw what was standing in the shadows. A pile of bloody clothes stood on top of the bed as Izuku watched in horror as the man dragged behind him a wooden bat.
He didn't even begin to plead for mercy when the first hit from the bat impacted his chest.
Izuku woke up with a gasp. Even in his sleep, his time being kidnapped still ran rampant through his mind. Reliving the first day where he was beaten, wasn't exactly the most pleasant feeling in the world. Over the last three days of staying in the fancy hotel, Izuku had patched himself up the best he could under the circumstances.
Groaning, he rolls off the bed, moving around his bandaged limbs. The years of torment and the occasional beatings he had gotten from Bakugo, taught him how to mitigate most of the damage he had gotten during his time with his kidnappers, but that man had certainly done some damage to his body.
Ironically, this was something Bakugo really helped train him in. Learning to take hits and keeping the pain out of his mind. Not that it did much to soothe the scarring emotional pain he went through at the time.
Izuku groaned. It was barely morning, and the sun still hadn't come up. While staring blankly at his surroundings, his attention was brought to the sudden glow of his phone. Picking up the phone off the dresser, he tapped the notification bar revealing a text message.
Unknown
Hey kiddo, just to let u know that your mom was attacked last night.
Izuku took a moment to read the text. A blind panic filled him as he immediately sent a text back.
Midoriya Izuku
What do you mean that she was attacked? Is she okay?
After a few tense seconds of Izuku watching the blank screen of his phone, the text message was sent, and he received another message.
Unknown
Oh yeah she's fine, there was luckily a police officer on the scene
But most definitely the yakuza sent the grunts to either kill or kidnap ur mom
A wave of anger flooded Izuku's senses. How dare those scum try to touch his mother? Without realizing Izuku had let go of his control of Magnetism. Metal objects had clumped together and the television that sat on the opposite side of him was sparking. Luckily the phone seemed fine from the sudden magnetic burst.
Gripping his hand tightly, Izuku controlled his breathing, counting down from ten inside his head. Putting his phone inside his pajama pocket, Izuku stepped outside to the balcony. The cool morning air filled his senses as he stared off into the distance. The sky was beginning to get lighter, but the sun wasn't seen through the grey skies above.
Gripping his hands tightly on the railing, Izuku contemplated his choices. It was clear that the Yakuza weren't going to stop pursuing his family over his actions. Most likely they didn't know about him killing that part of the Yakuza, but they wanted to let go of any loose ends and decided to go after his mom.
At this point, it really felt hopeless for Izuku. He didn't have any resources to protect his mother and he couldn't be around her due to his crime of committing murder. He didn't think his conscience would allow him to live with her anyways.
This was it. This was going to be his decision. Not his mom's, not his missing dad's, and certainly not Katsuki's decision. It was up to him to try to protect the one thing he held dear to live.
Was his mom good enough that he would sacrifice everything so that she may live? Izuku didn't even need to answer that question, and he made up his mind.
Taking his phone out once again, he tapped on the screen.
Musutafu Airport
Izuku walked out of the car holding a duffle bag. Wearing his green hoodie, his bandaged face stared curiously at the jet plane. "Is that what we are taking? A private plane?"
The lady (who still hadn't introduced herself) walked up behind him. "Yep, my personal jet. Here we are going back to my homeland, and your new training room. It's sorta traditional, I guess. All Bratva guards and any potential candidates used to train there before being deployed." With her teeth glinting in the sun, the lady walked up to the stairway leading up to the jet. "There Ivan here will be training you in all the arts he knows, and possibly more for what you will need. I mean, compared to some of the monsters of the underground, you wouldn't stack up much against them, but since you somehow got out of that warehouse that night without many marks, I have high expectations for you."
Shaking her head, she walked up the stairs and disappeared into the plane. A light tap on his shoulder notified Izuku of the presence that was standing next to him. Holding his hand out, Ivan gestured to the bag, letting Izuku take the bag off of his shoulders.
Now gesturing to the plane, Ivan walked up next to the entrance of the stairway. Stepping up and getting onto the plane, Izuku took one last look around his home country, not knowing how long it was going to be for him to come back.
Perhaps. Someday he will come back. This was his choice. His opportunity to protect the one thing in his life which he treasured above all else.
Taking in one last breath he stepped onto the plane.
This is his life now.
Just to let you guys know that this is a fictional story and I have no idea of how this crime stuff works in real life. I'm just pulling inspiration from this stuff from other ways that people have portrayed such things in the media. Anyways I hope you enjoy it.