When Izuku opened his eyes, he was met with a pitch blackness, one that he was fairly familiar with. Getting up from the ground and standing up he looked around, never a fan of the inky surroundings he found himself in. However, he enjoyed the fact he could feel any of the pain he encountered or endured during his fight against the murderer, Stain.
"Chosen one." A voice said from behind, causing Izuku to turn and stare at Diablo as he sat on the ground, charcoal colored table sitting in front of him. Two cups of steaming tea sat atop. "I welcome you back. I'm sure you have questions regarding your recent duel."
Izuku growled, before walking towards the table, legs crackling green. With a kick the 1A class president sent the table flying, and could hear as it cracked and broke in the distance.
"That was…uncalled for." Diablo said calmly before snapping his fingers. A black table appeared before him once again, which was followed by two tea cups and a teapot floating down from the sky. The teapot dipped itself, poured tea into each glass, before popping, turning into nothing but white smoke. "Please, sit. Enjoy the jasmine tea. You know, it was one of the previous users who introduced it to me. Well, this and ginseng."
Sighing, and now aware Diablo could just snap more tea and tables into existence, Izuku sat down and grabbed one of the cups. The previous user smiled, before blowing on the tea and taking a sip.
"It didn't work. You told me it would work in a life or death situation, and the one time I need it, it doesn't work." Izuku began, following Diablo's example and blowing on his tea. "Why?"
"The answer is simple, but it's only going to lead to more questions." Diablo informed. "You felt it, right? You felt us arguing before your fight?"
"Yes. I could feel it, but couldn't make out what any of you were saying. What was that about?"
"I was getting ready to activate the power of the dragon, but one of the previous stopped me from allowing you to access it."
"Why would they do that?! Don't they realize that if I die, so does One For All? Why were they so against it?" Izuku questioned, causing Diablo to pause, trying to think of an easy and short way to explain what had happened.
"Do you happen to know what 'aura' is?"
"Isn't that something that supposedly surrounds the body? Something all living things apparently have?"
"Correct, for the most part. Every living being emits it, and those related to each other tend to have the same aura. For example, you and your mother emit green aura, your blond friend emits red, and All Might emits gold. While you yourself can't see it, we can. When you saw us during your fight against the brainwashing child, the color you saw around us was our own aura."
"Ok…so? What does that have to do with one of the previous users stopping me from accessing your dragon quirk?"
"You are aware we were people both before and during our acquisition of One For All, correct? We had regular jobs, hobbies…even families." Diablo trailed off. It took Izuku a few seconds to think about what the previous user meant, and when what the man was applying finally hit him, his eyes widened in surprise.
"So you're saying-"
"I'm afraid so." Diablo nodded. "Stain emitted a purple aura, and the user who stopped you from using my dragon quirk, also emits a purple aura."
"But-But that can't be right! Can't people, who aren't related, have the same aura?"
"There's about 10 million different colors the human eye can see, but in reality, there's an infinite amount of colors. They had the same exact aura, and according to the previous user, their son would've been Stains age by."
Izuku sighed, before taking a long sip from his tea. That was a lot more than he expected, and did raise a lot more questions.
Wait…did that mean he was related to Stain now?!
"So what? If I fight another previous users' child, they can just shut off the other quirks I'll obtain from you all?"
"I'm afraid so. But worry not, we'll attempt to stop that from happening once more." Diablo assured, before he went to take another sip. The cup never reached his lips, as it fell and crashed onto the table. Surprised, Diablo looked and saw his arm was slowly disappearing. "It appears you're waking up. It was good talking to you again, chosen one."
"Yeah…thank you for telling me this."
"Of course. Oh and, remember our deal." Diablo said, a wide grin forming.
Izuku rolled his eyes and nodded, before everything went white.
(Real World)
As Izuku's eyes fluttered open, he flinched, and immediately used his right hand to block out the bright lights of his room.
"Good morning Midoriya." He heard Todoroki greet him, the half hot-half cold user having been awake far for an unknown amount of time.
"Morning Todoroki." He grumbled back, sitting up with a yawn, his eyes now adjusted to the light. When he woke up, he finally noticed Iida was sitting on his own bed across from Todoroki. "Morning to you too, Iida."
"Good morning Midoriya." Iida greeted back, tone soft and voice quiet, like a child who had just gotten yelled at by their parents. "Did you two sleep well?"
"Not really, no." Todoroki answered.
"As best as I could." Izuku informed, the only good sleep he had gotten was when he was talking to Diablo. Throughout the night his brain kept replaying the fight, and showing different outcomes that could've happened had they not been successful in winning. Always dreaming of the worst-case scenario, been that way since he was young. "How about yourself Iida?"
"Good! I slept…good." Iida trailed off, causing the room to have an awkward silence as the unspoken tension suffocated Izuku.
Something had to be said.
"We should probably talk about what happened last night, and what's going to happen going forward." Izuku began. "We used our quirks illegally and without permission, only a matter of time before the police come through the door."
"I'll take full responsibility for what happened." Iida informed, seriously, posture and tone no longer that of a child in trouble. "It's my fault this happened in the first place, it's only fair that I get punished, not the two of you."
"It won't be that easy Iida. Take full responsibility if you want, we'll still get punished as well." Todoroki stated.
"No one's taking full responsibility. We all messed up, so we're all equally to blame."
"How can you say that? If I hadn't gone after Stain, none of this would've happened! Aren't you two mad at me?" Iida questioned.
"Not really." Todoroki shrugged in response. To be fair, he was sure most people, no matter how rational and level headed they are, would have the exact same or similar reaction. Hell, he was sure even Aizawa would lose his cool if someone close to him was attacked.
"Initially I was mad, yes." Izuku informed, causing Iida to hang his head in shame. "Was I mad that you went after Stain? Yes. Was I mad for the reasoning behind it? Not entirely. Tensei is my friend, and I felt the same emotions you did when I found out what happened to him. Probably wouldn't have gone after a psychopathic murderer like you did, but why you did it is understandable."
"So…we're still friends?"
"Of course/Obviously." Izuku and Todoroki said in unison, causing Iida to sigh in relief. "You're still going to be punished though. I'm thinking, writing on the white board 100 times 'I won't chase after a psychotic murderer ever again'."
"200 seems like a far fairer number." Todoroki stated.
"Well if that's the case, let's go plus ultra and make it 300."
"Guys, guys! My quirk gives me engines in my legs, not fast handwriting." Iida informed, causing his two current roommates to chuckle.
The door to their room opened, and their chuckles stopped upon seeing who stood in the doorway: Iida's intern Manuel, and Izuku's intern Gran Torino. Neither hero looked pleased with the situation that had just currently unfolded.
"Bout time you three finally woke up." GT grumbled as he and Manuel stepped into the room.
"Fighting psychopathic murders does tend to make you tired." Izuku informed, before he felt something smack the top of his head. He flinched, and held onto the area.
"Smartass." GT growled, resisting the idea of using his cane to smack the child once more. "We could yell at the two of you for hours, you know that? What you three did was irresponsible and reckless! You're far worse than All Might when he was around your age!"
"But before Gran Torino here continues, we must inform you three someone's here to talk to you." Manuel stepped in, stopping the old timer from continuing. Both he and GT turned, and the kids followed their gazes. Their hearts dropped once a nearly seven-foot dog-man in a suit walked through the door.
"This is Kenji Tsuragamae, Hosu's chief of police." GT informed.
Brown eyes met blue, green, and red/white eyes, as the chief stared at the three of them, giving both Iida and Todoroki several seconds of staring. His eyes lingered on Midoriya, however, making the greenettes stomach drop. He had a bad feeling about this.
"So, these are the three UA students that took down the hero killer, huh?" He asked, causing them to nod, their fears growing at wondering why the chief of police came all the way down to see the. "Stain has some serious injuries. Frostbite around his calves and broken bones, ribs especially, to be more precise. At the moment he's at the hospital under strict guard." He informed them, wanting to know what damage they had caused the villain. The frost bite came from Todoroki, while the broken bones came from Iida and Izuku.
"The only reason why heroes are allowed to use their quirks, especially the deadly ones, is because the police cannot handle certain situations by themselves, such as the Nomu who attacked our city. Because quirks can be deadly, heroes are given passes that allow them to use their powers when necessary. It matters not if the hero killer was coming after you, you three are not in possession of these passes, meaning you used your quirks illegally and without authority. This means you three and your supervisors will receive harsh punishments."
Their hearts stopped as their eyes widened in surprise, their worst fear coming to life. What kind of punishments would they receive? Would they be expelled from UA? Imprisoned? Unable to ever become the heroes they dreamed of becoming? And what about Manuel and Gran Torino (Todoroki didn't care about Endeavors punishment)? Would the two of them be fired from being heroes? Or would they be imprisoned.
Todoroki stood up from his bed, ready to argue against this unjust ruling and explain why the five of them (screw Endeavor) shouldn't be punished. They brought in the hero killer, shouldn't that give them enough leverage to escape punishments?
"However-" The chief continued, stopping Todoroki. "-that's the official stance over at the police station. But any punishment would only be necessary if this went public. If it did, you all would probably be applauded by citizens everywhere, but there would be no escape from being reprimanded. On the other hand, we could say someone else, like Endeavor, saved the day with the help of one of the heroes who came to your aid, as one of them did have an ice quirk."
"If we go this route it'll be the last you'll hear of any punishment, but it also means no one besides us will ever know the truth. No acclaim, fame, praise, or anything of the sort will come your way, but it also means you won't be expelled from UA or charged with illegal use of your quirks. The choice is yours, of course." Kenji informed with a smile and a thumbs up. "I personally know where I stand. The last thing I want to do is damage any promising young careers. Not for a simple mistake."
In the end, the three left it up to the chief to do what was right, and Kenji agreed to go with the lying approach. They wouldn't receive any punishment, but their supervisors would on grounds of negligence. After apologizing to Manuel and Gran Torino, the heroes and chief left, leaving the boys to think over what had just happened.
(2 days later)
Over the next two days, Iida and Todoroki were dismissed from the hospital as their injuries were finally healed. While Todoroki had cuts and slashes, Iida could have permanent left-hand damage. It would be difficult to move his fingers and his hand would feel numb from time to time, but it could be healed via nerve transplant surgery. Besides that, Izuku was, more or less, the most beat up one out of the group, considering he had a literal hole in his hand from Stain's sword. He would forever have a scar running down his palm, as some minor ones on his right arm from using One For All at 10%, but overall nothing life threatening.
Now here he was, packing away his belongings in a bag his mother had brought him the day before. She had been distraught over the whole thing and her eyes showed evidence of crying, but he was able to calm her down. He told her he would call once he was finally out of the hospital.
He was confused, however, when he didn't see Sume come with to visit him. Inko informed him she hadn't seen Mei in a few days, which was never a good sign. He would have to check up on her sometime today.
There was a knock at the room's door, confusing him. He wasn't expecting anyone to visit. Was it a nurse coming to inform him they needed the room for new patients?
"Uh, come in?" He called out. The door opened, and his eyes widened in surprise as a familiar dog walked in. "Mr. Tsuragamae?"
"Midoriya, glad I could catch you before you left." Kenji stated, nodding as a greeting. "I apologize for showing up unannounced, but I wanted to discuss something with you privately." He informed, before closing the door behind him.
Izuku gulped, not liking this at all. Was he in trouble for something else? To his memory he hadn't done anything wrong, so what did Kenji want to discuss? Was it about Stain and about how he was the one who damaged the villain the most?
"Am I in trouble?" He asked, hoping he wasn't.
"Hmm? Oh, no my dear boy, quite the opposite actually. I actually wanted to give you my thanks."
"Your thanks? For dealing with Stain?" Izuku questioned, causing the chief to shake his head. Izuku was surprised, as Kenji bowed his head.
"No. My thanks for saving my friends. You may know them as Bravo team."
Bravo team? As in, the guys who helped him try and find Iida? The SHIELD team?
"Are…Are you-"
"Used to be." Kenji answered, rolling up the sleeve of his right arm up to his shoulder. Right there on his bicep sat the tattooed insignia of SHIELD: an eagle (?) in a circle. "15 years ago I was recruited by Fury to join SHIELD. Along the way I've made many friends, some who lost their lives and others who are still living. The current Bravo team, whom you saved, are three of my friends. They called me a few days ago, saying to be on the lookout of a green haired boy with a shield who saved their lives. And, well, you fit that description."
"I…had no idea you were with SHIELD. Are…Are you still with them?" Izuku asked. Kenji gave a sad smile, before grabbing onto his left hand. The greenette nearly screamed when it popped right off.
"10 years ago I was greatly injured during a mission, and it cost me my left hand." Kenji informed, waving his prosthetic around, before popping it back on. "After that, for the sake of my wife and kids, I requested to be let go from SHIELD. Fury agreed, on the condition I keep my eye out for potential recruits. In that time I became the chief of police in Hosu, and have sent 19 candidates his way. Too bad he already offered you a spot, it would've been nice to have you be my 20th." The dog chief chuckled.
"…Why are you telling me this?"
"Two reasons, actually. I wanted to inform you of the dangers you may encounter, should you accept his offer. Not saying anything similar may happen to you, but you never know. And two, I wanted to let you know if you need anything, to let me know. We SHIELD agents, new and old, take care of our own." He smiled, wanting Midoriya to know he had his back.
"This…is a lot of information to process. But, thank you for telling me. And give my best wishes to Bravo next time you speak to them."
"Will do. Now if you'll excuse me, the station won't run itself. Have a good day, Mr. Midoriya." Kenji nodded once more, before opening and exiting through the door, leaving Izuku alone with his thoughts.
It seems like he was getting more and more friends in high places.
(Sorry for it taking so long to finally post this! I finished it last Saturday and found someone to beta the chapter, but they haven't gotten back me to since then after I emailed them the chapter. Thankfully someone in the discord group I'm in was kind enough to look it over and fix a few things. Next chapter I'll find out who they are on FFN/Ao3 and give them credit.