Chapter 4: The Devil's Head

This case will take longer than expected, Izuku concluded after analyzing his one clue. This 'League of Assassins' seems to be really well hidden, due the fact that there isn't any register of them in the data base. Data base that holds information in most, if not all heroes and villains.

He analyzed the letter again and the picture attached to it. The handwriting is a dead-end, so he needs to focus on the picture.

It is really vague to say the least. There was the girl, Talia he presumes, tied up, with a machine gun pointed at her head, with some rocky background. She is in a cave or mountain, that at least narrows it down a bit.

He kept researching and analyzing the picture, narrowing it down more and more. There are a couple of places he can think of, but the one that makes the most sense would be Mount Oyama, a popular tourist place during sakura season, but abandoned the rest of the year.

Using one of the satellites to get images, he noticed something. A man dressed in sandy yellow clothes holding a weapon. Bingo.

It seems he can bring Talia back to her dad before morning like he promised.

The ride from Tokyo to Mount Oyama is one hour and a half, so he jumped to his bike and left.

*Mount Oyama*

The guards were easy to take down. They weren't placed that closed and light was scarce, so knocking them out and hiding the bodies was an easy task.

There was the entrance of the cave covered by some cloth and he sneaked in. The security inside was another story. The guards were placed better, it was better illuminated, and more doors and pass ways.

He hid behind a nearby rock and analyzed his surroundings. He spotted a fuse box and got an idea. He took out an electric shuriken, and threw it with great precision at the box. It landed and penetrated the cover. He then threw a shuriken with a device that analyze the environment and sends a report of heat signals to his helmet.

There were 12 hostiles in pairs of 2, he activated the electric shuriken discharge, provoking a short circuit.

As the lights were out and the guards screamed in a foreign language that he can identify as Arabic, and activated the thermal vision of his helmet. He quickly took out the blind guards, until there was only one.

He disarmed him, threw him to the ground and pressed his combat knife to his neck "Talia al Ghul, the girl you are protecting, where is she?" he interrogated as the guard cursed in Arab. Izuku hit him with the hilt of the knife on the forehead and pressed the tip of the knife on his neck "Speak in Japanese the answer and I won't kill you."

The guard, bleeding from the forehead gulped "S-Second door at the right..." He said and Izuku nodded, hitting him with his elbow at the head knocking him out.

He went to the metal door, and using a small device that looks like a smartphone. This device can detect heartbeats across walls, and it detected 4 beatings, all in position in front of the door ready to ambush him.

He took out a small C4 charge and placed it on the door. It was powerful enough to blast the door from the frame and before the door landed, he threw in a flashbang grenade.

Once it exploded, Izuku got in and still using the thermal vision, he elbowed the first guard at his right and kicked the one at the left knocking them out. The other two, that seemed to be dressed as ninjas and holding swords.

They lunged at him as he took out his combat knife and one gun. With the right hand holding the knife he blocked one slash, kicked the ninja at the knee and rolled away from the second slash and shoot three metal pellets at the head of the ninja.

The other one kept trying to slash him, and he dodged and deflected all attacks. Using the armor on his forearm, he blocked a slash, stabbed the ninja on the knee and uppercut him knocking him out. He removed the knife of the leg as lights suddenly turned on.

He flinched due that the thermal vision was still on and quickly deactivated it. He looked around and saw, that now in front of him, was Ra's in his suit, a sword strapped to his hip and next to him, his daughter Talia in a white dress.

"Ra's... what is the meaning of this?"

Ra's chuckled "I knew it. I knew you are worthy, Red Hood, or should I say, Izuku Midoriya."

Izuku took out his guns and aimed at both of them "How do you know secret information?"

Talia smiled and walked to him as Izuku kept his gun aimed to her head "Please, let us explain Dear."

Izuku narrowed his eyes "Do it quickly."

Ra's nodded "You see Izuku, I had lived more that 600 years, and I know for a fact, that a great disaster is coming. And the only way to prevent it is to destroy most of earth's population."

Izuku growled "You are a psychopath, figured it out after this shit. About it, what's the goal of this?"

"It was a test Dear," Talia said "To see if you are worthy to guide the league and to marry me." She said getting face to face with him as she caressed his helmet.

He aimed his gun to her chin "Back off."

Talia chuckled as she walked back to her father. "Don't you see? This is your fate." Ra's said "To save the world, and to lead it from the shadows."

Izuku's finger was on the trigger "And if I refuse?"

Ra's huffed as he smirked "Nothing. But you will see, that my way, is the correct one." the lights were turned off, and when they came back, they were nowhere to be found.

Izuku lowered his guns, seeing he was alone now. It seems he needs to do more research.

*Next Day, Nighteye Agency*

Izuku stayed all day searching information of his last encounter. The only thing he found, was a birth certificate from the 1700's.

He rubbed his forehead. He seems to be hunting ghosts. He can't seem to find any start to look the Ghuls. Leaders of an ancient clan of assassins, lived six centuries, seems to have influence and money, maybe at a global level and enough intel to find out secret identities.

That's all he can figure.

"You skipped UA." He heard Sir from behind him. He sighed and looked at him, his arms crossed and a light glare.

"Tch. I have more important things to do."

"Like?"

Izuku closed his eyes "Does the last name, al Ghul ring any bell?"

Sir hummed "I don't think so. Didn't find anything useful on the computer?"

"More like nothing. The last record of the family is of the 18th century."

Sir narrowed his eyes "Weird. And why are you so set on finding them? With this lack of information, we can assume they don't exist anymore."

Izuku looked back at the computer "They do. I met them last night."

"And what did they want?"

"...Nothing important. I will look more into them." He said searching with another parameters.

Sir sighed as he shook his head "I am more than willing to help."

"No thanks. I can handle alone." Izuku answered "How is Arkham?" Izuku changed the topic.

Sir sighed tiredly. "We opened it yesterday and it is almost full already. We are building underground cells for more powerful individuals."

"I see. Good luck then."

Sir nodded and went to his own investigation coded 'DREAD'.

Next Chapter: No Pain, No Gain