Chapter 20
Izuku grunted as the horde of earth beasts overwhelmed him again, forcing him against the ground. He could hear Ragdoll and Pixie-Bob talking to each other nearby, even if he couldn't see them currently due to the earth beasts on him.
"You're getting better, Midoriya," Came Mandalay's telepathic message, "You lasted 10 seconds this time instead of 9!" Ah, yes, what a wonderful improvement. An improvement which had taken at least an hour. An hour of non-stop combat against the unstoppable horde of earth beasts. An hour of growing annoyance towards the very earth itself. An hour of wishing he had decided to go with Pepsi Man or something instead.
"Don't beat yourself up, kid," Tiger said as he pulled the slightly depressed Izuku out from the pile of dirt, "By the end of the week, you'll be fast enough that you'll maybe last 20 seconds!" Ah, yes, the whole point of this exercise. Even while he was currently getting kind of annoyed by it, he could still admit it made sense. Tiger and Ragdoll had explained how the two most important skills a Rescue Hero can have are speed and precision, as if you were too slow or too imprecise, you could easily be a moment too late to rescue a civilian, or you could make the situation worse by not being precise in your movements.
Of course, it was decided that the best way to train these skills was to have Izuku fend off a horde of Pixie-Bob's earth beasts. Now, this would be fine if it weren't for the simple restriction that had been put in place: he could only use one spike at a time. Essentially, he had downgraded from a machine gun to a revolver, which meant he had to be both precise enough to take a beast down in one shot and fast enough to get them all before they reached him.
"We'll take a break now, kitten, just so we don't break your spirit just yet. After all, young spirit is such a beautiful thing, and I'm so glad that I can say I still have that!" Pixie-Bob exclaimed, and Izuku felt like she was sparkling.
"No offence, Ms. Pixie-Bob, but aren't you in your 30s?" Izuku asked. Before he could even blink, Pixie Bob's comically large paw was wrapped around his face, with the claws brushing a few strands of his hair.
"I'm still 18 at heart, god damnit!" She hissed, which reminded Izuku of a weird part about Pixie-Bob: she was desperate for love and did not like being reminded of how she was only getting older by the day. Even when Izuku mentioned how old the Hero Team was she got pissed, and he wasn't even talking about her directly! At least the other pussycats seemed mostly sane. Izuku would say completely sane, but that's a hard argument to make when the people you're calling 'completely sane' seem to be obsessed with cats. So yeah, mostly sane it was.
"Oh! Midoriya, you should put on your hero costume! We'll be heading out in a moment!" Ragdoll said, energetically hopping from one foot to the other as if she was overflowing with energy. Izuku brightened up at that. Did that mean they were going on patrol? Only one way to find out, he supposed. Although, he couldn't help but wonder how Kendo's internship was going. Miruko was probably trying to kill her as training or something if her hero persona was anything to go by.
Kendo stood outside the abandoned warehouse, utterly confused. She cross-checked the address she was given with what she'd put in her phone but saw no mistakes. She knew Miruko was a nomadic hero, but she expected something a little nicer than…this. Still, she went up to open the small door at the side of the massive gate into the warehouse when she stopped. If she knew anything about Miruko's personality from the news, it was that she'd probably try and attack Kendo as soon as she entered to 'test her awareness' or whatever. So instead, she walked around the warehouse, looking for another way in, and she eventually found one in the form of a broken window a couple stories high.
"Full Diffuse, 9%," Kendo muttered, orange and cyan electricity sparking around her as her veins glowed red. She jumped on the wall of the opposite warehouse before hopping back to the wall of Miruko's warehouse, repeating the process until she jumped through the window.
And proceeded to get kicked in the ribs.
"Gah!" Kendo yelped in pain as she fell down to the rough concrete, skin scraping as she slid. Her ribs were on fire, but they didn't feel broken or anything, so that was good. After assessing she was all good, Kendo looked for her assailant, and of course, it was-
"Hah! Good try, kid, but you'll need to try harder than that to sneak past me!" Miruko laughed. Kendo got to her feet and rubbed her ribs as she looked at the laughing rabbit.
"How did you even know I'd be there?" Kendo whined. Miruko grinned toothily.
"I predicted that you wouldn't just go through the front door, and I suspected you'd take the first 'hidden' entrance you saw!" Miruko boasted, and Kendo couldn't help her jaw from falling. That was…utterly ridiculous! "Nah, just fucking with you, I could hear you muttering out there. I totally expected you to open the door," Oh, well…actually, Kendo wasn't sure if she preferred that over the former. Miruko looked at Kendo, sizing her up for a moment before a blaze of excitement danced in her eyes, and she quite literally hopped for joy, "Oh, yeah! You're definitely gonna be fun!" She cheered, jumping up to the rafters above.
"What are you doing up there?" Kendo asked, utterly confused as to what was happening.
"What are you doing down there?" Miruko countered, "Come on, jump up here as well," Kendo still felt confused, but did as the hero asked, powering up Full Diffuse to 5%, more than enough to make it in one bound. She crouched down, steadying herself as her eyes narrowed. The rafter wasn't exactly that wide, but if Kendo focused, she'd be able to make it. Kendo leaped, arms outstretched as she soared upwards, and they eventually caught the metal rafter. Kendo swung around before sloppily landing on top, halfway to falling back down. Miruko, naturally, found this hilarious, and began roaring with laughter.
"Well, that was a good shot, kid!" Miruko complimented, once she had calmed down, "But you've got two problems. First, you're too much of a show-off. I hate people like that, they treat Heroics as an acting career, not a combat and rescue career. Second, you take too long to calculate," Before Kendo could get another word in edgewise, Miruko grabbed the scruff of her collar and jumped off, landing on the ground and safely dumping Kendo on the ground, "And there might be a third problem as well. But to decide that I wanna fight," And without warning, Miruko jumped forwards, Kendo barely dodging out of the way with One for All at 9%.
'I can't win against Miruko, she's a trained Pro Hero while I'm still in school,' Kendo thought as she dodged another offensive launch from Miruko, 'But maybe, I could "borrow" a tactic from an older hero and imitate them. In practice, that'd make my strategy more, er, battle tested than any of Miruko's!' Kendo breathed in, preemptively apologized to her leg muscles, and jumped against the wall before kicking off onto the next wall. 'New super move: Jumping Jack Flash!' She quickly began building up speed each time she kicked off the wall, with Miruko standing in the middle of the warehouse and seemingly thinking about something.
Suddenly, she jumped forward, and before Kendo realized it, she'd been knocked off course by the hero to the ground. She groaned once she finished skidding across the concrete and looked up, seeing a relatively unimpressed Miruko.
"Yeah, that's what I figured," She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose, "Listen, kid, you got lots of problems, but the main one is that you're too much of a goody-two-shoes in a fight. So, you know what I'm gonna teach you for the next week?" Kendo shook her head, and Miruko laughed, "Kid, I'm gonna make you fucking mean,"
"So, this is what you do most of the time?" Izuku asked as he took a rock and reattached it to the cliffside.
"At least once a week!" Ragdoll replied, coming over with a pile of rocks as well, "But we usually just lay the rocks to the side of the pathway. Luckily, we've got you to help us reattach it to the cliff instead!" Izuku hadn't exactly been expecting to reattach rocks to a cliffside when the Pussycats took their car into the mountains, but he'd take what he got. Luckily, it was a relatively small landslide, so it wasn't taking much work to move the rubble away.
"What about the rest of the week?" Izuku continued, absent mindedly reattaching Ragdoll's pile of rocks to the cliffside. This time, Mandalay walked up.
"We usually do a patrol around a city to help with any damaged buildings. As much as we pride ourselves on being rural Rescue Heroes, there aren't many rescue calls coming from out here," Mandalay explained, "I reckon we'll head into Hosu tomorrow. My sister and her husband patrol there, so we'll be able to catch up for a moment," Izuku began thinking at that statement. Mandalay had a sister? That was news. Heroes had a right to their own personal life, and since the Heroes Are People Too Bill was passed a few decades ago, it became a crime to pester a Hero while they were off duty, because heroes like All Might literally couldn't go anywhere without being swarmed. So, to hear Mandalay not only had a sister, but a sister that was also a Hero, Izuku couldn't help but wonder who it was.
"I really hope we can catch up, Water Hose are good people," Tiger stated, carrying a fucking enormous boulder like a slightly heavy package.
"Wait, your sister is Water Hose?!" Izuku exclaimed, looking at Mandalay, who chuckled.
"Yeah. I guess it runs in the family to be in a Hero Team," She replied, "Although I guess they're technically listed as one hero, so…er, never mind," Mandalay walked off, and Izuku grabbed the boulder that Tiger handed him. Or, more accurately, tried to grab the boulder that Tiger handed him. It had turned out that, despite his otherworldly power that could literally make him a god, Izuku could not lift a massive boulder. And Tiger, not having thought of this, blanched as Izuku's fingers were crushed underneath the boulder. He was, subsequently, both impressed and slightly afraid when Izuku's only response was a sharp intake of breath.
"Fuuuuuck, that stings," Izuku hissed, looking down at his mangled fingers. Thankfully, he still had some semblance of control over them, and was barely able to graze the rock while tensing his finger, annihilating the offending rubble into nothing more than dust, giving his crushed appendages sweet freedom. Tiger, Mandalay, Pixie-Bob, and Ragdoll (the latter three had come over when they saw what had happened) went pale as they saw that most of Izuku's fingers minus his thumbs and his left hand's index finger looked like smashed sausages.
"Are you alright, Midoriya? Wait, that's a dumb question, of course you're not!" Pixie-Bob said, holding out a pawed hand to see his fingers. Izuku simply shrugged and put his left hand to his right forearm.
"Nah, this is the least painful part about getting hurt. It's once I use my quirk to heal that bone that it really hurts," Izuku replied. Before the Pussycats could ask what he meant, Izuku's entire forearm and hand broke apart molecule by molecule, crimson mist in the air for only a second. A moan of pain could be heard from Izuku during it. And as quick as it happened, it was over, with Izuku's right hand looking as good as new. He repeated the same process with his other hand, with a little less pain, "There, way better," Izuku looked up at the Pussycats, who all looked like they had seen a ghost.
"I've seen some shit, but that was kind of horrifying," Pixie-Bob commented. Izuku smiled nervously and scratched the back of his head.
"You get used to it. Anyways, isn't there still the rest of the landslide to fix?" Izuku asked. The Pussycats jumped slightly and immediately got back to grabbing rocks. Izuku felt a notification go off from his phone, and he pulled it out to see a message from Kurono.
Dipshit: I accidentally joined an underground technically-terrorist group
What.
Kurono was stiff as he sat in the office of Rikiya Yostubuashi, the CEO of Detnerat. Truth be told, Kurono wasn't sure why he picked to do his Support Internship with Detnerat, all he could say was that he felt magnetised to them, as if he was supposed to do his internship there. He most certainly wasn't expecting to be having tea with the CEO on the first day.
Especially not while that CEO discussed what could be considered a terrorist movement from the old days of quirks.
"Kurono-Kun," Rikiya started, holding his cup of tea to his mouth, "What are your beliefs on the Meta Liberation Army? I have blabbered on far too long on my own views of them, after all," He sipped his tea, looking over the cup at Kurono. Kurono glanced over Rikiya's left shoulder, where he could see the man hidden in the shadows that Rikiya had said was his bodyguard. He was wearing a parka, with the hood covering his face, but even then, he could still see the glowing eyes that looked like chunks of ice on the man's - no, he wasn't even sure if they were a man – shadowed face. Kurono looked back at Rikiya, who was looking at him expectantly. So, Kurono wondered: what did he think of the Meta Liberation Movement?
He'd heard bits and pieces about what the movement had been about when he was younger, everyone had at some point probably. They were a group, who protested for the right to be able to use their quirks freely. At best, they were a group of radical protestors. At worst, they were scum-of-the-earth terrorists, who threatened the security of the nation. But that was what other people said. What did he think?
Well, he understood the movement and why they did it. Hell, a part of him agreed with parts of it. Key word: parts. Because he really doubted anything good could come of completely unrestricted quirk use. It was restricted so heavily because of fears that light restrictions would essentially lead to something similar to gun problems in the USA pre-quirks. But, really, did most quirks need these restrictions? He could understand the restrictions for destructive quirks like Hellflame or even Overhaul, but for weaker quirks like minor telekinesis? Leaf manipulation? Water creation? Kurono didn't see any reason why those couldn't be used freely as long as it didn't harm anyone.
"I suppose…they had a point," Kurono finally said, sipping his tea. When he looked up at Rikiya, he had an intrigued look in his eyes, mixed with a look of opportunity, a look Kurono didn't exactly like to see. Not since…not since his pre-yakuza days.
"Is that so? And what parts do you agree with?" Rikiya prodded, leaning forward in his seat. To anyone else, he may have just been seen as interested in the conversation, but to Kurono, he could tell that this conversation was quickly entering dangerous waters. There was the gleam of menace in the man's eyes, and he seemed to be studying Kurono's face, as if to make out even the shadow of a lie that may have existed. Kurono didn't know how invested in this political movement the CEO was, but if it turned out he was a fanatic…Kurono shuddered to think of what could happen to him if he said he didn't like the MLA. He'd have to be very careful now.
"I mean, you can't realistically allow complete freedom of quirk use and run a functioning society,"
"It worked for America and guns,"
"It's not a coincidence that they had high levels of gun violence. School shootings were so common that they had drills for them,"
"Guns were registered, so they could easily be tracked,"
"And does our current system not do the same thing?"
So much for being careful. Not even 10 seconds after thinking that and he'd already began arguing with the man. He chanced a look into Rikiya's eyes, expecting annoyance. However, he was surprised to see genuine interest in Kurono's opinions. Perhaps he'd been wrong about the man, and he simply enjoyed intellectual debates?
Rikiya leaned back in his chair, pressing his fingertips together as a small, genuine smile crawled onto his face.
"An excellent point, Kurono-Kun. I must admit, your ideas are interesting," He stated.
"Why are you so interested in my opinions on this? I'm here for a Support Internship, not an inquiry into past political movements," Kurono asked, deciding to bite the bullet. Rikiya hummed, standing up from his chair and walking over to a wall. He pressed a part of it in, revealing a wine cupboard. The man pulled out a bottle of wine, briefly inspecting the alcohol before returning back to the desk and pouring wine in some glasses.
"I can't drink alcohol," Kurono pointed out. Rikiya smirked.
"You were a Yakuza for 7 years, but you draw the line at underage drinking?" Kurono stiffened. How did he know that information? Even his teachers (minus Nedzu) had no idea of that information. Just how connected was this guy to know such random information?
"…fair point," Kurono grumbled, sipping the delectable red wine.
"And to answer your question, I'm the Grand Commander of the Meta Liberation Army, Re-Destro"
Kurono choked on his wine. He ended up coughing a bit, and the man in the parka thumped his back a bit before going back to his corner.
"I'm sorry, what?" Kurono asked, looking at the CEO in shock, who seemed to bask in the state of surprise that Kurono was in, "Forgive me, I thought you said you were Grand Commander of the Meta Liberation Army for a minute. But that can't be right, they've been gone for ages!" Kurono paled at the sight of Rikiya's face, which hadn't shown the slightest sign of this being a joke. Rikiya chuckled, sipping his wine.
"Legally, we've been a dead organization since, well, the death of Destro," Rikiya stated calmly, swirling his wine in his cup, "Off the record, however, we have been slowly building our forces up, preparing to change society once and for all,"
"And what does that have to do with me?" Kurono asked, leaning forward in his chair, analytical eyes lasering onto Re-Destro, who hummed before going to look out the window that looked over all of Deika City.
"Kurono-Kun, you are one of the best possible choices for us to start spreading within UA. You've shown high intelligence that you are capable of masking, an aptitude for befriending the right people, and you're a 1st year, meaning you would have plenty of time to spread our ideologies," Re-Destro calmly explained, not even looking away from the window he was standing at.
"And how do you know I'll join? For all you know, I could leak it as soon as I leave this room!" Kurono declared. He noticed that the man in the parka tensed, and his hands raised slightly, bringing the room to a slight chill. A sharp look from Re-Destro was enough for the man to stop and apologize.
"Kurono-Kun, the Meta Liberation Army is not like the League of Villains or the Shie Hassaikai. It's main 4 leaders are all high-ranking and influential people. The Media, Support Industry, Government, and Communications are all at least partially under the thumb of our organization. We know whenever someone tries to leak our existence, and believe me, it never quite works out well for them," Kurono's eyebrows furrowed. That…did make things complicated. He couldn't trust the government, the media, and even social media. No matter what, there was no way he could reasonably spread the word that the MLA was back.
But even if he could, who would believe him?
Kurono perked up as he suddenly remembered something.
Nedzu.
Of course, it made perfect sense. Nedzu would believe Kurono and would be able to stealthily deal with the MLA. Plus, UA most likely had protection from outside interference, especially Nedzu's office. And realistically, if Kurono did join, it would be a cakewalk to become a double agent. Kurono smiled and held his wine glass high.
"A fair point. I suppose a place towards the top when your revolution kicks off would be appreciated," Kurono says, using every diplomatic deception skill he's learned from his time with the Yakuza, "And really, I don't see any problems spreading a good cause such as freedom of quirk use. So, sure, count me in," Re-Destro looked at Kurono, and his eyes narrowed for a moment as he looked, dissecting every minute detail of Kurono's face, picking it apart for even the slightest hint of betrayal. However, Kurono's good at hiding his true intentions, and the man smiles within time.
"Well, in that case, welcome to the Meta Liberation Army, Kurono-Kun! I cannot wait to see how this investment turns out for us!" Re-Destro exclaims, shaking Kurono's hand. Kurono simply smiles.
'All according to the keikaku,' He thinks. Nedzu would be happy with him. Izuku would probably be so done with him. Kendo would just slap him for being an idiot. And Shiozaki...he shuddered as he remembered what happened when they went back to her place on the first date. It would not end well if Shiozaki knew what dumbass shit he'd just done.
"One of the best assets a Hero can have is the ability of flight," Ryukyu stated, watching as Reiko desperately tried to levitate herself off the ground with a disc underneath her feet, "Most Villains expect a Hero from the ground, which is why flying Heroes are so effective at takedowns," However, Reiko could barely get an inch off the ground, and even then that inch was difficult to gain and near impossible to keep, which had led to her falling onto the ground so many times now that her skin was probably starting to get bruised.
"M-My apologies, but with the current scope of my own abilities, it would seem that it is impossible for me to levitate through the use of my own quirk," Reiko said, the pink glow around the disc fading as she released her quirk. Ryukyu raised an eyebrow.
"Are you giving up?" She inquired, a stern tone to her voice, Reiko furrowed her eyebrows.
"Ryukyu-San, I don't believe you truly have any understanding of the amount of time I have attempted a feat similar to this," Reiko replied bitterly, looking down at the ground as she was unable to bring herself to see the disappointment in Ryukyu's eyes. Ryukyu's face softened, and she sighed.
"I understand," She said in a soft, sympathetic voice, which startled Reiko, "Sometimes it really is incredibly hard to train yourself to do something like this. My intern, Nejire, understands that very well," Ryukyu stood there for a moment, contemplating something before straightening up and turning to the door, "Come on, I want to show you something," she said, before walking away. Intrigued, Reiko began following after her, grabbing the disc she had been using just in case Ryukyu wanted it.
"What will you be presenting me, Ryukyu-San?" Reiko asked as they entered the elevator.
"You'll see," Ryukyu replied cryptically, pressing the button for the roof, "And call me Ryukyu, my hero name isn't Ryukyu-San, is it? And if you call every Hero that, then it's going to be exhausting when you have to address Nejire," Reiko nodded, deciding to wonder what Ryukyu might be showing her. Try as she might, nothing came to mind for the dragonic heroine.
The elevator doors opened up to reveal the city of Tokyo, the brilliantly shining summer sun beating down on all its residents. Reiko could hear the honks of cars from the streets below, and she could just barely hear a bullet train speeding along in the distance.
"You wanted to show me…a view of the city?" Reiko asked, confused. Ryukyu chuckled.
"No, something else. Look over that ledge, right over," Ryukyu ordered. Reiko obeyed, and she looked down where Ryukyu had pointed to see a rather large ledge, around the size of the 1-A Classroom. There was noticeably a chain-link fence on the edge of the ledge as well, preventing anything from falling over.
"This is where Nejire learnt to fly!" Ryukyu explained. Reiko froze.
"Oh," Was all Reiko could say as Ryukyu pushed her down, the only thing Reiko being thankful for was that the ledge was made of an impact-reducing material, which made the fall barely hurt.
"You see, Nejire had the same problem you had when she was learning to fly. She just couldn't do it, no matter how hard she tried. So, naturally, I shoved her down there until she learnt to fly. Do-or-Die tactics. I'm gonna use that same tactic on you, Yanagi. You want lunch or dinner? Then you better get practicing," And with that, Ryukyu was gone, leaving Reiko with a disc, the clothes on her back, her phone in her pocket, and a sense of regret.
"Fuck," She muttered as she began working on levitating. It was as Ryukyu said: Do-or-Die. And Reiko would much rather do than die.
Extra
Kendo looked at her phone in silent contemplation, a stark contrast to the moral dilemma going on in her head.
"This is completely immoral!" Moral Mental Kendo declared, slamming her mental hands on the mental table, "Looking at works involving you and your coincidentally gay friend in a romantic gay relationship goes against every moral rule in the book!"
"Who cares? It's not like its real," Lustful Mental Kendo drawled, resting her mental chin in her mental hands, "And anyways, it can't be any lewder than whatever we've already been thinking,"
"I-I have no idea what you're referring to!" Moral Mental Kendo replied, eliciting a mental laugh from Lustful Mental Kendo.
"Let's see: spooning, sweet kisses, sharing milkshakes, wearing each other's clothes, and the lewdest of all – handholding," A mental shiver of mental desire tingled down their mental spines at the last one, and Moral Mental Kendo finally broke.
"Alright, maybe just one," She conceded, to the mental delight of Lustful Mental Kendo.
"Kid! I can fucking smell the gay energy radiating off of you!" Miruko barked, making Real Kendo jump in surprise.