A/N : Hello all! Welcome back to another chapter of The Last Alchemist! I'm glad that you all chose to check back on me-I-I mean the story. Yeah . . . the story. So, anyways, I've gotten a few ideas from you guys about some things that the heroes can do to get stronger, so keep an eye on what happens with that!
I'm out of things to talk about, so on to the reviews!
Ryuujin96 : The reviewer so nice, they did it thrice! Haha. Seriously, I did want to clarify a few things that you talked about in your reviews. First, I wanted to talk about the whole 'Izuku running away' thing. The way I saw it was that Izuku had heard all that he needed and had to get away, and he'd already been seen. If you noticed, I mentioned a shadow retreating while he was listening, and when someone said, "There's a spy! He's right ou-" I had him assume, rightly, that they were talking about him. Second, I wanted to mention that I plan to have the heroes recruit a few more heroes, but besides one exception, I don't plan to have Izuku teach anyone alchemy. And lastly, no, Ochako isn't going to be a sleeper agent. I had her survive because . . . I wanted to. Like she said in the last chapter, she was in shock and desperate, so she played dead and tried to hide.
Guest : Hey! The villains are definitely in for a world of hurt now! Well . . . not now, but now that they have Eri things are about to get interesting. I don't plan on having someone like Momo or Mei having alchemy, as it is still an illegal thing, which Izuku knows very well so he wouldn't likely teach anyone, with one exception.
Reviewmonkey4u : You're asking some hard questions now! To answer that question, no. I think that for all his research and for all his teasing of Roy Mustang, Ed respected both Riza and him too much to violate their wishes to let the power of flame alchemy die out after them. I recognize that that sort of power is simply OP, and I actually even considered having Izuku use Flame Alchemy to escape last chapter, but for the reason that I stated above along with the need to have Izuku progress on his own without being too OP at the beginning I scrapped that idea.
chm01 : Yeah, Izuku can use any other type of alchemy. That doesn't mean that I'll show him using all of them, but yes, he can.
(Wow, I wrote a lot in these responses!)
Disclaimer : I don't own either My Hero Academia or Fullmetal Alchemist/Fullmetal Alchemist : Brotherhood, or any other affiliated media.
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Alchemy : The Art of Understanding, Deconstructing, and Reconstructing. However, Alchemy isn't an all-powerful art; it is impossible to create something out of nothing. If one wishes to obtain something, something of equal value must be given. This is known as the Law of Equivalent Exchange; the basis of all alchemy.
However, Alchemy is nearly extinct; in the year 160 BQ, the leaders of the world outlawed alchemy, making its use an international offense and punishable by death, citing it to be too dangerous for normal societies. Since then, Alchemists had lurked in the shadows, learning various skills from "pseudo-religious texts" written by their forebears, avoiding detection, and blending into society as much as possible. However, despite their skills, there remains only one alchemist. Izuku Midoriya, trained by his predecessor, neither hero nor villain, and a hidden blade; he is
The Last Alchemist.
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You : Denki Kaminari, Yuga Aoyama, Mashirao Ojiro, Eijiro Kirishima, Mezo Shoji, Hanta Sero, Toru Hagakure, Mina Ashido, Rikido Sato, Koji Koda, Sen Kaibara, Togaru Kamakiri, Shihai Kuroiro, Kinoko Komori, Yui Kodai, Jurota Shishida, Nirengeki Shoda, Kosei Tsuburaba, Setsuna Tokage, Manga Fukidashi, Juzo Honenuki, Kojiro Bondo, Neito Monoma, Reiko Yanagi, and Hiryu Rin - All dead. Ochako Uraraka - Only survivor.
Izuku double-checked his report, before pressing send and turning off his laptop. He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He, Eri, and Ochako had returned to his apartment a couple days ago, but they hadn't been quite able to take stock of the total losses they'd suffered on account of Ochako's injuries and the lingering pain he felt from his forced amputation. After he'd recovered somewhat, he insisted on going back in order to officially record their losses earlier today. He doubted that the smells and sights of the dead would leave him anytime soon.
"You okay?" He started slightly as Ochako appeared over his shoulder suddenly.
"Yeah." He was silent for a couple moments before he asked, "You?"
"Better," she stated simply, before she tenderly laid a hand on his arm-less shoulder, making sure to leave her pinky up. "Is your arm okay?"
He shook his head, before leaning back in his chair and letting it hang. "It still feels like it's there, but . . ." he shook his head again. "It's just so . . . asinine, but I can't help but start to reach out, only to realize that there's nothing to move."
She didn't say anything for the longest time, instead just standing over him and rubbing his shoulder. However, after a while, she shot a glance back at the bedroom door where both knew Eri lay fast asleep. "Do you have any idea why they wanted Eri?"
He lifted his head and shook it, before letting it fall again. "I've asked a few times, while you were sleeping, but she's insisted that she doesn't want to talk about it." He let out a humorless chuckle, "She said that she'd been there for as long as she'd remembered."
She hummed, leaving his side, leaning against the wall and pressing her fingers together as she thought. "Maybe it's something to do with her quirk? Or possibly a rich, powerful relative she'd been held hostage for."
He shrugged, "Maybe." There were a few moments of comfortable silence, with both lost in their thoughts, until Izuku grunted as he stood up from his chair. "Want to join me for some coffee? I know I couldn't sleep well for a week after my master died."
She smiled and simply nodded, following him to the kitchenette that existed only a couple feet away.
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Izuku sat silently as he sat in a large room in yet another Yaoyorozu home in Mustafu; the heroine's family truly was loaded. All around him, the other remaining heroes from around Mustafu were discussing their current situation with each other; he couldn't help himself from scoffing as he thought discussing was an entirely different activity than what they were doing. He'd describe it more as arguing. The only ones who hadn't blown up at another person were him, Momo, Shouto Todoroki, and surprisingly Katsuki. All around him, he heard things like, "We need to strike back quickly!"
Another across the room yelled back, "We can't do anything like that; we aren't strong enough!"
Next, another voice inserted themselves into the conversation, "We should just give u-"
His train of thought was lost when Ochako suddenly stood and roared, "EVERYBODY SHUT UP!" Apparently, he hadn't been the only one shocked enough to lose their train of thought as every single person in the room fell silent instantly, staring at her in shock. Seeing that she had everybody's attention, she began to speak again, this time in a quieter voice. "We can't just sit here arguing amongst ourselves! To do so would be a disgrace to everyone who died in that attack!" The most prominent voices in the arguing looked down, slightly ashamed of themselves, as she continued, "I don't know what we should do moving forward, but the least we can do now is to listen to each other and find the best solution going forward."
She stood back down, and Izuku couldn't help but look at the woman differently; he'd had no idea that she would be able to- "Round Face is right." Again, his thoughts were derailed by someone speaking up he didn't expect; Katsuki. "I've been watching you all fight amongst yourselves for almost a week now, and it's f***ing pathetic! We aren't some pathetic chicken running around without its head! We aren't going to chicken out after one damn battle! We got licked, but we're all pros! Get your damn heads on straight, you bastards!"
Izuku blinked once, twice, and then a third time. Despite all the expletives and insults, his childhood friend had managed to actually say something inspirational and motivating. He'd always known that Katsuki had his own form of . . . charisma, one might say, but it was never inspiring, only domineering. It looked like he'd grown as a person since then.
After Katsuki'd finished speaking, the room fell into an awkward silence, before Momo coughed, taking control of the meeting. "They're both right. Now, does anyone have any ideas for how we move forward?" Immediately, there were some proposals to attack the PLF, which immediately had holes poked in them by Tsuyu and Ochako. Soon after, there was some debate over how they should try to get the public's sympathies to lie with them, with them eventually settling on anonymous blog posts and video essays online.
Soon after those issues were addressed, Izuku calmly coughed into his fist. "If I may, I have a couple of suggestions." Momo nodded, and Tsuyu eyed him curiously from across the room. "From what I understand, you've all been operating as a single branch - an entirely united front, correct?" The majority of heads nodded, and so he continued, "You should split up."
Immediately, there were cries of outrage as Momo attempted to silence all of them, but the one nearest him asked, "But didn't we just agree we shouldn't give up?!"
Izuku held up his hand, a commanding aura suddenly surrounding him as those with protests quieted down. "I don't mean to end this coalition. HOWEVER, a large animal will die long before a dozen smaller animals; by splitting up, a single attack like what happened a couple weeks ago wouldn't cripple this cause." There were a few more protests let out, so he let out a quiet sigh, before saying, "Look, we can't attack them directly - we'd be absolutely destroyed - and we can't stay together - if we're attacked again like we were last time, it's all over. But, if we all attack on a small scale, from all different directions, we'd keep them on their toes, and hopefully keep them off our tracks."
After his rebuttal, the many protests seemed to slowly melt away, before they moved on to the next topic, and soon enough the meeting itself ended. However, when he was about to pass through the doorway, Momo called out, "Midoriya! Can we speak?"
He turned around and saw Momo sitting at the table still. "Of course, Creati." He took a seat next to her, hesitating for a moment as he moved to reach with his phantom limb before he corrected himself. "What's this about?" He asked curiously.
"Midoriya, what happened to your arm?" Momo asked bluntly, looking directly into his eyes. He grimaced, knowing that he couldn't get out of telling the story again, before recounting the events leading up to and following the loss of his limb. She didn't interrupt him at all, something he was immensely grateful for, only humming and frowning at certain points. Giving him a couple seconds to continue after he finished, she stated, "I'm sorry for your loss, Midoriya. I'm also sorry for neglecting to speak with you until now - I've been fairly busy with trying to maintain this . . . coalition as you called it."
"Thank you for your apologies, but they aren't needed," Izuku stated calmly. "I can make do with my lack of an arm, at least for now."
She hummed, glancing at his amputated shoulder doubtfully. "If you'd like, I can get you an appointment with Mei Hatsume, an old acquaintance from U.A, to give you a prosthetic. That and whatever else she decides would be impressive to add to it."
Izuku's eyebrow rose as he was filled with an odd mix of gratitude and slight suspicion. "Forgive me for asking, but why are you offering this?"
She let out a deep sigh and sat back in the chair. "I suppose that I feel somewhat guilty for your injury; it was incurred while you were investigating a threat to our cause after all. Not to mention, that I can arrange it without drawing too much suspicion." She gave him a piercing look, before she asked, "Are you willing to accept my offer, Midoriya?"
He didn't want to burden anyone with his problems . . . but the offer was enticing, and, he thought as he glanced around at the fine furniture and paintings on the walls of the spacious room, it's not like he would break the bank by accepting. He let out a breath and replied, "Very well, I accept."
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Izuku grunted loudly as he shifted his new arm, feeling the nerves in his shoulder spiking and forcing it to move, before he grit his teeth and forced it forward to grab a cup. The movement caused small rivulets of blood to travel down the arm, and he dropped the empty mug he'd been holding, but he noticed, with no small amount of satisfaction, the amount of blood had decreased since the last time he'd moved it.
However, that thought didn't stop the pain as the machinery and nerves continued to try and synchronize their electrical signals. He tried to pick up the mug and return it, but suddenly, the arm fell, so he shouted, "Damn it! I was so close!"
From behind him, Tsuyu asked, "Are you okay, kero?" He turned, and she took a look at the bloody area around his shoulder, before shaking her head in disbelief. "You're pushing yourself too hard again, Izuku."
He turned to the side petulantly, muttering, "I think I'm going exactly the pace I want to go!" After she'd been assigned to serve with him, Ochako, and Eri a few months ago, this had become a fairly worn argument between the 3 adults, with Tsuyu and Ochako teaming up against him.
She quirked an eyebrow and placed a finger on top of her lips. "I believe that Mei said that the amount of time it took to fully recover from the surgery was upwards of 2-3 years, ribbit."
As usual, he rebutted, "She said that was the normal time on average. Some people have finished their rehabilitation in less time than that." Before she could respond, he raised his left hand. "Tsu, I don't mean to be rude, but why don't we wait for your debate partner to return before we continue this conversation?" He requested.
In actuality, it was less of a request per se, than it was a demand. She recognized it for what it was, and sighed deeply, before nodding. "Izuku, you know I care for you, right? Both 'Chako and I do, kero" He nodded slowly, not knowing where this was leading. "We . . . we just don't want for you to kill yourself before you can recover."
He smiled and waved off her concerns. "Don't worry, Tsu. I'm a grown man and I know how much my body can take." She looked away, humming a low note, before he placed his left hand on her shoulder, "Thanks for worrying Tsu."
He removed his hand from her and used it to pick up the mug and put it back on the counter. After he did so, he sat down in the armchair nearest him, before sighing, a few rivulets of blood continuing to fall from his shoulder as his mind returned to a topic he'd been thinking of for the past few weeks : what to do with the art of Alchemy. After his extremely close brush with death, only escaping with his life due to Shigaraki wanting to gloat to him later, he'd begun to think of whether he'd train a successor or not. On one hand, Izuku knew that if someone managed to finally get him to kick the bucket, whether they were the villains, or a foreign government, the art by which he lived and died would remain. However, if he did take on an apprentice, they would have a target on their back, and would be hunted down for as long as it takes until they died themselves.
He continued down this train of thought for several minutes, before letting out a groan and getting out of the chair, unable to reach a definitive decision and so decided to delay it once more. He moved and grabbed the thickly bound book that had been his master's most prized possession, before sitting back down in the chair and beginning to read.
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It was supposed to be a simple search and destroy mission, Tsuyu thought; just get in, destroy the shipment of Trigger, and take out the couple of people guarding them. However, it all fell apart almost as soon as they had entered the cargo hold; they'd run into an extremely loud guard that didn't let his surprise stop him from screaming his head off. Because of this, the Yamaguchi-gumi gang members had been prepared for them and had grouped together, forcing Ochako and her to try and strike from the shadows.
She opened her mouth, before launching her tongue at the gang member, wrapping it around him. "What the f-" She silenced him quickly, tossing him headfirst into the crate behind him, before retracting her tongue and leaping from shadow to shadow until she'd reached the opposite side. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Ochako dart out of the shadows to tap a man on the arm, before throwing him around to bounce along on the ceiling for a while.
She repeated her actions again, however, this time, her tongue was caught mid-air by the member she was targeting. The large, pink haired man grabbed the tongue and grinned, before pulling on it sharply and forcing her out of the shadows. "Hah! It's just some frog-freak!" He boomed as he laughed. Tsuyu, well accustomed to people pulling on her tongue in order to get her in close, had leapt forward along with the pull, before springboarding off the man's face back into the shadows. After being surprised, the man had dropped her tongue, and as she pulled it back into her mouth, Tsuyu grimaced at the taste of dirt and grime left on it by the man.
"Tsumori!" She heard another cry as Ochako sent another member flying off into the distance. Refocusing on her task, she wrapped her tongue around another member's head before tossing them into another person. After doing so, she observed that, of the 20 person group left to guard this shipment, there remained only a dozen or so that were conscious and on the ground. Nodding in satisfaction, she leapt to another shadow, this time on top of a crate, before attacking again. Like their compatriots before them, this member fell quickly, but something caught her attention to the side.
One of the Yakuza members had been able to get a lucky hit on Ochako with their knives, who yelped and retreated with a fairly large wound for a knife. Worried, Tsuyu hopped from shadow to shadow towards Ochako's hiding spot, eventually landing before her friend and asked in a hushed tone, "Are you okay, kero?"
Ochako nodded, presenting her arm and the wound on it for her to examine. "I'll be fine, Tsu. Let's just finish this!" She exclaimed softly. Tsuyu nodded solemnly, before leaping out of the shadow directly, launching herself into the face of the knife-wielding member of the Yamaguchi-gumi clan. Before the woman with the knife could react, Tsuyu's leg had smacked her across the face. She leapfrogged over the falling body of the knife-girl, flipping over the nearest member and kicking the man back into the waiting arms of Ochako, who slammed him into the floor before throwing him into the air.
She leapt back into the shadow, before jumping back out of the same spot and repeating the same process again. They did this several more times, before they all were down and unconscious, save for those whom Ochako had sent flying. Those individuals also soon fell to Earth as Ochako pressed her fingers together, crying, "Release!"
There were groans as all the grunts lay on the ground, save for one suspiciously quiet member near them, Tsuyu noted. The man began to shift himself around, something she assumed was writhing in silent agony, but the loud *BANG* proved her wrong. Thankfully both she and Ochako had dodged the first bullet, but the member didn't stop firing; as she leapt towards the man, she saw Ochako moving fluidly as she attempted to find cover, before getting caught in the shoulder by one of his bullets.
She leapt on top of the man and attempted to wrest away the gun, before she realized that there was no gun, only his hands. As she realized this, she knew that she couldn't simply kick a gun away, and so tried to simply disrupt his aim, which backfired. Horribly.
"AHH!" Ochako piercingly shrieked, as she was struck in her mid-back by the bullet Tsuyu had attempted to disrupt. After the hit, she fell down and attempted to hide behind the nearest body, but that again didn't stop the shooter, and Ochako's cover soon found itself riddled with bullet holes. "AI!" Tsuyu saw red as Ochako cried out again in serious pain, and acting on instinct, she grabbed the man's chin and twisted it harshly to the side.
The bullets stopped, along with the man's breathing. Running on adrenaline, Tsuyu picked up Ochako and rushed to Izuku's apartment. Izuku, who knew a fair amount on how to heal bullet wounds, carefully operated on her in his bedroom as she collapsed into a chair. She stared at her hands and thought, I killed someone.
She, Tsuyu Asui, the pro-hero Froppy, had killed a man in cold blood. And she didn't feel bad about it.
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A/N : Wow, things are getting heavy now! Tsuyu's killed a man, Ochako's been shot, and Izuku's rehabbing from a forced amputation. I get that this probably isn't exactly what you all thought would happen (or maybe you did and are a wizard) but I'm fairly happy with the way this story is going.
Remember to Review and tell me what you think about the chapter! Feel free to leave some constructive criticism, and I'll try to make my stories better for you all!
Have a good day, week, month, or life! Bye-Bye!