A quick note from me here, Mirko is 34, not 26. This is because I am god and I can do whatever the fuck I want. Thanks for your reviews, I do a little happy dance in my hobbit hole whenever I get a new one.
Izuku was sitting in the bar when Kurogiri stepped through a misty portal, a letter in his right hand. The man seemed to smile at him, as much as he could while lacking a physical face and handed it over to Izuku.
Shigaraki and Tomura were sat quietly in the corner of the room, and Izuku noticed they were playing video games, and Tomura seemed to be losing for once. His mother then walked into the room, and her eyes instantly locked onto the letter in her son's hand. She let out an excited 'eeep!' that caused three of the men in the bar to cringe slightly, while Kurogiri just shook his head and continued to wash glasses.
"You got it! Open it, I wanna see!" His mother babbled, Shigaraki walking over and wrapping his arms around his mother, who leaned into him. The scarred man smiled and nodded at Izuku, imploring him to do the same.
It was just a simple letter from recovery girl, informing him that he'd been accepted as her apprentice and was to come in a few days before the official start of term to make sure he knew where everything was and what his job entailed. Shigaraki nodded a bit, before speaking.
"This might be a good opportunity to find potential recruits. All you would have to do is ask for this year's student profiles, she wouldn't say no to you wanting to learn about what kind of cases you would have to treat." The man reasoned, and the concept of recruiting his year mates to their cause truly hit him. Sure, most of them were very heroic, but everyone had something that made them tick, and that could be utilized.
Tomura grumbled something about Izuku being the favorite child half-heartedly and was shocked when Inko wrapped the boy in a hug, which he returned after a few seconds.
"I'm just as much your mother as I am Izuku's now, so cheer up ok? You're going to be helping us out more directly." His mother said, her head resting on Tomura's shoulder. The older boy shot Izuku a smug look, and Izuku flipped him off. The family had a large dinner afterward, to celebrate Izuku's acceptance into UA's employ. There was definitely a joke about Asian parents to be made there, but Izuku wasn't going to comment.
A few days later he got dressed into the new uniform that UA had mailed him, a white student's uniform with a red cross stitched onto the arm and breast, and walked through the gates of the school to start the first day of his apprenticeship to become a medical hero. Recovery girl met him at the door, greeting him with a smile and a hug, before leading him into a new office that had been constructed for them both, that doubled as a small classroom if needed.
UA was going to start running an elective first-aid course for aspiring heroes to be able to branch out the ways they could aid people when responding to callouts. They would also use this classroom for his private medical courses, which would cover the general healing syllabus. For his practical lessons, he would join class 1A, and shadow them, providing support when needed.
He nodded and followed the tour around UA's campus and facilities. The tour ended back at recovery girls' offices, and he made the request for the profiles like all for one had told him to.
"You want the files for your classmates?" She said, raising an eyebrow at him. "Why?" There was no hint of suspicion on her face. Izuku smiled and waved his hand.
"Well, if they're the people I'm gonna be treating the most right? It would be good to know the kinda things that I'm gonna be treating the most right?" Recovery girl made an approving noise, and moved to a filing cabinet, taking out a folder, then handing it over to him.
It was filled with data on his current classmates, and several of them caught his interest. There were several of them that had distinct features, Mezo shoji's Dupli-arms and Kyoka Jiro's earphone jacks seemed to be because of their quirks, but another student caught his attention. Ichiro Doku was photographed with a black gas mask covering the bottom half of his face. His quirk was interesting too, gas exchange.
Gas exchange allows the user to convert gasses such as breathable air into more toxic substances with no detriment to the user. Lung capacity and quantity of gas also seems to be multiplied for an unexplained reason. For example, if the user took in ten litres of common air, they would be able to breathe out one hundred liters of mustard gas. During the exam, user breathed out several thousand liters of Aerosolised PETN (pentaerythritol tetranitrate) and then set it alight with a lighter. Explosion destroyed a large quantity of arena G.
Okay, that was ridiculous. He had to restrain himself from laughing aloud. Jesus, he hoped he could get this kid on his side because fighting him would be a massive pain in the ass. His quirk was insanely powerful but didn't explain the gas mask. Must be a personal thing he supposed.
"So, I should be expected to be clearing a lot of gas out of people's respiratory systems then?" Recovery girl gave a dark chuckle and nodded.
"Dangerous quirk, but very powerful if used correctly. Do you remember the blast crater in Venue G? That was one attack from his quirk." Izuku shivered. Yep, needed to recruit this kid fast.
He was surprised by how many of his classmates had underlying health conditions. Kirishima's physical showed that he had been badly scarred and refused to answer why. Bakugo had been diagnosed with clinical depression due to accidentally causing a classmate's suicide, for which he showed great remorse. A girl named ochaco had been diagnosed with mild malnutrition, Tenya iidas teeth showed wear from frequent clenching, and half of Doku's face had been rotted away from constant gas exposure. Mezo shoji had facial dysmorphia and was permitted to wear a mask for comfort, and Denki Kaminari had a mild case of multiple personality disorder. Finally, Shoto Todoroki also had bad facial scarring, and depression to boot.
Izuku shook his head, his class was a large bunch of fixer-uppers, but he was already willing to help with them. The day ended, and he bid goodbye to recovery girl, slinging his backpack over his shoulder, and walking out of the building.
He was lost in thought about ways to approach his classmates, he couldn't exactly just say 'Hey, I'm a villain masquerading as a friendly medical apprentice! Want to cause some domestic terrorism with me?" He shifted back to his Izuku form while no one was looking, and about ten minutes later, felt a presence behind him. He walked into an alley, and they followed. Back still turned, Izuku spoke out.
"Who are you, and why are you following me." The voice that responded was female and fairly familiar to him.
"I wanted to say thank you, I didn't get a chance to do it properly back in the alley." Izuku turned and saw Himiko toga, if he was remembering that name correctly. She was in her cream sailors' outfit, blonde hair up in messy buns. Her golden cat-like eyes were fixed on the ground, not making eye contact. He sighed and rubbed the back of his head.
"It was nothing, I just did what any person would have." He said, trying to explain. Toga shook her head and looked up at him, and Izuku realized that her eyes were glistening with tears.
"No! Don't you dare downplay it! Most people would have just walked past, but you ran to help me! Do you know what would have happened if you'd left?" She said, her voice slightly hysterical. Izuku suddenly clicked, raped. She would have been raped, then God knows what else. His eyes went dead, thinking how insensitive he'd been then. Toga rushed forward and wrapped her arms around him crying into his chest. "Thank you, I don't know how to express it, but thank you!"
He did his best to try and comfort her, gently placing her arms around her as she sobbed into his chest. It was then he noticed how small she was compared to him. They stayed like that for a few minutes, toga clinging onto him like a drowning person to a life ring, and Izuku clumsily patting her back, telling her everything was gonna be okay. He heard warping air behind him, and then a relieved sigh. He turned to see Tomura standing there, grinning a bit.
"Oh, there you are, Shigaraki was worried that you'd been compromised, but you've just got a girlfriend instead." The older man chuckled as Izuku flipped him off. Toga peeked around his chest, blushing slightly.
"Who's that?" She timidly asked, arms still around the green-haired boy. Izuku sighed and rubbed his face.
"It's complicated, but he's basically my older brother. Tomura, this is Himiko toga, Toga, this is my kinda older brother Tomura Shigaraki." Toga nodded a bit, and Shigaraki scratched the back of his head with his gloved hand.
"Your mom and Shigaraki are worried, I'm gonna take a guess that your new girlfriend wants to come along too." Izuku once again repeated that toga was not his girlfriend, but the girl nodded that she wanted to come along.
She clung to his arm as they walked through the portal into the bar. Inko was about ready to start yelling until she saw the red-eyed girl on Izuku's arm. She instantly switched into concerned mother mode.
"Izuku oh my goodness, who's this?" Izuku nodded to Shigaraki, who had a mildly amused look on his scarred face, sipping from a glass of whiskey. He turned back to his mother and smiled.
"Hi mom, I'm fine. Met somebody on the way home, do you remember me talking about toga? She tracked me down to thank me." He said, omitting the crying part, he didn't think toga would like it if he just told that to everybody. Shigaraki chuckled a bit, raising his glass to Izuku.
"You're not even sixteen and you've already got a fangirl, good going kid." The man laughed as he ducked a glass that was hurled at him by Inko, and Toga's eyes snapped to the woman in surprise.
"Your titan!" The green-haired woman turned back to toga, a kind smile back in place.
"Yes, I am. I'm surprised you could recognize me from just that little bit of showing off." Toga blushed a bit and tried to behind Izuku as she admitted.
"I'm a big fan." This caused the whole bar to descend into laughter, as Inko gently pried Toga of off Izuku's arm, and hugged the girl.
"It's always nice to meet a fan. I'm sorry that I couldn't be there to reign your father in, god knows what he did to you." The woman spoke soothingly to the younger girl. Toga nodded, and Inko let go. She looked around, her eyes falling on people that she idolized.
"Is there any way I could help you?" The girl asked, blushing. She felt that she might have overstepped slightly but was relieved when the large man in the corner nodded and stood up.
"Of course, Ms. Toga, but that depends, what's your quirk?" Himiko blushed but explained.
"Well, it allows me to change into another person when I ingest their blood. It allows me to mimic everything about their appearance, right down to fingerprints and retinal patterns. The amount of time I can spend as that person is directly proportional to how much of their blood I drink." Without his expression changing a millimetre from the cool, calm collected villain mafia boss he was, Shigaraki walked over and placed his massive hand on toga's shoulder, his red eyes boring into her gold ones. He broke into a grin as he smiled down at her.
"Congratulations, you're hired!" Inko threw another glass at Shigaraki, yelling.
"She's not an employee, she's a sixteen-year-old girl!" Toga smiled, it already felt like she was a part of the family.
On the second day of his pre-apprenticeship, he was introduced to the UA staff. Vlad king, Eraserhead, and snipe were all polite but clearly didn't care much about him. It hurt, but it was understandable. Midnight gave him a hug, which was strange, as she was his mother's age, and dressed in her skimpy hero outfit. Izuku didn't stare.
What really surprised him, however, was that all might had been elected to be the new hero studies teacher. He didn't think the man could teach; he'd practically dropped off the face of the earth after his fight with Shigaraki. He'd been training his apprentice off in America.
What shocked him the most about the man was how cold he was to him. After coldly questioning him about his last name and appearance, he'd walked away without even apologizing about accusing an innocent student of being a spy for a dead man. Izuku had given a cold reply to his questions by telling the man he was an orphan and had no memories of a time before he was. The fact that his accusations were correct played no part in the matter.
Recovery girl had consolidated him, telling him that he wasn't usually like this, and he must just be in a bad mood, all the usual stuff. He told her that he didn't care and that he had made it quite clear that he didn't like him because he looked like a father he didn't remember.
A few lessons on bedside manner later, the half-day ended, and Recovery girl smiled and said that she was looking forward to collaborating with him when school started properly tomorrow. He said goodbye and walked out of the school again.
Toga met him at the gates, and the two walked together back to the bar. When he stepped inside he was shocked to see the back of a large man with the head of an orca.
"Uhm, Shigaraki, why is gang orca here?" Instead of responding, the fish-headed man stood, and izuku gulped, toga already on the other side of the room. The man was immense, almost seven and a half feet tall. He walked over to him, and he was shocked when the man started to let out a series of calls and clicks. For some unknown reason, subtitles appeared in his vision.
"Hello there Mr. Midoriya. My name is Kugo Sakamata, I'm an old friend of your parents." Izuku nodded, reading the subtitles, then he shivered.
"Why are the subtitles in comic sans?" Shigaraki cracked at that, bursting into loud laughter. Gang orca rubbed his nose… snout? He wasn't sure, but he rubbed it. The orca man then spoke in English.
"It's meant to make me seem non-threatening if I talk in a font for children, I just think it annoys people." The orca man rubbed his throat and resumed clicking. "Jesus that's murder on the throat. I prefer to just use this; my normal voice sounds demonic apparently." And it did, harsh, throaty, and loud. Izuku nodded.
"So, the number ten hero speaks in comic sans, why is my life so weird?" Izuku said, and the orca man gave a chuckling laugh, which was a series of short quick clicks. Hahahahaha snaked across his vision. Izuku looked at Shigaraki.
"This is your doing isn't it?" The white-haired man was still chuckling as gang orca resumed his seat and nodded.
"It is, Kugo here asked me for a way to appeal to people more, and to stop his throat from hurting so much, so I put an amplifier on his Orcinus quirk, which made him talk like a whale, and a subtitle quirk, which translated all of his clicks into Japanese!" The orca man sighed, and nodded
"It's annoying, but I can't deny it doesn't work, the bonus power to my quirk didn't hurt either. In exchange, I worked as an enforcer for a few years, until he went into hiding." The orca hero clicked. Izuku raised an eyebrow at Shigaraki.
"For a villain boss, you sure seem to know a lot of high-profile heroes." Shigaraki shrugged slightly.
"An old American mob technique from the pre-quirk days. If your friends with the people who are trying to catch you, they aren't really trying to catch you, more like keep you out. It's why I was never caught." The man explained, and izuku nodded. That was actually quite smart, and the green-haired teen snorted.
"Next your gonna tell me that Mirko used to work for you too!" Shigaraki smirked at him and gestured to his mother. Izuku's jaw dropped as he looked at his mother, who had a smug expression on her face. "Fuck off, did she really?"
"Language young man, and yes, she did. Rumi used to work as at one of my clubs, no not that kind, get your mind out of the gutter young man." She said, in response to her son blushing when she mentioned 'Clubs.' "She was a bartender, and soon figured out she was working in a racket, then asked for a higher position. We gave her training and then set her up with an internship with crimson riot. We still talk from time to time." The woman said, a wistful expression on his face.
"So, wait, how many heroes have you had working for you?" Shigaraki looked up, running some mental maths, before looking back down at Izuku.
"Between us? I'd say a sold 30% of the current heroes have worked for us before. In the past, it was closer to 50%." The man explained, and gang orca nodded.
"About ten or fifteen years ago, there were many stories of amateur pros who suddenly shot up in the rankings or new ones that appeared out of nowhere with powerful quirks. When asked where they got this kind of power boost, they'd always say something along the lines of 'My family helped me.' In reality, the family was what they called the organization run by your parents." Izuku looked at Shigaraki
"So, you are my dad then?" The white-haired man grinned and nodded.
"I had a test done with a saliva sample I took while you were sleeping, I knew that you'd forget so I did it for you." Izuku nodded and looked back at gang orca, who continued.
"The family became an infamous organization in the criminal underworld, and the most wanted. The problem was that every member, or former member of the family had to take an oath not to betray their trust, or bad things would happen. Take Radiant for example." Shigaraki winced but nodded for the man to continue. Izuku's face scrunched up, trying to place a face to the name, but he couldn't.
"I don't think I've heard of him before." Izuku said, and Gang orca nodded.
"Exactly. Radiant was a top twenty hero about twenty years ago, and a former member of the family. Before he joined his quirk only let him glow a bit, but after a few months 'vacation with his family' It allowed him to glow as bright as a small star, and he soon shot up the rankings. About two or three years after he left, He leaked inside information on the location of one of the family's warehouses on promised bonus. He did, and the place got raided, it wasn't a major warehouse, but it still hurt to loose it. He was found dead the next day, drowned to death and washed up on the beach, my work." The man said, and Izuku was shocked that he just freely admitted to murder, but he supposed that in the presence of the most dangerous man in Japan you don't skimp on details.
"A few months later nobody even remembered he existed, we'd relocated his relatives to America with new identities, and no-one would question the disappearance of a hero nobody new." Gang orca finished and got a nod from Shigaraki.
"Correct. The family was a gateway to power, one I plan to recreate, with both your, and your mother's help. Are you with me son?" Izuku turned to Shigaraki and nodded.
"I am."
A/n here! I'm really excited for the next chapter, it's probably some of the best writing I've ever done, and I think this will split it off from other stories kinda like this one, or at least I hope it will. Chapters should stay about 3.5k words, with them being longer when I need them to, like the next chapter which clocks in at 4k. Please review, it really does help me, even if you tell me it's shit and that I should change it, tell me why it's shit, thanks XD.
Cheers, see yall in the next one.