Chapter 12

Having already gone through the wringer for the day, Izuku was sitting watching Ais pummel Yaoyorozu. Something about the fact that it wasn't him getting the shit kicked out of them made him somewhat happy, but at the same time for some reason, he really didn't like watching Yaoyorozu suffer like this. He was conflicted, to say the least.

Ais once again slammed her sheath into Yaoyorozu's shoulder causing the girl to drop her weapon, quickly she made another but the top pro kicked it on the flat breaking it in a few seconds. Momo created another shield but the tip of the sheath easily broke through it, Yaoyorozu stumbled back due to the force of the attack. Ais saw this and jumped into action. Her knee found its way right into the stomach of the teenager, Yaoyorozu fell to the ground and all her breath left her at that moment causing her to struggle to get back up.

Ais noticed this and then quickly turned her attention to Izuku who was not ready at all. She rushed over to the unsuspecting teen and swept him out from under his leg, Izuku fell down and Ais planted her foot on his chest not allowing him to get back up. "Too slow." Her weapon smacked him on the chin. "But we'll work on that." Izuku got back to his feet as she let him up.

"Until now every time you use your quirk you shout right?" Ais questioned the young teen.

"Yeah. Why?" Izuku asked as he tilted his head at the woman.

"You don't have to shout." Izuku got even more confused at what the blonde woman said.

"There are three types of quirk, transformation types, mutant types and emitter types. Within these types are sub quirk types. A good example of this is Fat Gum, he has an accumulation type quirk. Quirks like yours fall under the chant category, like mine. With chant quirks, it's a common misconception that you need to shout it to active them, watch me." She said as she took a few steps back. "Tempest." She said in a calm voice. Wind was visibly flowing around her, it shot itself up her blade covering it in pure power. "Now you try." She said as she relaxed and the wind dissipated.

Izuku raised his right hand. "Firebolt." He said in barely a whisper, the scarlet flames that looked almost like lightning shot out of his hand and toward a wall where it slammed and stopped. 'I've never thought about trying it without shouting.'

"Good job, now let's back to our usual training." Izuku gulped.

A woman was sitting on a red almost throne-like seat was watching the 2 train from through the window, she held a wine glass in her right hand - the glass itself was filled to about halfway with red wine which the woman swirled around. "Ottar?"

"Yes, my lady." The tall boar man stood beside the silver-haired woman his rust like eyes staring the woman down.

"His soul has grown once again. Yet I wish for it to shine brighter, Any ideas?" The woman asked the tall man.

Ottar answered almost immediately "Perhaps he needs to overcome his fears." The boar man suggested to which the woman's eyes widened.

"Do you think time will solve this problem?" The woman asked.

"Yes absolutely, however…" The man's words lingered in the air as the woman turned her head up to look at him. "...Those who do not go on adventures will never break out of their shells." The man's words hung for a few seconds as the woman looked back through the window, she knew he was right after all he was the number 2 hero so he had to know something about it. It annoyed her to admit but it seems Ottar understands him more than she does. "I leave him in your hands, Ottar." And that alone makes her jealous.

"Yes, Lady Freya." The man said as he walked out of the door and toward the exit of the building, he knew exactly what to pit against the boy in order to make him grow. He now simply has to find it.

Standing in the bloody alleyway was a man draped in black with a blood-red scarf hanging around his neck and forehead. His blade dripping with the blood of a recently slain hero, he whipped the blade through the air before quickly stopping, all the blood flung itself off the blade and added itself to the pool of expanding blood on the ground.

The bustling sounds of the streets filled the back alleyways of Hosu city, he leapt up into the air and planted his feet on a nearby wall of less than a second before leaping further up the wall. He reached the rooftop of the building and looked out over the rest of the city, the bright shine of the sun was in stark contrast to the darkness in the alley. He stepped over to the edge and squatted down. Something about the people walking around smiles covering their faces made him remember why everyone can smile, the one man he looked up to. The only true hero All Might was the reason the world was happy, knowing they had someone like him to watch over them. He let a smile creep onto his face, though anyone that saw it would instantly realise that his smile was nothing like the people on the ground, no his was…

Evil.

He opened his eyes and was staring at the roof of the room he was in, something about being slammed onto the floor over and over again was becoming slightly relaxing. Until he quickly remembered that there are two girls standing around watching him get knocked out over and over again. Izuku quickly shot up into a sitting position, looked around and saw Ais and Yaoyorozu training. 'How long was I out for?'

"Oh good, you're awake." Ais said as she turned to face Izuku, Yaoyorozu saw this and began swinging at the woman. Ais dodged them all without getting hit once. Izuku looked down toward the ground, Yaoyorozu went in for another attack but was stopped by Ais placing her hand in front of the girl, she then quickly followed the woman's gaze and saw Izuku looking rather down about something. "Is something bothering you?"

Izuku looked back up toward the two. "Umm, am I getting any stronger?" Izuku asked clearly this was bothering him a lot.

"Why do you want to know?" Ais asked back.

"It's just I keep getting knocked out so I was curious."

Ais looked him dead in the eyes and answered his question. "Yes and very fast…Enough to surprise me." Izuku was caught off guard by the compliment. "And it's most likely my fault that you keep passing out, I keep forgetting my own strength."

The mood in the room dropped very fast as Ais's face showed clear sadness in it. "Can I ask you something?" The woman said as she looked toward Izuku. "Go ahead."

"Why are you growing so fast?" Izuku was taken aback, was he really getting stronger that fast. There was no way right? Then a reason that may or may not be tied to why he was getting strong appeared in his head.

"I think it's because I have someone I want to catch up to no matter what, I put all my effort into catching up to this person." Izuku looked down clearly embarrassed by what he was saying but continued forward anyway. "I have a clear goal that I have to reach no matter what."

"Hmm." Was all Ais did after Izuku had announced that. "Training is done today, be up bright and early tomorrow. We're going on patrol in Hosu." Both teens eyes widened at that, they were going to patrol where the hero killer was most recently. Just knowing that he could be there was enough to send shivers down both teens spines. "So make sure you are prepared."

"Yes, Ma'am!" The two shouted as their back straightened.

The three woke up got into their hero costumes and did their regular training which consisted of Ais beating the two to a pulp. All in all could be worse, like having to deal with certain people. Images of Bakugo and All Might flashed in his mind but he shook them off and quickly dodged another one of Ais's strikes, to which she kicked him in the knee and brought her weapon down onto his stomach as he fell.

The three made their way through the town. "It's the Sword Princess!" The shouts and cheers coming from all over the place homed in on these three. "Wait aren't you the one that won the sports festival?" Someone asked then a small group found their way around Izuku. Yaoyorozu stood there watching, she felt very out of place here. Nobody was coming near her all of them just walking over to Izuku or Ais, something about that hurt her. "Weren't you in the sports festival too?" Yaoyorozu turned around to face the sole voice and saw no one? She looked around for a second trying to find where the voice came from, until she saw hands pushing themselves into her vision from below.

She looked down and saw a small girl in a cream jacket that covered her entire body, there were lumps in her hood that stood near the top of her head. Looking at her she had chestnut hair and eyes, looking at her from a top-down angle Yaoyorozu could hints of red and white under the jacket. The girl carried a smile but for some reason, Yaoyorozu could tell that something was off about the girl, though she couldn't actually tell what was wrong.

"Liliiruca hurry up." Yaoyorozu followed the sound of the voice and saw another girl though this one had blonde hair and a yellow cardigan. The girl quickly ran off and chased after her friend.

The three then quickly got away from the crowds and made their way into a train. As they rode it into Hosu there were a few people in the train that came up to them, most of them were children and teens. They walked out of the train at the station and made their way toward the exit but got stopped by a little girl and her mother calling out to Izuku. "Can I get your autograph?" The girl asked, Izuku crouched down and the girl handed him a pen and her school notebook. Izuku wrote the name Bell into it and handed it back to the girl. Then his gaze fell to something behind the girl, quickly he grabbed her and her mother placing them behind him as he withdrew the knife from his sheathe. The sound of metal sparking against metal made the other two heroes turn around to see what had happened, Izuku was standing defending with his blade against a creature that was trying to stab him with its claws.

The creature was pale and had massive wings which expanded to the roof of the train station, however, the thing that gave it away as something inhuman was the fact that its brain was fully visible. "A Nomu!" Yaoyorozu shouted, as she did Ais shot her way toward the creature. It seem to notice this and blasted away from Izuku and into the air dodging the top pro from slashing at it, it began fleeing and flying toward the centre of the city.

"Secure the area and then make your way to the flames!" Ais shouted as she took off after it. Izuku looked around and asked himself what flames, quickly he switched his target to the two girls that he had saved. The little girl was looking at him with something which can only be described as pure happiness in her eyes, the mother, on the other hand, was thanking him more times than he could count. Yaoyorozu had checked on everyone in the area making sure they were okay.

After checking everyone the two made their way after Ais and the Nomu, they exited the train station and finally saw the flames a good distance away. He could barely smell the burning however she had managed to notice them and chase after the Nomu while also giving them orders, Izuku then realised that it wasn't just strength and skill which made her a top pro. The distance between them grew even larger.

However, Izuku didn't have any time to dwell on it as he had to make his way into the city in hopes of getting there before anyone loses their lives.

As the two teens got closer and closer they could feel the heat getting hotter and hotter.

They arrived and the scene was a lot worse than either teen could imagine, the flames were roaring higher than the building themselves. There were two more Nomu's. A flaming bus was blasted into the air and landed on top of two heroes before exploding and killing not only them but a few other people who were unfortunate enough to be nearby the bus. Screams echoed from the broken windows as the flames consumed the entire building, a hero was running about trying to contain the flames while shouting something about Iida going missing.

Izuku quickly realised why Iida interned here in Hosu, he almost kicked himself for not seeing it sooner, he turned to Yaoyorozu. "We have to find Iida!" Izuku yelled at the girl. Her eyes widened when she realised what Izuku had said, Izuku began running toward the back alleys of Hosu hoping to find his classmate in time.

They ran for a while hoping, praying they could find something before someone else gets hurt.

As they were about to run down another alley Izuku stopped, he heard something from a different alley. Quickly he ran off toward it Yaoyorozu saw him running and rushed to catch up to him but somehow he was faster, a lot faster than she remembered him being.

"Die, false hero!" Izuku heard as he turned a corner and saw a man with a blood-red scarf and a katana high in the air about to bring it down on the "child" he knew as Iida. Izuku found speed within him he didn't even know existed and shot over to the two, he raised his fist and slammed into the man's crooked face. "Firebolt!" He shouted as the flames coiled down his arm and shot off his hand like a spring. The man was blasted away by the force of the attack.

Yaoyorozu turned the corner in just enough time to see that attack land. She quickly ran over to where Iida was while making bandages. "Midoriya! Why are you here!?" Iida shouted as he looked at the back of the green-haired teen.

Izuku ignored him and continued staring at the man who looked both confused and terrifying. Quickly the memories of what he had seen on TV began flooding into his mind. 'Without a doubt, this man is The Hero Killer: Stain.' Stain pointed his blade at Izuku. "Another ignorant fool adds himself to the list."

Izuku drew his blade despite his shaking hands. "I'm here to protect you." Izuku said as he held the knife ready for a fight.

A smile appeared on Stain's face as Izuku began smiling to "hide the fear inside".

Authors note.

Woah a lot happened this chapter, the beginning of the stain fight, more training with Ais and Freya!

I hope I can do the Stain fight justice as it's one of my favourite fights in all of MHA.

So who will Ottar be getting to face off against Izuku, is it Stain or someone else? Either way, Izuku is in for one hell of a fight.

Next Chapter: Let The Blood Flow.