Dragon Rider

Chapter 6: What happened in Hosu

Momo leaned low over the motorcycle as she weaved through the traffic of Hosu. The flashing red and blue lights and the siren let people know to get out of the way, but with how fast she was moving they didn't get much of a chance. She was chasing after a purse snatcher with some form of agility quirk. He was running over the cars, using their speed to aid in his escape.

The purse snatcher leapt off another car as they neared an intersection and landed atop one going the opposite direction. Momo cursed as she whipped the bike around in the intersection, traffic from all sides slamming to a stop.

She managed to turn fully around just in time to see Ingenium drive a fist into the man's face and send him skipping down the street. Iida was there in an instant, slapping quirk suppressing cuffs around his wrists before he could get up.

"Well done brother," Iida praised as Momo pulled up along side them.

Ingenium laughed and the two brothers fell into easy chatter. Well, Ingenium made it seem easy. Iida sounded as stiff as always.

"You deserve praise as well Creati," Ingenium called out. "You're better at city navigation than I would have expected."

"Thank you," Momo said with a small bow of her head. "It's far more exhilarating than I would have thought."

"I know what you mean," Ingenium laughed, one hand naturally rising to the back of his helmet as if to ruffle his hair. "It's really something else having the wind in your hair."

The irony was not lost on Momo, whose own helmet prevented her from feeling the wind as well.

"Brother, we need to get this villain to the police," Iida reminded them.

"Right," Ingenium nodded. "We'll have to fill out a decent amount of paperwork since the chase ended up as high speed as it did."

"Is that a problem?" Momo asked. She had been the one to reach the fastest speeds besides perhaps the villain himself. Was there some sort of speed limit to observe when in a high-speed chase?

"Not really," Ingenium shook his head. "It's just annoying."

"Lead the way then," Momo nodded.

Ingenium hefted the villain over his shoulder and looked back at the two of them, even beneath the helmet you could just feel the smirk.

"Try and keep up."

Momo's everything hurt as she sat down at a table for dinner within the large IidaTen cafeteria. The motorcycle was a necessity for keeping up with the Iida brothers. It was apparently something a lot of Ingenium's sidekicks had to utilize when working directly with the hero. She had not expected it to make her as sore as it did.

"Greetings Yaoyorozu!" Iida nearly shouted as he sat down with her. "Are you almost ready to return to patrol?"

"We're going back out?" she asked, doing her best not to groan at the thought.

"Yes," Iida nodded. Bless his poor observation skills, he didn't seem to notice her attitude. "We are rejoining the hunt for Stain."

That sent a jolt through Momo. "Is that wise?" she gasped. "Your brother was already a target."

"Not to worry, Yaoyorozu," Iida assured with a shake of his head. "Tensei believes that as long as no one is left alone then the risk is low. Apparently, Stain relies heavily on ambush tactics."

"That makes sense, I suppose," Momo relented, though she still felt apprehensive about it.

"We'll be returning to the streets as soon as you are done eating," Iida told her. "Tensei says for you to meet us at his office and then we will be off."

"Okay," Momo agreed.

Still, as she watched Iida leave the cafeteria, she wondered if everything would be okay.

Momo was thanking every god she could think of that they had decided to forgo speed for this patrol in favor of doing a thorough search of the area. It meant they were walking on foot and she was able to leave the motorcycle behind at the agency.

"A lot of big name heroes have been called in to help with the search," Ingenium explained as they walked through the streets, now only lit by the light of the street lamps.

"Isn't that a good thing?" Momo asked.

"For public safety, sure," Ingenium agreed. "But it also probably spooked him. If Stain has half a brain cell he's halfway across Japan by now."

"Oh," Momo murmured. That made sense. So then this would just be a normal patrol, right?

"That doesn't mean we should let our guard down," Ingenium corrected as if he could hear her thoughts. "But I wouldn't stress too hard. Does that make sense?"

"Absolutely," Iida jumped to assure his brother, though Momo was uncertain if she agreed. How could one relax without letting their guard down?

Still, Ingenium seemed pleased with his brother's praise. They returned to a neutral quiet as they continued walking down the street, peering into any alleyway they passed.

"So Creati, I've been meaning to ask," Ingenium broke the silence after a few more minutes. "Why'd you pick IidaTen for your internship? I'm sure you got plenty of better offers."

"Nonesense!" Iida cried out in indignation. "Brother, you are one of the greatest heroes of your generation! You're a top fifty hero!"

"And I'm quite sure Best Jeanist would have loved to take on an intern with as much poise as Creati has shown," Ingenium countered. "Someone willing to risk losing the finals in favor of allowing their opponent an opportunity to show their skill is exactly his kind of hero."

It was true. She had gotten an offer from the number four hero.

"A friend helped me realize that rank didn't matter," Momo explained. "I chose you because it is well known that you are a good hero with remarkable leadership and teamwork."

"Well, I don't know about all that," Ingenium laughed. "But regardless I'm glad you joined us. It's been a real treat having you."

"Thank you, sir," Momo bowed.

An explosion from further in the city had all three of them forgetting the conversation and staring at where the flames rose higher. Ingenium raised a hand to his helmet and Momo assumed he was listening to someone from the office.

"Alright, I'm on my way," he said after a moment. He turned back to the two of them and his demeanor had turned all business. "A gas line exploded downtown. I've been called in to assist with the evacuation of the nearby buildings."

"We'll come with you!" Iida proclaimed immediately.

"If we had brought the bike, maybe," Ingenium shook his head. "Without it Creati can't keep up and I need to get there fast. I need the two of you to go back to the agency and wait for me there."

"But I can come with you!" Iida argued defensively.

"Sorry bud," Ingenium consoled him as he put on his armored shoulder. It was a touch strange to watch given the only obvious difference between the armored forms was their height and placement of their mufflers. "I can't leave Creati on the streets alone. Remember, Stain might still be out here. So you two head back together and I'll come grab you once it's over."

Ingenium waited for Iida to nod before he turned and began racing away, the engines on his elbows roaring to life with a sound not unlike plane turbines. He stopped a few blocks away to turn and shout to them.

"And if you see Stain, use your quirks and run away!"

He turned back around, and in a flash of white and blue streaked down the road and out of sight. After a moment, Iida sighed.

"I suppose we should be heading back," he bemoaned.

"Right," Momo agreed.

They turned and retraced their steps. The silence that filled the space between them was more awkward than it had been with Ingenium there. Iida was simply far too stiff and without his brother to mellow him out, he defaulted to what basically amounted to a forward march.

Momo sighed and did her best to keep an eye around them. She got a touch distracted when down one of the alleys they were passing she spotted a shadow moving, but when she paused for a moment, it revealed itself to be a stray dog. A sigh of relief and she returned her attention to the main road, only to find Iida was gone.

"Iida?" Momo called out.

She didn't get an answer, which only made the sudden cold pit in her stomach all the more obvious.

She took off running, looking into every alley as she passed. He wasn't in any of them.

Okay Momo, she tried to take deep calming breathes. Calm down and think. Iida has a speed quirk, but even he couldn't have made it that far. I didn't hear his engines.

With that realization Momo ran back to the alley immediately after the one she had found the stray in and ran down it. It didn't dead end, rather it opened up to another alleyway that ran behind the building and the ones of the next street over. She whipped around the corner, and what she found froze her in place as cold seeped through her entire being.

It took her only a second to take it all in. Iida was lying face down on the dirty alley floor, a growing puddle or red beneath him. It was blood, flowing from a sword stabbed into his shoulder. Standing above him, twisting the jagged katana as he leered down, was the Hero Killer: Stain.

"Iida!" Momo cried out.

A flash. Momo raised her arms on instinct and cried out as white-hot pain consumed her forearm. Momo's eyes blew open wide as she saw the throwing knife plunged deep into her arm.

Her heart was pounding in her ears as her mind tried to catch up with what was happening. She almost missed that Stain was speaking.

"And who are you supposed to be, girl?" Stain spat.

Momo was still too shocked to answer. She was feeling faint. Was it shock? Blood loss? Fear?

"Another fake I suppose," Stain growled. He barely sounded human. He turned back to Iida and the venom in his eyes was enough for Momo to instinctively flinch away. "I don't know how this one managed to get back on his feet so fast, but if he wants to spurn my mercy then he will taste my steel once again."

"Again?" Iida gasped, but Momo's mind was clearing.

Again. He thought Iida was Ingenium. The hero killer had returned to finish the job.

"Why Ingenium?" Momo called out, trying to stall for time and get Iida to realize what was going on. In the meantime, she produced a small distress beacon, one that would remain beneath her suit and send an S.O.S. on the hero comm network.

"I do not expect someone like you to understand," Stain sneered, barely even raising his eyes to look at her. "Your costume tells me everything I need to know about you."

The way Stain said costume was like it disgusted him. Did he think she wore this for attention? Unimportant. She needed to focus.

"But Ingenium is a good hero," Momo argued.

"This spoiled brat is nothing but a legacy," Stain growled, his full attention on her now as he glared with that same venom he had sent at Iida. This time Momo refused to flinch away. "A third generation legacy, whose success and prestige are only thanks to the hard work of others. A hero who only acts because it is expected of him!"

"That's not true!" Iida cried. "Ingenium is a hero to help those in need!"

Stain looked down and his face twisted with disgust. He ripped the sword out of Iida's shoulder, the jagged edge tearing and ripping the flesh apart. He was already bringing the sword back down.

Momo didn't think, she just moved. Her hand shot out and she produced a sword so quickly she nearly threw it out of her skin. She ignored the way her injured left arm ached as she moved. Her good hand closed firmly around the handle and she thrust forward, barely making it time to intercept the blade before it could strike at Iida again. The sound of steel scratching steel filled the alley.

"You," Stain spat with another growl as his eyes burned with fury and locked onto Momo yet again.

Then his foot was in Momo's stomach. The spikes tore into her exposed skin and she felt blood pouring down her as she leapt away.

Stain was already following, his tongue shooting out towards her in a way that was too inhuman to not be from a quirk. Momo didn't want to find out what that was about. She brought her sword up and swatted the hyper-long tongue away.

Stain yelped in pain as he too jumped back. He stared at her, his face twisting in anger.

"You want to die so badly, harlot," Stain growled. "Fine."

Stain lunged forward again, his katana swinging through the air so fast it left a silver streak behind it. As fast as he was, Momo couldn't help but think that he was nowhere near as fast as Izuku. She would have to thank him for the sparring.

Her blade met his, but before she could take satisfaction in that she saw him reach for another throwing knife. Momo leapt backwards as the villain threw the knife, barely raising her sword in time to deflect it out of the air.

She had missed that he had thrown a second blade. She had moved enough in deflecting the first one that it only grazed her shoulder, but it still cut deep.

"You've already failed," Stain informed her. "You failed the moment you gave away your presence in this alley."

Momo felt fear clutch at her heart. Was he right? Had she already lost? The pain of her wounds was overwhelming. It was a struggle to keep her sword in front of her.

"Failures and struggles are not things to look down upon," a familiar calming voice rang through her mind. For one moment Momo wondered if he was actually here, but she remembered those words. He'd said them to her before the sport's festival. This may have been a million times more stressful than the sport's festival, but the words helped all the same.

Stain seemed to grow angry as her resolve was reaffirmed. He threw a trio of knives and Momo deflected each of them. She went on the offensive, pushing her way towards the villain. Their swords clashed, but Momo pushed herself to new speeds against the villain. He was slipping.

Momo finally found the perfect opening, coming in low for a slash across his chest as the villain was still flailing with his arms over his head. It wasn't enough to actually hit him, but it forced him to leap backwards, and Momo was finally able to properly put herself between the serial killer and Iida.

"Iida, can you stand?" Momo asked, never taking her eyes off the enraged villain before her.

"No," Iida said through gritted teeth. "Some form of paralysis."

"Right," Momo nodded. "Keep trying."

That was all she got to say before Stain was on her once again. Their swords met again and again. Momo was a million times more experienced with the blade than the villain. That much was obvious. She had more training. She had sparred with people more. Sparred with people with such skill that they made her seem like a child with a stick. Stain though was wielding his blade as little more than a club. It should have been easy.

But Momo was hurting. The adrenaline in her system was helping, but even it couldn't stop the ache of the blade in her left arm. She had produced a bandage over the cut on her shoulder to stop the bleeding almost instantly, but it did little to help with the pain it caused every time she moved her sword. She was flagging.

"Are you really willing to die for him?" Stain asked as he swung his sword yet again.

"It's a hero's job to stand between villains like you and the innocent," Momo retorted. "If it costs me my life, so be it."

She wasn't angry per se. She was definitely annoyed, and in pain, and tired. She was ready for this fight to be over. But it was all she could do to keep Stain back. He was too fast for her to properly attack.

"Quite right!" a new voice bellowed.

Momo knew that voice and it sent a wave of relief rushing through her. From the wide eyes, Stain knew what was coming too. A reckoning.

Momo didn't see him attack, but she felt the wind rip against her as if Jade had just landed before her. All Might stood where the Hero Killer once had, and the crumpled form of Stain was now lying beneath the heavy foot of the number one hero himself.

Momo collapsed to the floor in exhaustion. All Might was here. Everything was fine now.

Momo was in a hospital bed across from Iida. Iida hadn't awoken since his surgery, but she was told that it had gone well and he was expected to make a full recovery. She was glad, but still she hated that he had gotten injured in the first place. Maybe if she had been faster. Maybe if she hadn't stopped to investigate that alleyway. Maybe if she had called out to Iida before investigating.

A knock on the door drug her out of her ruminations. Standing in the doorway was All Might, Ingenium who was sans his helmet, and the detective from the USJ.

"Good afternoon young Yaoyorozu," All Might greeted, his voice gentler than Momo had ever heard it before. "Are you feeling well enough for detective Tsukauchi to take a statement?"

"Of course," Momo nodded, sitting a little straighter.

Her injuries hadn't been that bad. Just a few stitches really, though she would have to keep an eye on the injury on her arm and probably undergo a little physical therapy once it had fully healed. Unless she got Recovery Girl to heal it. Or perhaps Izuku. Would it be rude of her to ask?

"I'm afraid I don't have much to work on yet," Tsukauchi said as he took a seat in a plastic chair he moved from the edge of the room to the foot of the bed. "Why don't you begin at the point Ingenium left you during your patrol."

"After Ingenium left, we turned around and headed back for the agency, remaining vigilant as we walked since Stain was still a threat," Momo explained. The detective took notes as she spoke. "At one point I investigated a shadow down an alley. It was just a dog though. When I turned back, I found Iida missing. I performed a brief search and found him already injured by the hero killer. I tried to distract him while calling for aid, only engaging when it became clear he intended to kill Iida."

Ingenium gasped. "Why would he attack Iida?" he asked angrily. "It doesn't make any sense."

Momo considered not answering, but ultimately decided it could help the investigation. "He believed Iida was you sir and was angry that you had managed to return to duty so quickly after your injury."

Ingenium was pale.

"I see, did you use your quirk?" Tsukauchi asked her, pushing the conversation along.

"Yes," Momo nodded. "When he lunged for the killing blow I used my quirk to produce a sword to protect my classmate better and I used it to treat my injuries as well."

"That must have been quite stressful," All Might said sadly.

"Yes," Momo agreed. "Thank you for saving us. I'm not sure I could have held out much longer."

"You shouldn't sell yourself so short, young Yaoyorozu," All Might chuckled. "You looked to have the villain well in hand from my perspective."

"Well, I don't think I have any other questions," Tsukauchi sighed as he put away the notebook. "Officially capture of the hero killer will go to All Might, and your involvement will be kept out of the news. You may tell others of course but try not to tell too many. It wouldn't do for the public to know two students came so close to a serial killer."

"Of course," Momo agreed.

"Then I'm afraid I must be off," Tsukauchi said.

"I should call our parents," Ingenium grumbled. "Mom'll want to know the details."

The two left and Momo expected All Might to follow as well, but the hero stayed. He seemed to be lingering and wrung his hands awkwardly in front of him as he looked at her.

"Is everything okay?" Momo asked him.

"Well," All Might coughed awkwardly. "I was very impressed with your actions in that alleyway."

"Thank you," Momo bowed her head. It was nice to hear, and it helped assuage some of her doubts.

"Did you mean what you said to him?"

"What?" Momo asked, looking back up at the hero.

"About the duty of a hero?" All Might asked. "Were you truly willing to die to save young Iida?"

"Yes sir," Momo nodded. "Though I am grateful I did not have to."

"I am as well," All Might agreed with an awkward chuckle. "Still, it is a truly heroic thing to be willing to sacrifice yourself to save others. You have a good heart young Yaoyorozu."

"Thank you," Momo said, the praise filling her chest with a warm sense of pride.

All Might turned to leave but he paused at the door. He looked back at her with a clearly pensive expression.

"When you return to campus, I would like to continue our conversation," All Might told her. "I have something I think we ought to discuss."

"Yes sir," Momo agreed, though she did give the hero a questioning glance. The hero gave nothing away as he waved her off.

"Don't worry about that just yet," he told her. "Relax and recover. We will talk more."

With that the hero left and Momo was left alone in the hospital room with an unconscious Iida.