Ties that Bind

by Mirrond

All Might left his home that evening hoping to find a successor. Instead he found his old lover (that he thought died years ago), discovered that he has a son, offered him his quirk... and adopted a few additional children. After all, the best answer to All for One being a stepfather to your son is becoming a stepfather to his children, right? [Dadmight or Dad for One? Yes.]

21. Chapter 20: Hosu begins

PLPanda - You know, I might actually write a scene like that. It sounds positively hilarious XD

The Archivist of Nyx - I'm doing my humble best :D

TheGreatBubbaJ - It was certainly cathartic for me.

Detrametal - It's not just Stain and Toshi. The 'acting dumb as a family' team only grows bigger in numbers as Yagi Toshinori slips deeper and deeper into the abyss that is chaos gremliness. Also I can see you are a man of culture (Ludleth the best boi).

(***)

Bakugou is paralyzed, shocked, and has a face that makes it obvious that he has no idea what to think. He has been thrown so much out of his little comfort zone, his little fortress of established facts that he is grasping at straws.

Gran Torino wants it like that. He is going to shatter whatever worldview Bakugou Katsuki had and then let him and Hound Dog and probably Izuku Midoriya pick up whatever worthwhile bits they'll find in the wreckage and assemble something actually worth existing.

He is far from being done with it. He isn't one for half-measures. Bakugou Katsuki is already on the verge of being expelled from the Rehab Course, because the only part where he shows genuine improvement are his combat skills. Personality is, as established, still trash. The only reason why isn't trying to go after Izuku again is his self-preservation instinct, not morality or common fucking decency.

He isn't letting a kid with this much combat ability and room to grow become a villain. And as it stands, it's a matter of weeks or months now. He'll be kicked out of the UA, then he will go to juvie and either escape it or wait until the end of it. Then it will be vigilantism. And he can't hope for established and decent vigilante groups of the Vigilante Alliance to pick up someone this unstable and trashy to join them.

Sooner or later he will go too far. And sooner or later he will end up being a villain. It's just a matter of time. Unless Gran Torino puts an end to it right now.

There is a reason why All Might wanted Gran Torino to take Bakugou. It's literally the last, desperate attempt of the UA to get him to walk down the route of heroism. Everything else clearly failed.

"I'll let this question stew a bit before we'll find an answer to it." Gran Torino takes a step back. Bakugou looks actually almost frightened by this sudden change of pace. "Let's talk about Izuku Midoriya."

There is a flinch on Bakugou's face at the mention of the name. It's… subdued, somehow. By fear? By some actual confusion? Maybe by the beginnings of self-doubt? Gran Torino has no emotion reading quirk, so he'll need to find out more the hard way.

"Or, even better, let's talk about Sir Nighteye." Gran Torino surprises Bakugou again. "Do you know who that is?" Bakugou nods, still clearly shaken. "Well, that helps things. You see, he was a much younger hero, barely done with his license when All Might returned from the USA. He didn't have a strong combat ability, merely a quirk that was not only troublesome to use but also that he didn't like using to its full potential for personal reasons. But he had something else. He had brains." Gran Torino says, his finger tapping on the side of his head.

Bakugou is listening intently. This is good. Unless he is, inside of his head, still in denial over absolutely everything.

"He might have been a sidekick to All Might, but it was him who was combing through the evidence, figuring out the villain's plans and telling All Might where to appear to save people." Gran Torino continues his lecture. "He spent almost a decade pretty much living in Might Tower, together with Nedzu trying to finally corner the villain I mentioned earlier. After it happened he might have had a falling out with All Might, but he is still an avid fan of the Number One Hero, like he always was." Gran Torino leans over Bakugou again, and the kid visibly shrinks. "So please, Bakugou, enlighten me. If you truly want to be like All Might, then why does your Sir Nighteye freaks out when he is surprised by sounds resembling your quirk?"

Izuku was doing well enough when the explosion happened while he expected it, and preferably when he saw it go off. Unexpected and out-of-sight blasts were… problematic, to say the least. And one of the things that Izuku was working on with Hound Dog.

Bakugou's face goes practically vacant. Despite everything, Gran Torino realizes that the kid in front of him isn't stupid. He is like a decent sports car that is so covered by bird's shit that not only it's hard to see that it's actually a car, but also everything inside of it is half-jammed by the stuff. So his brain is working. But it has… quirks. And needs some urgent and thorough cleaning.

It's trying to comprehend what he just heard. It's trying to make some sense, despite Gran Torino thoroughly pulverizing the pillars supporting his warped worldview one by one. And oh, he was far from being done with the kid. There was going to be no pillar left by the end of this day. Because for as long as there is at least one left, Bakugou will keep resisting.

"He…" Bakugou manages to reply. "He wasn't a fan of me!" Oh, so it's going that way. How peculiar. "He was always looking down on me, and…" Gran Torino decides that he heard enough. He raises his hand, as if he was about to smack Bakugou, and the kid freezes with an expression of fear on his face.

"Really?" Gran Torino looks down on him with barely contained disgust. "Is that how you explain it to yourself? Newsflash, you little shit. Izuku Midoriya has self-esteem issues the size of the UA budget. He freaks out and doesn't know how to react when someone not from his family praises him because you and your fucking extras taught him that any praise he gets is either a mockery, or a part of some set-up to make him suffer some more, or something that will make you bully him more to put him in his place. In what world is he capable of looking down on anyone, Bakugou?" He actually slaps Bakugou in the face. Not even because it's part of the plan, but because he fucking wants to. And then he yells at him, from up close. "HE LOOKED UP TO YOU, YOU BASTARD! FOR YEARS! NO MATTER WHAT YOU DID TO HIM, ALL HE EVER WANTED WAS TO BE YOUR FRIEND AND BECOME A HERO WITH YOU, YOU SON OF A BITCH!"

He slaps him in the face again. Frankly speaking, he isn't sure if Bakugou even noticed it. But it sure as hell felt cathartic to Gran Torino.

The one and only thing that Gran Torino and All for One ever agreed on was that Bakugou Katsuki was a little shit. Bakugou had no idea that he was only alive because Midoriya Inko understood her son enough to realize that killing his 'friend' would only make him feel more miserable. And so, she kept telling All for One to shove his opinion about Bakugou where the sun didn't shine.

Gran Torino feels sad about it, honestly. Bakugou is disgusting. The fact that the adults around him failed him is no excuse, merely an extenuating circumstance. What sort of warped up personality produces a person who blabbers about becoming the best hero while using his quirk to burn his former friend for quirklessness?

Bakugou was probably bullying someone after school while Izuku - the quirkless, friendless, powerless boy - was in his house, on the computer, trying to persuade victims like him that the world wasn't hopeless, and that things could be better.

There is no better contrast between them than the fact that two weeks before the sludge villain incident - before Bakugou told Izuku to take a swan dive off the roof - Izuku had his happiest day in his life. Because someone he knew from the internet (some 'villainous quirk' user) sent him a letter thanking him for talking him out of suicide, because his life got better. Izuku actually framed the letter and cried in happiness for most of the day, because the author of the letter said that Izuku was his hero.

"And guess what, Bakugou Katsuki." Gran Torino decides to go for the coup de main. At this point it feels like he is kicking a corpse, and that's something that he leaves for sick fucks like All for One. "Despite everything you ever did to him, he still fought tooth and nail to include you in the Rehab Course. Just to give you one last shot at becoming a hero."

"He… he did what?" Bakugou's mind seems to be barely capable of processing what he just heard.

"There were supposed to be only three people per class." Gran Torino informs him. "You and Miyuki Tagawa were included at the last minute, because Izuku heard about Nedzu and All Might ending the Aldera High School right around the entrance exam." Bakugou's eyes widened a bit, probably at the realization that All Might - his idol, the man he wanted to be like - was responsible for all of that. "The one you weren't allowed to attend, because they already knew what sort of a piece of shit you were. So you went to Shiketsu, and pretty much got in, but then the Aldera scandal broke out and you were blacklisted from it. And from pretty much every hero school in the world. So Izuku has literally begged Nedzu and All Might to add one more person per class, including you. And guess what, I have absolutely no idea why, because all I'm seeing in you is a bully who thinks that his strength makes him the center of the world and reacts with aggression when someone doesn't act like he wants them to."

He takes out his phone and sends a message. Bakugou watches him in shocked silence from his place on the floor.

"The 1-B warp quirk user will open up a warpgate connecting this room to the UA in a few minutes." Gran Torino announces. "Crawl into it, and have Recovery Girl patch you up. Go and think about what I had said. You have three days. If there is any part of you that actually wants to help others, that can actually feel remorse and guilt about what you did, come back and continue your training. And actually work with Hound Dog instead of being an asshole avoiding all serious questions. If not, then start packing your things. You'll be officially expelled at the end of the internships."

He walks out of the room, not bothering to look at Bakugou again. He knows that he isn't going to see him again.

(***)

To Gran Torino's surprise, Bakugou Katsuki proves him wrong and returns to his hero agency through a warpgate three days later. He is quiet. He avoids eye contact with everyone. He doesn't speak in an even remotely as abrasive way as he used to. But he seems to be working twice as hard.

He is also deeply terrified of Gran Torino. But that's understandable. In fact, that was sort of the point. Sorahiko Torino can tolerate a single failure in his life (namely, his grandson), but he'll rather die that have another private student that isn't terrified of him.

Then he overhears a brief exchange during dinner. He is on one end of the room, and somehow the kids present think that this will make him not hear them. All he needs to do is to pretend that he is busy with his taiyaki.

"You… you never looked down on me, didn't you?" It's Bakugou. This is the most subdued Bakugou Katsuki that Gran Torino ever saw or heard about, and that alone is shocking. He is eating, not even looking in Izuku's direction.

Izuku is briefly surprised by this. Startled, even. Oddly enough, he is the one who seems to be the most at loss with how Bakugou is acting now. Despite being the one who at least partially schemed the whole thing.

"No." Izuku replies eventually. "I looked up to you. You were confident, strong, brave, everything that I wasn't." He stays silent for a second or two before adding. "I stopped on the day of the sludge villain incident. When I threw that backpack and let you breathe for a moment, even despite you telling me to kill myself earlier, and you still berated me for it."

"Looks like I'm truly the world's best." Bakugou says, looking down to the meal in front of him. "In fucking things up beyond recovery."

If Gran Torino was walking when he heard it, he would probably trip over something and squash his nose in. This was literally the last thing he expected to hear from Bakugou. Like, ever. Even despite his attempt at shock treatment, he expected it to fail or, in the best case scenario, succeed way less.

"Why did you even bother recommending me to the Rehab Course?" Bakugou asks, and, frankly speaking, Gran Torino is curious about it as well.

"I think that I just wanted to know if Kacchan is still there." Izuku replies after a few seconds. Gran Torino remembers that this is the childhood nickname that Bakugou got from Izuku. "Or if Bakugou Katsuki really killed him."

That sounds like something relatively plausible, maybe a bit odd considering how intensively Izuku was asking Nedzu for it but… then again, if he saw it as himself trying to 'save' Kacchan from Katsuki… it was the kid that broke his hand almost beyond recovery to give his classmate a psychological counseling session, after all.

"I might know shit about you." Bakugou decides to reply after a few more seconds of awkward silence. "But I know when you are trying to lie. And it's one of those moments."

What?

The silence continues while both the kids are eating (Tenya and Shoto are elsewhere). Gran Torino almost leaves when he hears the words coming.

"Are you… going to apologize?" It's Izuku. The food is almost done, but the talk, somehow, isn't.

"No." Bakugou replies, and Gran Torino is once again taken by surprise. Izuku seems to be taken as well. "Because you would either not accept it, or accept it… which is something that I wouldn't accept." Izuku blinks a few times, finally looking at Bakugou, though the explosive kid seems to be still looking at his food. "I'm going to fulfill my part of that promise and become a hero. And then I'm going to apologize to you with my hero license in my hands."

Gran Torino should be positively surprised and shocked. Because somehow, SOMEHOW, Izuku noticed something actually redeemable under layers of layers of shit that managed to fool even a veteran such as him. But he isn't.

He is instead negatively surprised and shocked, because there is a look on Izuku's face that he never saw, nor even imagined it to exist. And certainly didn't expect it to surface at the moment like this.

It's a look of crushing guilt and sudden, overbearing horror. Something that he cannot understand the source of. Especially in a moment like this. A moment that should be the crowning moment of life thus far, an achievement long overdue.

It vanishes before Bakugou manages to notice it. And then comes the awkward silence that lasts until the meal ends.

What the fuck did Gran Torino just witnessed?

Izuku Midoriya Support/Fanclub

GravityGirl: Uhm.

GravityGirl: I have a problem.

Vampire: Did you finally realize that you are in love with Izuku Midoriya (at least partially due to my constant shipping attempts), only to hit the wall of 'omg am I supposed to confess to him or not' with your face?

GravityGirl: Errr, actually yes.

Vampire: OMG REALLY?!

GravityGirl: YES DAMMIT

GravityGirl: Himichan stop reading me like that you just broke every plan I had for that talk in my head

Vampire: sorry ochachan

Mindhack: FUCK

MIndhack: YES

Mindhack: You're ok, Izuku needs a decent girl in his life, you have my blessing, go for him.

GravityGirl: …

Mindhack: I mean, having some nasty woman take advantage of him and then me committing a murder on her would have made me becoming a hero a tad bit harder, you know.

GravityGirl: …

CreativeSpirit: Let's just pretend that Mindhack didn't write that last message, alright?

Vampire: I absolutely agree with Toshi, although I have just one question to ochachan

GravityGirl: ?

Vampire: If you marry Zuku can I be his official mistress?

GravityGirl: what

GravityGirl: marry

GravityGirl: mistress

GravityGirl: what

Vampire: She is so cute when startled even through the internet :3 :3 :3

CreativeSpirit: Himiko, please.

Vampire: SORRY

Vampire: I mean, Zuku is perfect

Vampire: and I'm totally confessing to him sooner or later if he says no to Uraraka

Vampire: But I'm not going to mess ochachan's lovelife if he says yes, we're all friends right?

Vampire: besides I want to be an underground hero and marrying soon-to-be Number One Hero (we all know that this will be the result of Izuku becoming a hero) would make staying underground a tad hard to achieve, you know?

CreativeSpirit: Fair.

CreativeSpirit: It's like All Might trying to hide a family from all the fans out for trivia about him.

CreativeSpirit: Is that even possible?

LeadSinger: Ehhh

LeadSinger: Aside from that, we have two votes for confession and zero votes against it.

MadScientist: Confess!

MadScientist: I already confessed to him today and it's alright!

CreativeSpirit: What

LeadSinger: Yes, what?

GravityGirl: D:

CreativeSpirit: Wait a second

CreativeSpirit: What did you actually confess to?

MadScientist: He asked me through the internet if I'm storing high yield explosives in my lab right next to the exposed wirings and some high temperature things, and I confessed that I do. He sounded angry about it, though. Said something about serious talk when he gets back from his internship.

MadScientist: Weird.

CreativeSpirit: Yeah, I knew it was something like

CreativeSpirit: WAIT YOU STORE WHAT WHERE?

MadScientist: I mean, it's alright for as long as they don't explode, right?

CreativeSpirit: Oh my God Mei I'm on my way to the support course lab, we're having a talk about basic OSHA compliance. Right now.

CreativeSpirit: I support the confession, by the way, because Izuku should be made aware that someone looks at him like that for confidence building AND because when he says yes, then he will have someone to rely on emotionally.

CreativeSpirit: Now I go

GravityGirl: go go go go go go go

LeadSinger: Yeah, I'm voting yes for similar reasons. And don't waste too much time or I might do it first, huhuhuh

GravityGirl: What?! Noooo

LeadSinger: That basically means that everyone save for mostly absent Froggy thinks that you should do it, GravityGirl, because there is a green bean out there in need of some love and probably emotional support.

Vampire: I phoned Froggy! The quality was trash and there is no internet over there, but she basically said to go for it!

LeadSinger: Well, you heard her.

LeadSinger: Do it!

Vampire: Do it ochachan!

Mindhack: Do it!

GravityGirl: Can I get a second opinion on it from someone else?

Vampire: no

(***)

The destruction of the Shie Hasseikai has taught Overhaul a lot of things. Clawing your way out of the ruin of your dream that you were buried alive under does that to people. One of them is that the age of yakuza is truly over, and that the real problem is the disease of quirks that has to be purged out of the world.

The second was that he can't rely on thugs to get the job done. It's what destroyed the Shie Hasseikai. Save for Chrono and Mimic, everything he really had were just thugs. That were promptly done in when Mr. Compress, Ms. Compress, the Hero Killer, Gentle Criminal and, oddly enough, long dead Mischief began to tear through the Shie Hasseikai.

So when Overhaul began to prepare for round two, he found some choice allies. And cannonfodder of a much better quality.

The storehouse is large. It once belonged to some major shipping company that has only recently cleared it out. It's about to be sold for someone else, then again, the Paranormal Liberation Front only needs it for this one night. To amass their task force for another operation.

Overhaul looks through the assembled army and can't help but feel proud. The two years since he lost the Shie Hasseikai changed a lot. He gathered the firepower that he didn't have back then. He learned more about his own quirk than he thought was possible.

Now he is standing in that storeroom and sees twenty noumus, each of them a gene engineered abomination capable of tearing through heroes like butter (although he still hates them as diseased wretches that shouldn't exist). He sees fifty elite soldiers of the Quirkless Liberation Front, almost all of them a rare example of truly healthy individuals in this day and age, each of them trained and equipped like soldiers of the special forces of the developed nations from the pre-quirk times. They even have some vehicles.

Chief of all, he sees Eclipse. The leader of the Quirkless Liberation Front (the naming overlap is pissing them both off, really, then again she has de facto joined the PLF it's just that the world is yet to know). Wearing her full-body bodysuit and a gasmask.

There is also Kurogiri. The faithful warp quirk user that will be instrumental to their success tonight. And, of course, Chrono. Overhaul's assistant and second-in-command. He lost his right hand during the Shie Hasseikai downfall (to the Hero Killer, of course - he actually managed to use his quirk on him, but it didn't help any of them when Mischief bulldozed through him and nearby yakuza thugs and saved Stain), but he got a prosthetic replacement.

Overhaul looks at the clock. One hour until the first stage of the Battle of Hosu starts. Eclipse will start her little motivational speech in half an hour.

(***)

"Heads-up, kids." Gran Torino announces over the meal. They are all (well, save for Izuku Midoriya, who just loves spending time with his grandpa) deeply terrified to a varied degree. Because their teacher just announced that they are done with the training for the day ahead of schedule, and that's terrifying. What might he be planning this time? "It's time for some actual work experience. In short, we're going out to do some villain clean-up."

Shoto remains unreadable, but feels vaguely pleased. Bakugou for a few seconds looks genuinely pumped-up, only for his mood to swing down (probably after he realizes that they're going with Gran Torino). Tenya feels simultaneously satisfied and horrified by whatever Gran Torino's definition of a field training is.

"We're going to Tokyo in thirty minutes." Gran Torino adds. They are going to use shinkansen because warp quirks are for special occasions AND Gran Torino likes trains. Sue him about it. "So deck yourself in your hero costumes and get ready to move."

Oh, this is going to be fun. An endurance-testing fun. After all, they are already on their legs for most of the day. Why waste the night? That's when the villains are most active, and this just means a lot of fun. Sure, they might go over the 16h workday established for the internships, but it will just make it more fun.

(***)

Only when they arrive at the train station does Izuku Midoriya realize that they are going to be passing by Hosu.

He doesn't want his friends to be anywhere near this city, then again it's not like something might potentially happen during the brief time window when they'll be passing by the city in a bullet train. Something that would make them in any way, shape or form involved in anything shady. Right?

Izuku is more worried about Endeavor trying to use the attack on Ingenium to recoup some of the lost popularity. Because this means that Uncle Stain and Endeavor are now in the same city, and the latter is hunting the former.

And while Izuku hates Endeavor, he realizes that this fight will be rather short. And Izuku would lose an uncle. Then again, it's not like anyone can persuade Stain to drop a hunt. After all, Akaguro Chizome has cOnViCtIoNs.

(***)

Akaguro Chizome laughs menacingly when Native realizes that he isn't alone in the alleyway. The face that the fakes do when they see him and realize that the time of reckoning came is, as always, delicious.

"Ko Hasegawa." Stain announces. He doesn't use hero names, not of the fakes. They need to prove that they are worthy of them. "You have been judged. And found wanting."

Native takes a step back, in horror.

Stain points towards the pendrive that he is carrying on a necklace. It's in the middle of the Hero Killer's chest.

"This little thing contains the proof for your malfeasances." Hero Killer announces. "And leaking intel to the villains. You already proved to me that you are a fake hero. But perhaps, there are some genuine convictions in you that have motivated your fakeness?" He chuckles. "Destroy the pendrive, and I'll let you go. Call for backup or lose, and I'll kill you as a hero. Show me your worth, you fake." Then he draws his katana.

For all his skill as a hero, Native has no chance of winning. It's not a fight. It's just adding insult to injury.

(***)

Izuku feels that something is going to hit the fan the closer they get to Hosu. He is, honestly, not surprised when the train does an emergency stop. Though the moment when noumu (what the hell, there are more of those things out there?!) practically rams a hero through the wall of the train is a surprise.

Gran Torino sprints to action, and kicks the noumu off the incapacitated hero and out of the train.

"Izuku!" He shouts at his grandson. "You and the rest have my permission to engage in combat, but do that only if absolutely necessary!" He leaps off the train, pursuing the not yet defeated noumu.

He trusts his grandson's smarts. Unfortunately. Because while he has smarts, he also has a tendency to circumnavigate expectations and restraints when not under a constant overwatch. And this is something that Gran Torino didn't think about in a hurry, thus unleashing Izuku Midoriya and his three classmates upon the city on fire.

(***)

Endeavor intercepts the attack and blasts it into pieces before it has the time to tear through the passersby who happened to be on the same street as the Number Two Hero and some of his sidekicks.

"Endeavor." He hears the familiar voice and looks up. There is a black circular surface floating in the air above the street (that's now rapidly clearing up, because the passersby realize that there is going to be a very nasty hero vs villain fight happening soon). On it is a woman in a black bodysuit.

He recognizes her. They already fought twice, and if there is a villain that Endeavor considers to be his nemesis, it's her.

"Eclipse." Endeavor replies, the temperature of his flames rising as his rage does. "Did you come to announce your surrender, or to die at my hands?" Villains like her pretty much have a 'take alive if it's convenient' rule in place. She is too dangerous for a hero to half-ass the fight.

"No, I came to kill you." She says and the battle starts.

(***)

It's only the start line for Bakugou. Something like the talk with Izuku was for Mineta, and the Sports Festival was for Todoroki(s). It'll take him a while to get anywhere, although Hosu might just accelerate that process significantly for the Boomboi...

Why did Izuku react that way to Bakugou's (veiled) apology? Well, time will tell.

Also RIP, all those attempts to avoid getting entangled in Hosu, only for this to happen. Bad luck.